ABOUT page

Suggestions and comments about the ReactOS website

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dizt3mp3r
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ABOUT page

Post by dizt3mp3r »

When new and uninformed visitors read the main frontpage the site gives the impression of a professional and fully developed o/s. The website is a good promoting tool in this sense.

However, it does too good a job sometimes leading the technically naiive into assuming that Reactos is usable now.

Browsing the site does not seem to show any page that specifically states the current technical state of ReactOS. There is no About ReactOS page. It clearly needs to be stated somewhere prominent, a summary of what the overall intention of the project is, what the current state is, alpha, beta &c, the level of general usability.

This would prevent many potential forum posters asking what ReactOS is, what it can do, incorrectly trying it on live kit &c. It would give us a URL to link to when posters ask questions.

At the moment the "about ReactOS" page is glaringly obvious due to its absence.
Skillset: VMS,DOS,Windows Sysadmin from 1985, fault-tolerance, VaxCluster, Alpha,Sparc. DCL,QB,VBDOS- VB6,.NET, PHP,NODE.JS, Graphic Design, Project Manager, CMS, Quad Electronics. classic cars & m'bikes. Artist in water & oils. Historian.
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Konata
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Re: ABOUT page

Post by Konata »

I'm sure someone brought this up before, but only stupid people ignore the "alpha" designation and then get unreasonably furious it doesn't work, and stupid people don't read anything, they just look around for a "download" button ignoring everything else.
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EmuandCo
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Re: ABOUT page

Post by EmuandCo »

We need a special Darwin Award in that case ^^
ReactOS is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is recommended only for evaluation and testing purposes.

If my post/reply offends or insults you, be sure that you know what sarcasm is...
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dizt3mp3r
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Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:54 pm

Re: ABOUT page

Post by dizt3mp3r »

There are a lot of ordinary people who do not have the computer experience or knowledge that we have. They aren't stupid, they just have a basic level of 'puter knowledge. You saying that they are stupid just sounds plain obnoxious. They may seem stupid to you but you appear like a 'geek' to them but not a very pleasant one at that.

Ordinary people with different skill sets are the typical people who might visit the site. They are all potential users and as such should be considered 'friends'. It makes sense to have such an "about" page and it also makes sense not denigrate your potential users nor alienate them.

It might be easy (and wise) to simply try to help them rather than label them as stupid.

This stuff is common sense...
Last edited by dizt3mp3r on Sat Sep 10, 2016 6:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Skillset: VMS,DOS,Windows Sysadmin from 1985, fault-tolerance, VaxCluster, Alpha,Sparc. DCL,QB,VBDOS- VB6,.NET, PHP,NODE.JS, Graphic Design, Project Manager, CMS, Quad Electronics. classic cars & m'bikes. Artist in water & oils. Historian.
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dizt3mp3r
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Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:54 pm

Re: ABOUT page

Post by dizt3mp3r »

Something troubles me about the current site front page, there are these lovely headings showing the wonderful features of ReactOS, they are highlighted as potential links, yet they do nothing.

All the items that exist below OUR FEATURES:

Lightweight
500MB HDD and 96MB RAM


Why not link this to a relevant place in an installation guide?

From Scratch
This is not Linux mimicking Windows.
9,000,000+ lines of code


Why not link these to a location showing that codebase?

Styles

At the very least link this text to some graphical examples

From Games to Drivers: Open Source and Free.
Ready to Install...


Why not have the same list that is contained within our application manager?

Download our BootCD.

Why is this not a link to the download section?

Download our LiveCD.

Why is this not a link?

If these headings were made into links it would make it much easier for noobs and could go some way to resolving some of the issues that are caused by the absence of an "about ReactOS" page.
Skillset: VMS,DOS,Windows Sysadmin from 1985, fault-tolerance, VaxCluster, Alpha,Sparc. DCL,QB,VBDOS- VB6,.NET, PHP,NODE.JS, Graphic Design, Project Manager, CMS, Quad Electronics. classic cars & m'bikes. Artist in water & oils. Historian.
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