No, I'm not talking about OS/2 e-Zine content (though that is always appreciated). I've come to believe that what we really need is content for our applications that we use most. Our favourite computing platform already has enough applications for what most people use computers for. What we really need to keep users happy and maybe even draw people in is content!
Think about it, do you honestly care about what OS you are using? Or what application you have? For most people, the answer is "no". What you really want is an easy to use, stable platform that you don't have to worry about so that you can produce that newsletter. Or make that presentation. Or whip up that webpage for your home on the Internet. Remember that OS/2 was intended to be document-centric, you don't use applications, you work with your document. The documents or end result is what a user really cares about, and the easier to achieve the result, the better.
This has been hammered home to me recently looking at some of the products from Apple, and in particular, iWork (with its Keynote and Page applications). Are these powerful applications, better than Smartsuite or OpenOffice? By all accounts, not really, but they do the job for most people. But it's unlikely to compete fully with Microsoft Office.
What makes them really compelling for the average user is the templates and automation that they introduce. Surf on over and take a look for yourself. The templates and samples are absolutely beautiful. A user can just pick one, replace the defaults with their own text and graphics and be sure that the end result will look great.
But is that really new? Absolutely not! (Probably more of Steve Jobs "reality distortion field" at work). In fact, the Smartmasters from Smartsuite are likely just as easy to use, with their "Click here" fields. The problem is, they look really dated, boring and just plain drab. (In Lotus' defense, I don't see OpenOffice or Microsoft or Corel doing much better). A lot of the layouts also don't look that handy to me, it's never the way I want or need them to be.
One specific item I've always wanted to see involves a spreadsheet (see, I don't use Mesa 2 to use Mesa, I use it to do some specific task). Ever needed to calculate your taxes? Well, you don't have to be a programmer. Think about your average tax form. It just adds and subtracts values that you enter, exactly what a spreadsheet is good for! The only work to create a generic form is to enter the formulas and make everything look good. Maybe you want to plan your budget, wishing you had Quicken (but we don't)? Of course, OS/2 can make use of Moneydance or Electronic Teller. But if they don't do they job, a spreadsheet is perfectly capable! They graph anything you want. With Mesa, you can even download stock quotes in almost real-time. Spreadsheets are great for keeping track of numbers. Again, minimal programming knowledge is required, you mostly need a bit of common sense and an eye to set things up in a nice looking format that can be generically used by anyone.
So, somebody has already shown what can be done. OS/2's applications definitely have the power to do the job. Would it hurt to blatantly copy the look of a document template? Probably not. It's definitely one way non-programmers can contribute to the community. So I issue a challenge. Use any OS/2 word processor or desktop publisher to create a document template, or at least just 1 page of it, that looks as good as any that Apple can show off. What's there to lose besides your anonymity?
This article is courtesy of www.os2ezine.com. You can view it online at http://www.os2ezine.com/20041216/page_1.html.