Android Yes/No (Split from Some more of my ideas thread)

[rohezal]

A short conclusion:

Android is wanted by a considerable amount of people

Android will help to sell more Pandoras, so more profit for ED

Android needs someone who ports it

Nobody wants to do it

It will cost between 10000$ and 20000$ to pay someone

Maybe we can get the replicant guys to port for the Pandora2

Avoid Android fee

Do it by a "downloader os" which lets you choose if you want only linux or android and linux and downloads the needed stuff during first boot

My stuff:

If 3G or 4G is build in make a hardware power kill switch for the modem please (supported by several people)

Make a seperate Android Board with a seperate URL to avoid a mix of linux hackers and android consumers (if it doesn't work out of the box it is crap, like 1 star for drastic for not shipping the games with it).

 

[b_o_b]

Would certainly be nice to have Android available and based on most comments the opinion of the majority. I think the question is do you want to pay for Android and want ED to spend a lot of time coordinating it.  

IMO indeed nice to have, but not a priority.

 

[comradekingu]

As long as we have Android support and a copy of Android we can load onto the P2 , whether that's on there standard or via a download, I'd be happy with that.   That said, if your going to get someone to support Android on the P2, then the extra  $5 ? / unit on a Android license would be well worth the money to have a device that has Android dual boot , the extra sales alone this would bring in would be well worth it.    I know people who would kill for a dual boot Linux / Android device.

Just to be clear, there is no license payment for android to Google. There is some trouble shipping gapps, but we arent doing that, so should be fine. The extortion happens when ms tells you that your device implementation is supposedly violating their patents, which they wont disclose.

Android is a nice feature in itself, but lets set sail for the least amount of potential fail.

 

[ZXDunny]

As long as we have Android support and a copy of Android we can load onto the P2 , whether that's on there standard or via a download, I'd be happy with that.   That said, if your going to get someone to support Android on the P2, then the extra  $5 ? / unit on a Android license would be well worth the money to have a device that has Android dual boot , the extra sales alone this would bring in would be well worth it.    I know people who would kill for a dual boot Linux / Android device.

Just to be clear, there is no license payment for android to Google. There is some trouble shipping gapps, but we arent doing that, so should be fine. The extortion happens when ms tells you that your device implementation is supposedly violating their patents, which they wont disclose.
Android is a nice feature in itself, but lets set sail for the least amount of potential fail.

There likely won't be any problem shipping gapps. Only Cyanogen has had a request to refrain from distribution, and they're allowed to point users to a download add-on instead. Other Android distros package Gapps inside their setup files and Google hasn't raised an eyebrow.

That's not to say that they won't, especially considering that you'd be paying for the complete package of Pandora+Linux+Android, but they're not that upset about their software being distributed - after all, more people with Google Play installed means more ads and revenue for Google.

D.

 

[SNESFAN]

The brilliant thing about a loader OS is that it could link to the gapps and install it on top without it being bundled. This would allow for more "open source" purists and those sensitive to spying to have a alternative that has most of the benefits of android with none of the security concerns. And it easy enough for people to just check a box saying they own another Google experience device and go ahead and download the gapps and install it on top of the supplied and completely legal open source android. Not trying to pat myself on the back but having a loader/downloader OS is a really great idea. Plus it ensures an easy way to make sure your OS is up to date out of the box for newbies and can be used as a recovery in case your main install becomes corrupt or you just want a change. Just think of something similar to minimenu but even lighter (no x or services other than network + file manager) could also double as a "charging OS" Hopefully it's implemented.

 

[ekianjo]

Make a seperate Android Board with a seperate URL to avoid a mix of linux hackers and android consumers (if it doesn't work out of the box it is crap, like 1 star for drastic for not shipping the games with it).

Oh yes, You're dead right on this. I certainly don't want to mix both worlds together. Let's keep it clear and separate. 

 

[FaeMinx]

Looks like we're all pretty much in agreement now.

ED... your minions have spoken!

 

[thatgui]

Android will help to sell more Pandoras, so more profit for ED

Is this really the case ?

With the nVidia Shield already out and new iCP like devices coming out every three or four months, I wonder how many people will have interest in investing >400€ into a Android gameing device.

I don't want to imply that Android on a P2 would not generate additional sales, I'm just wondering if the additional sales would justify the effort of official support.

