MiniSinisterMinister
Active Member
I hope that Pandora will remain a handheld that is good for gaming and that the crucial specs won't change for a couple of years, should it become the first official Ubuntu UMPC and get access to the mass market.
You do realise that Ubuntu is basically Debian with a sensible release schedule?PoisonedV said:I vote 'no, ubuntu is overkill, how about vanilla debian'
jakewastaken said:Anyone who doesn't want to use it doesn't have to. What is the problem here?
Two problems:
1) Any work done on Ubuntu takes away from work on Angstrom. Or more generally, any work on [extra feature X] takes resources away from [core feature Y]. I think any argument about putting alternate OSes on are a little premature until base kernel is complete and the default OS has reached a level of usability that they can afford to divide resources.
2) Two "official" Operating Systems runs the risk of dividing the community. If one person releases an app for the Ubuntu version and puts it into the apt repository, who's going to do the extra work to make sure it runs on Angstrom and add it to the ipkg repository? And it will be extra work, whether your going from Ubuntu to Angstrom or vice versa. You need to check library compatibility, build the package, upload it.
On the other hand, if Ubuntu is in same as "official" then perhaps the dev team will ensure that all libraries are maintained equally across the two, in which case there's no need to check: something compiled for Angstrom should work just as well on Ubuntu, but there it's the dev team doing the extra work, not the software developer.
Make no mistake, two different distributions will require extra work somewhere.
Except PACKAGES. Seriously... angstrom is way short on packages comparatively.Svartalf said:Given that Angstrom brings everything that Debian does,
Ubuntu MID is probably a good option. However it was done in conjunction with Intel for their low power architecture (before Ubuntu got dropped for Fedora) and the last time I looked at it you couldn't even run it on standard x86 machines. I'm guessing that'll get fixed with the new ARM deal given it's focus on Netbooks and MIDs.kattle87 said:Just wondering: what about Ubuntu MID? I can't remember if it was proposed yet and by searching the forum I found nothing.
Two interesting nuggets here:Chip said:Pandora is likely to be the first to market as the sort of device that Canonical is aiming for with Ubuntu-on-ARM. The only problem is that Pandora hasn't quite made it to market yet. I am a bit reluctant to pitch the Pandora to Canonical as a potential reference platform without actually having a finished unit to send to them.
Make no mistake, this is something that we are going to pursue. Craig and I are just trying to determine exactly how to go about the pursuit.
Bryce Leo said:Except PACKAGES. Seriously... angstrom is way short on packages comparatively.Svartalf said:Given that Angstrom brings everything that Debian does,
Considering that Ubuntu doesn't even have an ARM package repository yet (it's all x86 and powerPC, near as I can tell) Angstrom has infinitely more packages than Ubuntu.
Every application that you see in the package repository will need to be recompiled for ARM and fully tested. They will not just magically work.
Angstrom, on the other hand, already has a fairly large ARM based repository which will just magically work, including Quake, Quake 2, and Quake 3
jdh2550 said:Chip said:Make no mistake, this is something that we are going to pursue. Craig and I are just trying to determine exactly how to go about the pursuit.
Chip seems to have become an official member of the team rather than "just" a moderator? (Note the references to "we"). Way to go Chip - it seems like you deserve it. BTW, if there was some form of announcement of this - I missed it - sorry...
I noticed that too, it definately sounds an 'active' role. Nice move.
Maybe this is the news Chip referred to? Come on Chip, tell all.![]()
Yes. A community that's starting with less than 4000 users takes a risk spreading itself thin like that. I'm pretty sure that would happen regardless of what Craigix does, though.WizardStan said:2) Two "official" Operating Systems runs the risk of dividing the community.
[...]
Make no mistake, two different distributions will require extra work somewhere.
Yes. This is what I tried, and failed, to communicate earlier.jdh2550 said:1) An approach to Canonical is going to happen. Fair enough. I agree with folks that say the reason for doing this is all about PR - not about which distro is better for whatever reasons. However, I also share some of the worries that it could bring problems. For example it might tempt the dev team away from their original goal. With better PR the pandora comes under the scrutiny of more folks. Sure, it won't affect things at first - but if they could sell say 10,000 Pandora's as they stand or 100,000 Pandora's if they dropped the gaming controls and put in a better keyboard and also licensed the swivel screen technology. Which, as an astute business(wo)man, would you do? Hopefully they can do both "versions" because they'll grow to be able to cover both bases. But, growing too fast can hurt as much as not growing fast enough. Good luck to the dev team whatever they choose.