Pyra Os and software?

[Wrath Of Khan]

I don't really use linux apart from my pandora.

What are the benefits of using Debian for the Pyra?

How closely can we make it feel like it was made for the pyra?

One thing to avoid is the size issues with windows; many never fitted onscreen properly on the pandora, of course angstrom was made for a desktop system, which caused the problem.

 

[Neelix]

With the Pyra screen being at least 720 px high that won't be an issue.  The main issue on the pandora is that the affected programs were made with the assumption of a screen at least 600 px high.

If we have to get a 1080 screen we might end up with the opposite problem,  dialogue boxes that are too small to read...  I imagine that can be offset though by adjusting dpi and font settings in whatever DE we end up with.

- Neelix

 

[slaeshjag]

^ Dialog boxes that'll be too small to read will be a problem even at 720p. As a result, the font size will be increased, making the dialog boxes bigger, at which point they might not fit on the screen anymore...

 

[Natsu]

Can Ubuntu be on there as well?

 

[_wb_]

Can Ubuntu be on there as well?

Ubuntu is a Debian.

About window sizes: the problem is that most applications are designed with a 1024x768 monitor in mind with a diagonal of 14" or larger. With a 5" screen, no matter what the resolution is, it is likely that there is a problem. That's why a good port usually needs to tweak the (default) interface a bit.

 

[Binky]

Ubuntu is Debian with more user-friendly polish and the $&*%~£@ abomination that is Gnome3

 

[Granitehead]

Well, the default Ubuntu DE is crap for desktops. But one problem is that it seems to work too well with touch screens, so maybe it would be better on the Pandora.

I think within the Debian family there is no real mistake to make and once adjusted to the Pandora they will all be pretty much the same.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Linux Mint KDE is nice

 

[Askarus]

As long as I can use my loved XFCE everything is all right for me .

 

[Grench]

Ubuntu is not Debian.  It may be derived from Debian, but Canonical has spent a lot of money to make it as un-debian-like as possible.

I had been using Mint LXDE (yes - derived from Ubuntu derived from Debian).  Mint LXDE was a nice interface, but the dang thing never ran quite stable.  The login/greeter kept crashing.

Last week I re-loaded my main workstation to Debian.  

I tried Gnome 3.  I hated it so bad that I decided to re-install using advanced options just to ensure that no trace of Gnome 3 survived the process.

Using the Debian advanced installer I was able to do a clean install of Debian stable (Wheezy) XFCE on my workstation.  I have to say - it's great. It has a simple, well organized and clean interface.  I think it would be pretty much perfect for the Pyra.

I encourage everyone with a spare computer to give it a shot:  http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/

Remember to use the advanced installer to get to the UI picklist menu and select XFCE.  If you use the defaults you will be cursed with Gnome 3 and promptly hate your computer.

I haven't spent enough time with it to encourage it for everyone to use on their 'primary PC', but it's growing on me.

 

[vandyswa]

When you say "Debian", I'm hoping you mean "armhf"?  I know there were some binary blobs interfering with this previously, but this really is the way the world has gone.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Ubuntu is not Debian.  It may be derived from Debian, but Canonical has spent a lot of money to make it as un-debian-like as possible.

I had been using Mint LXDE (yes - derived from Ubuntu derived from Debian).  Mint LXDE was a nice interface, but the dang thing never ran quite stable.  The login/greeter kept crashing.

Last week I re-loaded my main workstation to Debian.  

I tried Gnome 3.  I hated it so bad that I decided to re-install using advanced options just to ensure that no trace of Gnome 3 survived the process.

Using the Debian advanced installer I was able to do a clean install of Debian stable (Wheezy) XFCE on my workstation.  I have to say - it's great. It has a simple, well organized and clean interface.  I think it would be pretty much perfect for the Pyra.

I encourage everyone with a spare computer to give it a shot:  http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/

Remember to use the advanced installer to get to the UI picklist menu and select XFCE.  If you use the defaults you will be cursed with Gnome 3 and promptly hate your computer.

I haven't spent enough time with it to encourage it for everyone to use on their 'primary PC', but it's growing on me.

Hehe!  Just installed Debian Wheezy on my old Mom's old sony vaio (512MB of memory) laptop who has no knowledge about computer and she loves it   She asked me why the hell people pay Microsoft for crappy windows which can't run on her old laptop as well as this

Thanks Grench!  You have Debianized/Linuxized/Wheezied/Whateverized my mom.  She loves you now

 

[knightron]

Ubuntu is not Debian.  It may be derived from Debian, but Canonical has spent a lot of money to make it as un-debian-like as possible.

I had been using Mint LXDE (yes - derived from Ubuntu derived from Debian).  Mint LXDE was a nice interface, but the dang thing never ran quite stable.  The login/greeter kept crashing.

Last week I re-loaded my main workstation to Debian.  

I tried Gnome 3.  I hated it so bad that I decided to re-install using advanced options just to ensure that no trace of Gnome 3 survived the process.

Using the Debian advanced installer I was able to do a clean install of Debian stable (Wheezy) XFCE on my workstation.  I have to say - it's great. It has a simple, well organized and clean interface.  I think it would be pretty much perfect for the Pyra.