 

[pmprog]

I'm just wondering if the additional sales would justify the effort of official support

Depends how much official support costs. But yeah, I'm not sure how much of a selling point in itself it would be.
I would like Android, whether it be dual-boot, a PND or whatnot, but it's not a dealbreaker for me.

 

[ekianjo]

Android will help to sell more Pandoras, so more profit for ED

Sales!=profit

Classical fallacy.

 

[thatgui]

Classical fallacy.

Sales!=profit

I know, and I guess rohezal does too, just not my statement

 

[ekianjo]

Oh i know, it's just the "quote" function which didn't work as expected Sorry thatgui

 

[worzyl]

Android will help to sell more Pandoras, so more profit for ED

 I wonder how many people will have interest in investing >400€ into a Android gameing device.

Well - there are various apps that aren't games. I know many people who use android phones just for this reason and dont do any gaming at all.

Personally - as long as the device is pushed as a linux machine with android capabilities and not the other way round I'll be happy.

 

[_jr_]

In the end "leaving it to the community" seems the right choice to me. All I'm seeing here is a vocal minority that wants others to pay for their desires. It is a significant investment of time and money without obvious ways of amortization besides wishful thinking. I support b_o_b's proposal of a Pandora Android kickstarter. Let's see how much Android support is really worth to people. Even without ED directly supporting it, Android distribution and installation could easily be made totally noob friendly.

 

[milkshake]

Make a seperate Android Board with a seperate URL to avoid a mix of linux hackers and android consumers (if it doesn't work out of the box it is crap, like 1 star for drastic for not shipping the games with it).

Oh yes, You're dead right on this. I certainly don't want to mix both worlds together. Let's keep it clear and separate. 

I don't think the worlds should be kept separate, why segregate? this is one community, Pandora 2 should be "for the people" not "for the Linux people", especially as there will be benefits in crossover i.e. android devs might do some Linux stuff and vica versa - either way P2/People WIN

 

[ekianjo]

I don't think the worlds should be kept separate, why segregate? this is one community, Pandora 2 should be "for the people" not "for the Linux people", especially as there will be benefits in crossover i.e. android devs might do some Linux stuff and vica versa - either way P2/People WIN

I don't believe in "all the more the merrier", Android and Linux communities are VERY different in principle and mindset, it's rather a recipe for annoyance/conflict than anything else. It's not because you own a PC you see forums for Linux and Windows merged into a single place, same thing for Android and Linux, let's clearly draw a line. That's what I would recommend. And let the Android fans help out the Android noobs and the Linux fans help out the Linux noobs.

 

[milkshake]

I don't think the worlds should be kept separate, why segregate? this is one community, Pandora 2 should be "for the people" not "for the Linux people", especially as there will be benefits in crossover i.e. android devs might do some Linux stuff and vica versa - either way P2/People WIN

 
I don't believe in "all the more the merrier", Android and Linux communities are VERY different in principle and mindset, it's rather a recipe for annoyance/conflict than anything else. It's not because you own a PC you see forums for Linux and Windows merged into a single place, same thing for Android and Linux, let's clearly draw a line. That's what I would recommend. And let the Android fans help out the Android noobs and the Linux fans help out the Linux noobs.

There is no reason to have a whole new forum with new URL though, having both an android and Ångström sub-forum would suffice.

This would be a Pandora 2 community regardless of whether a persons preferred OS is android or not.

 

[_wb_]

There is in theory nothing that would stop you from implementing libPND in Android, adding the necessary libraries to the library search path, and running PNDs on Android. Just like there is nothing in theory that stops you from executing Android packages in GNU/Linux (apkenv-style).

We could also officially support for 10 different GNU/Linux distributions: Ubuntu, Debian, Slackware, Mint, etc etc. In theory you can release software that works on all of those, so it doesn't need to split the community.

But of course there is a difference between theory and practice (in theory there is no difference, but in practice there is). More flavors to support means more work, more that needs to be tested, and more that can go wrong.

I think it's best to have just one officially supported OS (some distro of GNU/Linux), and let the rest be sorted out by the community.

 

[pmprog]

having both an android and Ångström sub-forum would suffice

Sounds a great idea. Let's do that... Wait... That seems awfully familiar

 

[ZXDunny]

We still don't know who's going to make this mythical Android for Pandora2 OS. Notaz has said he won't do it, and I don't see anyone else of his calibre stepping up.

For that matter, I don't know if anyone is going to make the default linux OS either, though I suspect there will be more people willing to do that job than are willing to build Android.

D.