pandora/pyra as main battlestation.

[Cupz]

Hello. I am new here and absolutely stoked about openpandora/pyro after finding out about it today in an interview with Kenta Cho, a hero of mine.

I am now seriously thinking about selling my current rig just to get a pandora (or wait for the pyro) and work from there. Maybe a nice question for the pros on this board:

Would it be possible to get rid of my desktop/laptop once and for all and use/develop on nothing but pandora? Personally, I find it sounds very unlikely but looking at the specs, Im actually starting to believe it.

To be able to fully answer that you must know what I'd like to use it for. Now I am a software-artist/musician so some software it should run would be like Processing, Puredata, Audacity, Renoise, Flash8pro(old software, don't judge me, lightspeed prototyping ftw), Openshot, some drawing apps, some lightweight game engines like cube2 and, if anyway possible maybe even blender. Nothing to fancy though. Blender is only of use to me in a low-polygon manner. I am starting a new "interactive design" art-school study soon though, but I would be more then glad to go the extra mile and leave an extra hdmi-screen/input-set there.

My rig now: An HP Pavillion p623 running nothing but a weird heavily altered home-made linux-mint petra/windowmaker type os.

I love developing in minimalistic lightweight abstract forms so you might see how this choice fits right up my alley. It could drive me towards a state of constant stream-of-consiousness-like developing power.

Don't get me wrong I mean, I'd even be happy if it was just an expensive mp4 player with a linux terminal and do some freaky shit with it, but if it can do what I can do now which is not allot since I have been using the same tools for over 10 years now, I see no point in waiting, saving up money and not selling my current rig for it and hook it onto a usb-hub and hdmi screen when I get home and use it as nano-laptop outdoors.

Anyone here care to burst my bubble? Is it that powerfull? Am I overestimating it?

Love,

cupz

 

[cuetzpalin]

When you say flash8pro you mean Adobe Flash 8 pro?

 

[sebt3]

Would it be possible to get rid of my desktop/laptop once and for all and use/develop on nothing but pandora? Personally, I find it sounds very unlikely but looking at the specs, Im actually starting to believe it.

While it is indeed in the real of possible, I wouldnt recommand that. remember that it only have about 5" screen. a little bit small for a few stuff imho. But sure, your desktop/laptop will see less use blender will definatly be too limited even for low-poly stuff. and dont expect speed from stuff like puredata on pandora.

all in all it wont replace your current rig but the pandora could be a realy good rig to work&play on the go, giving the final touches at home

 

[cuetzpalin]

You could wait for the Pyra, and its docking station.

 

[FBnil]

I would wait for the Pyra. Those kind of things you want to do need memory, and processing power.

Also, remember there is a difference between the microchip x86 versus OpenPandora's/Pyra's ARM.

For example, Cube2/Sauerbraten has not been ported yet to SuperZaxxon(the O.S. name). Although OpenPandora is capable, see for example the Jedi Knight series on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2XwMI_LZDk

and should be able to run if you boot using Pandian and apt-get it, as it is also available for ARM in the Debian Repositories

Same goes for PD,  it is available as a debian-arm package.

As for Renoise, it needs a CPU that provides SSE instructions, which ARM does not have, it has NEON. And on the web it is hinted that a good compiler can compile it, but I can not find hints that it has been done for Renoise, on the contrary  and also here: http://www.renoise.com/system-requirements So it might never run.

Sure, I can play more than 4 tracks on Audacity. But I can see only one track on screen due to its size. So it really is not a comfortable edit on such a small screen. Pyra with a little more screensize will help much.

Flash is iffy on OpenPandora. I can not say much about it because I don't know if there is a Flash 8 Pro for ARM.

As for the soundstation capabilities, we have some musician-programmers that have ported lots of good (excellent, actually) audio software. So you can plug in a usb-to-midi and play, record with the OpenPandora.

