FreeBSD Applications

[Gene Mosher]

I'd like to make a suggestion for extending the claims made on a couple 
of the FreeBSD web site, specifically

here...
http://www.freebsd.org/applications.html
in this part of the page
"Here are some examples of the environments in which FreeBSD is used:"

and here...
http://www.freebsd.org/commercial/software_bycat.html

I'd like to suggest that you add Point of Sale to the general categories 
already listed.  My company, ViewTouch, does offer point of sale (POS) 
software & systems which are based upon FreeBSD, of course, and I had a 
whole lot to do with inventing the graphical POS software genre in the 
first place, but my point, really, is that POS is a truly huge industry 
segment worldwide.  There are millions upon millions of computers 
running POS software and tens of millions of people using POS software 
all day long in their jobs.  It's my feeling that this fact should be 
reflected in the parts of your web site where it is appropriate, on the 
pages I've indicated.

Point of Sale software will soon be extended and transformed into what 
I'll call Point of Purchase Environment software.  That's what I'm 
inventing these days in this, my 25th year of POS software development.  
Customers will themselves be operating touchscreens in all kinds of 
hospitality environments worldwide, in restaurants, lounges and hotels, 
in a way which is analogous to people checking themselves into their 
flights with touchscreens at airports now.

Because of X, by the way, ANY application with graphics is automatically 
a touchscreen application, even if the person who wrote the application 
wasn't thinking of it.  That doesn't mean that it's a GOOD touchscreen 
application, but that's a different issue.  All it takes is a 
touchscreen display, something which virtually all of the LCD 
manufacturers are offering as an option today, and something which, 
after 3 decades, finally only adds a small amount to the cost of the 
display, greatly increasing the value and usefulness of the display by 
turning it into an input device which can be operated by virtually 
anyone with no training whatsoever.

Perhaps you would even want to create a general category called 
Interactive touchscreen systems, of which POS is merely one type.  At 
any rate, I have thought about this a lot, I think it is the right thing 
to do, and I think that since FreeBSD is being used in this exciting new 
way, and is being used by the company that was there giving birth to 
this segment 20-25 years ago, I therefore am comfortable and hopeful in 
making this suggestion.

Gene Mosher
ViewTouch
(already in the FreeBSD Gallery, by the way)