Jellyfish 1.0 | Opencomicware

Jellyfish 1.0 Mascot: "Jelly-Gee"

Jellyfish

The Operating Environment Around OCW

You need to know a few things:

Within the standards of what an Operating System (OS) is, Mac OS, Windows, and Android truly are operating systems in that they are a vital component of the system software to a computer. When computer programs are installed, they require an operating system which is usually a set of separate programs, but can be combined into simple systems.

Open ComicWare does many things, but it is imperative that it be understood that Open ComicWare (OCW) does not replace a computer operating system, or alter it in any capacity (so you can safely install OCW without worrying that your copy of Windows or Mac OS will explode.

But, what's cool about OCW is that it actually is a series of free and open-source software that has been repackaged along with originally scripted deployment that creates a combined simple system. In other words, we made a ton of stuff, put it in a box with some other stuff, also took community designed stuff and added a bit of code and put it all in one big awesome box.

To us, Jellyfish truly is an operating environment. It is built on top of industry standard operating systems, but does not alter the code of your computers software. It stays "self-contained" in something we worked really hard to get right with a real programming team -meaning SQL .net, Java and tech stuff like that. Whatever.

We've defined our "Operating Environment" as "Jellyfish". Jellyfish is much like saying "Android", and with Android, each version has "builds". These are usually 1.0, or 2.0 and so on, but also have additional names like "Honeycomb" and "Ice cream Sandwich" in order to define these versions more clearly. We have done precisely that with our Jellyfish "Jelly-Gee".

The reason we've chosen Jellyfish is so that we have a name for what we're making within Open Comic Ware (OCW) that is fun and easily identifiable. We also will have software builds (version updates) and because of that, we have chosen to use "Neuro-Spirit" and Jellyfish 1.0.

Our team is actually comprised of programmers, artists and engineers that put real time into the creation of this package.

Jellyfish is free and open-source, and is a set of tools, programs, plug-ins and pre-existing free and open-source programs that when combined makes for a powerful punch into the heart of the design world and the comic world.

Inside OCW is the following:

1) Pre-existing free and open-source software: We package this by getting the latest versions, plugins for those version, testing them to make sure they are virus free and repackaging them with all the necessary elements so you aren't having to install emulators or terminals (in essence removing distractions or ugly installs that confuse a new user). As a team, we go looking for safe versions, plug-ins that may or may not work and so on. We have also gone through and found the best of the best free and open-source software for multiple platforms and used our own discernment to give you something that rivals Adobe, Autodesk, Microsoft, and other major software companies. And, we're 100% legal and free. All of our software is sold at the cost of making the boxes, disks and the shipping for it to get to you.

2) OCW R&D: Our decade of templates, design documents, plugins, vision statements, business model, and comic tools are all put into the OCW releases. This is major development that took thousands of man (and woman) hours.

3) Self-Funded Programs: We have made original programs, plug-ins and applications -things we actually paid to be made from scratch (all of which are funded by a 501(c)3 non-profit as a charitable contribution to the free and open-source community (none of the tools are for sale and can be used free of charge or license). Our template alone was a $14,000 research project.

4) 3rd Party Community Created Programs, Plug-ins and Templates: Our forum environment has two portals for our community. One is for discussion, feature requests and general knowledge of OCW and what the world-wide community wants to talk about. The second is also for users, but exists to engage production of feature requests, as well as designers and programmers that have made original software, templates and plugins that they would like to submit for possible inclusion into the next OCW version build. In this case, we uniquely function in that the 3rd-party applications are the only area of our project where we require the signing of a one-page legal release document. This document identifies the person who has submitted the object in question, verified that they are the true creator of it, and allows for us to indefinitely include their program, plug-in or template into the OCW project on a permanent basis -that it becomes the property of the free and open-source community forever. (We think this is really cool and tremendously sacrificial and that it is the core to some of the unknown awesomeness that OCW will become).

CLOSING:

We hope that after reading this article on OCW Jellyfish that you see we truly have created an operating environment with the Open Age of Comics, and that Open ComicWare is a set of tools that have come to be because of this movement in comics. It is one of the pillar projects from The Open Age of Comics, and it will forever change the way things are done in design, comic Art creation, and content creation.

NOTE: *The reason we sell our OCW disks at cost (if a kit is requested) is because the kits cost money to create. We do not mark up the sales of these kits -that's a sale at cost. And the reason we make these Jellyfish releases on physical media is so you know you can trust what we've created, and that others who may have altered what we have done, or fragmented it can be identified and avoided. It allows for stability within the OCW releases, and verification that you have the real deal with our support. It's a great way to get started right. That's why all orders for OCW come through this site, are sold at cost, and shipped direct. The disk you will get is something you can copy (it is free of DRM and any copy-guard). Feel free to redistribute the content, but know that it's probably best that each person who wants a copy of OCW order the entire kit so they can truly experience all the other things the OCW kit has to offer. You'll be surprised how delicate, intimate and special an OCW release kit is.