I encourage everyone with a spare computer to give it a shot:  http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/

Remember to use the advanced installer to get to the UI picklist menu and select XFCE.  If you use the defaults you will be cursed with Gnome 3 and promptly hate your computer.

I haven't spent enough time with it to encourage it for everyone to use on their 'primary PC', but it's growing on me.

Hehe!  Just installed Debian Wheezy on my old Mom's old sony vaio (512MB of memory) laptop who has no knowledge about computer and she loves it   She asked me why the hell people pay Microsoft for crappy windows which can't run on her old laptop as well as this

Thanks Grench!  You have Debianized/Linuxized/Wheezied/Whateverized my mom.  She loves you now

If she's new to Gnu/Linux, and would rather keep using a gui than the command line, 'synaptic' is a good program to help manage updates, and 'software-center' is a good program to help manage installing new programs.

Out of interest, what desktop environment did you install for her?

Has anyone used Gnome shell on their Pandora?

I'm just wondering how well it works with the touch interface, (that is if it works at all and doesn't leave the user in fallback mode)

 

[Null]

Ubuntu is Debian with more user-friendly polish and the $&*%~£@ abomination that is Gnome3 Unity

FTFY

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Ubuntu is not Debian.  It may be derived from Debian, but Canonical has spent a lot of money to make it as un-debian-like as possible.

I had been using Mint LXDE (yes - derived from Ubuntu derived from Debian).  Mint LXDE was a nice interface, but the dang thing never ran quite stable.  The login/greeter kept crashing.

Last week I re-loaded my main workstation to Debian.  

I tried Gnome 3.  I hated it so bad that I decided to re-install using advanced options just to ensure that no trace of Gnome 3 survived the process.

Using the Debian advanced installer I was able to do a clean install of Debian stable (Wheezy) XFCE on my workstation.  I have to say - it's great. It has a simple, well organized and clean interface.  I think it would be pretty much perfect for the Pyra.

I encourage everyone with a spare computer to give it a shot:  http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/

Remember to use the advanced installer to get to the UI picklist menu and select XFCE.  If you use the defaults you will be cursed with Gnome 3 and promptly hate your computer.

I haven't spent enough time with it to encourage it for everyone to use on their 'primary PC', but it's growing on me.

Hehe!  Just installed Debian Wheezy on my old Mom's old sony vaio (512MB of memory) laptop who has no knowledge about computer and she loves it   She asked me why the hell people pay Microsoft for crappy windows which can't run on her old laptop as well as this

Thanks Grench!  You have Debianized/Linuxized/Wheezied/Whateverized my mom.  She loves you now

If she's new to Gnu/Linux, and would rather keep using a gui than the command line, 'synaptic' is a good program to help manage updates, and 'software-center' is a good program to help manage installing new programs.

Out of interest, what desktop environment did you install for her?

Has anyone used Gnome shell on their Pandora?

I'm just wondering how well it works with the touch interface, (that is if it works at all and doesn't leave the user in fallback mode)

Nah, I'll manage updates for her using my newly learned linux command line skills

I installed xfce since her machine is old and can't run fancy stuff.  All she wants to do is check her emails, watches youtube, reads news online, but XP couldn't handle these simple tasks and she got so much shit installed on her machine behind her back when using windows. 

Ubuntu is Debian with more user-friendly polish and the $&*%~£@ abomination that is Gnome3 Unity

FTFY

I've reinstalled XP on her machines like a thousand times already but every few months she complained it's so slow.  I tried to put Ubuntu but the machine is so old it runs like turtle with Ubuntu.  Same thing with Mint.  But Wheezy is wheee!!! fast

 

[God Ginrai]

Ubuntu is Debian with more user-friendly polish and the $&*%~£@ abomination that is Gnome3 Unity

FTFY

I've reinstalled XP on her machines like a thousand times already but every few months she complained it's so slow.  I tried to put Ubuntu but the machine is so old it runs like turtle with Ubuntu.  Same thing with Mint.  But Wheezy is wheee!!! fast

Heh, that just shows how much ubuntu &%$#s up debian.

-God Ginrai

 

[knightron]

Ubuntu is Debian with more user-friendly polish and the $&*%~£@ abomination that is Gnome3 Unity

FTFY

Ubuntu may use the Debian package manager, but Ubuntu definitely is not Debian. You can not upgrade from Debian to Ubuntu, or from Ubuntu to Debian.

Mepis and Snow Linux are Debian with user friendly tweaks, but, but Ubuntu is it's own distribution, it uses a few Debian packages, but it is not reliant on Debian.

Nah, I'll manage updates for her using my newly learned linux command line skills
I installed xfce since her machine is old and can't run fancy stuff.  All she wants to do is check her emails, watches youtube, reads news online, but XP couldn't handle these simple tasks and she got so much shit installed on her machine behind her back when using windows. 

That's cool to hear. Xfce4 is pretty cool. I especially like the context menu. Hope everything continues smoothly.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

If she complains in a few months, I'll talk her into buy a Pandora and put Slackware on it for her 

Oh one more thing. Wheezy xfce is just like SZ on Pandora which makes me feel at home.  I may replace my Mint with Wheezy tomorrow.

 

[mcobit]

Keep in mind that debain stable will not have the newest software in the repos though.


You could try sid.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Yes sir