I think it's incredibly awesome but then I'm bias. For me what makes it
awesome:
It runs on 3 platforms (Windows, OSX, Linux) and 4 browsers (IE, FF, Safari, Chrome)
Using it feels like the good old days of BASIC programming. Instant feedback.
You type some code, you press refresh, you see the results. You can even open the FireBug console in Firefox or the javascript console in Safari and type commands live, replace functions while your app is running, tweak variables, etc.
On top of that, it's easy to make your app editable in realtime. For example if you check out the beach demo, press 'e' to edit shaders or 'm' to edit material properties. Both of those editors took less than 1 or 2 hours to get working, if that.
It's easy to install and usable from anywhere.
Unlike say downloading a C++ compiler or some other dev environment this one will work anywhere you have a browser and the plugin installed and it's easy to install.
*) It makes a lot of things possible that were not before.
It's not just about flying teapots and games. It opens up the ability to make apps that were not possible with just HTML. A multi-image editor, a presentation application, a 3d mapping application, really, the sky is the limit. Vista runs on top of DirectX and OSX runs on top of OpenGL so if you want, make a windowing system on top of O3D.
2 things I hope I find time to do now that it's out.
1) Make a tiled map editor (ie, tUME Online). Using plain HTML it would be too slow to draw the tiles but using this it will be easy. I can make an online tiled map editor (tUME online?) and target it to a few popular indie games and then provide a way to target more.
2) Write a simple game programming tutorial. Because other than notepad, nothing else is needed. If you can browse the net you can run O3D and walk through my tutorials.
I hope I can find the time to do these inbetween continuing to work on O3D. I'm really excited about the possibilities.
BTW: I've got to put the standard disclaimer. The views expressed on these pages are mine alone and not those of my employer.