I use trackers to make music, I feel more comfortable behind a bigger screen, although in a pinch, the OpenPandora can do the job. Once you get used to the smaller screen, however, yeah... the OpenPandora delivers. However, at 800×480 resolution I think you will find it too small even if you hook it up to a TV/monitor to view it bigger.

in conclusion: The pyra will not only have a bigger screen that will look good on HDMI screens but also have more CPU power (around 6 times faster, iirc, also depends on the SOC chosen).

Wait for it. It will be worth it. Although I do not know if all your chosen software will work.

 

[LuSimon]

Wait  for the pyra, and get a pc screen and keyboard, and mouse and a usb thingy that has more usb plugs and you will be more than well served, by the way know that the majority of the software currently avaiable for open paandor will be avaiable for pyra and maybe they will get quite a performance increase.

 

[edgex004]

Pandora can certainly get by, and it has almost entirely replaced my laptop, but the docking/battle station capabilities of the pyra will be far superior. The main limitation the Pandora has for docking is the low resolution. Pandora gives about 90% of the full desktop experience with an external mouse, keyboard, TV, and USB Ethernet adapter. The one piece that would perfect it would be increasing resolution to anything higher than 800x600.

 

[Takedown]

Get yourself a USB DisplayLink docking station, It has all the ports and a VGA/DVI out to connect a computer monitor. Best investment you can do because it converts the Pandora into a full computer in an instant.

 

[ckblackm]

Get yourself a USB DisplayLink docking station, It has all the ports and a VGA/DVI out to connect a computer monitor. Best investment you can do because it converts the Pandora into a full computer in an instant.

Like this one?  Will it work with the Pandora?

http://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Universal-DisplayLink-1920x1080-High-Speed/dp/B002PONXAI/

 

[thatgui]

Get yourself a USB DisplayLink docking station, It has all the ports and a VGA/DVI out to connect a computer monitor. Best investment you can do because it converts the Pandora into a full computer in an instant.

 Like this one?  Will it work with the Pandora?

http://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Universal-DisplayLink-1920x1080-High-Speed/dp/B002PONXAI/

Hard to tell, wether the support for all that is in the kernel or not, but single DispayLink adapters do work, the users askarus and hmc use(d ?) them on a regular basis.But just to counter false expectations: this is ok if you do desktop work, but everything that changes large parts of the screen often will get choppy (so no games and video)

 

[Askarus]

Get yourself a USB DisplayLink docking station, It has all the ports and a VGA/DVI out to connect a computer monitor. Best investment you can do because it converts the Pandora into a full computer in an instant.

 
Like this one?  Will it work with the Pandora?

http://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Universal-DisplayLink-1920x1080-High-Speed/dp/B002PONXAI/

Hard to tell, wether the support for all that is in the kernel or not, but single DispayLink adapters do work, the users askarus and hmc use(d ?) them on a regular basis.
But just to counter false expectations: this is ok if you do desktop work, but everything that changes large parts of the screen often will get choppy (so no games and video)

I use this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Multiple-2048x1152-1920x1080-DisplayLink/dp/B0038P1TP4/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1397631650&sr=1-1&keywords=display+link

And Thatgui is right.

I use DisplayLink at the DragonBox office.

As it's done via CPU it's not recommended for heavy stuff.

Firefox deadbef LibreOffice, Clawsmail are great with displayLink.

Forget about Videos and games.

Most Games are Pandora adjusted and go only 480x800. Most crash.

For complete desktop replacement wait for the Pyra I'd say.

Pandora is slow in some Parts and the HDMI cable is also a nice feature of the Pyra.

 

[Takedown]

Get yourself a USB DisplayLink docking station, It has all the ports and a VGA/DVI out to connect a computer monitor. Best investment you can do because it converts the Pandora into a full computer in an instant.

Like this one?  Will it work with the Pandora?

http://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Universal-DisplayLink-1920x1080-High-Speed/dp/B002PONXAI/

Yep, that's the one that I plan to get for personal use. The one I have in my office is a Lenovo branded one.