Some thoughts about the board

[fusion_power]

This thread make me sad .

I though OpenPandora will live on forever, but...

It's actualy a miracle that the Pandora is still alive in times of mobile super-gadgets, Smart phones and -watches, cheap china handhelds, even cheaper Raspberry Pi's etc...I think Ziz sees it from the wrong side. The community is still there and for the fact that the Pandora is such a small niche device the community is still strong. Especialy when you remember that the Pandora concept exist since 2008. So I would call it overall a huge success.

Of course the time goes by and like every device people move forward but again, for such a niche Handheld the community is still big. Or is there any community left for the Nokia N-Gage etc.? XD

You all make me sad. I should stop the Pyra as I fear no one will buy it anymore

Sometimes I wish that Apple would have that attitude.

 

[Urben]

A easy solution against missing updates to games or programs is to make a update thread in the News section where everyone who creates software for the Pandora/Pyra can write into once there is a new version or something. Ofc other replys should be deleted to keep it easy to follow.

 

[PowerGod]

I think too that there are no interesting new gadgets around... my friends keeps changing their phones or consoles but them are still doing the same things, that a PC was always able to do...

The last thing I told them speaking about the Pyra, is that the keyboard was difficult to design... the response was "Why an hardware keyboard ?? That's stupid !! They should use another touch display and use it as a keyboard !! That should be SMARTER !!"

...at that point I just showed them how many "hardware keyboards/gamepads" many companies are making for smartphones... and the response was still "no one will buy them"...

I still think that the Pyra will be of a great use, even because there are still no other choices around, also, the support of this community is still great !!

I mean, at the beginning the Pandora was awesome, but with many limits, and after 4 years it became optimized EVERYWERE, making it able to run a lot of things that were impossible before !!

No recent device has a so long story of optimization and patching, and in the PC world the software is what make the hardware useful. You can have the most powerful hardware of the world, but if the only program is the Chess game, then it is not useful at all...

 

[levi]

A easy solution against missing updates to games or programs is to make a update thread in the News section where everyone who creates software for the Pandora/Pyra can write into once there is a new version or something. Ofc other replys should be deleted to keep it easy to follow.

Well we have an 'updates' section - software news.  It's a bit more noisy than pure 'there is an update' stuff, because people also discuss the programs in there, but it means I can largely ignore threads I don't have installed.

Although that's also ED's problem - he didn't read the Hase 1.5 thread because he hadn't got Hase installed.  Better thread title selection might have helped, but I can't think of much else that can be done.  Once Eki has got back to parity with his new software articles, you'll get another chance to notice updates each month on the pandoralive blog.

 

[FBnil]

You all make me sad. I should stop the Pyra as I fear no one will buy it anymore

Its a catharsis E.D., I see a small revival. People participating more, etc.

However, should you think of stopping the project *(beyond mayor issues).

I will take the conga song, you know, the one that goes: "Conga, conga, con-ga! Conga, conga, con-ga!", reword it to "Pyra, pyra, py-ra! Pyra, pyra, py-ra!"

Then gets lots of people to join a single line, hands on the shoulders and keep you awake all night partying. (and continue until you pick up the project again).

if you build it they will come. If you also lead people to it, more will come.



I know it is a struggle, getting married and not even have time to, well, be there and work absorbing so much time. But you and the others are creating magic; keep the dream alive!

No worries here, nothing can demotivate me

Ah... ok.  Exspecto duo mensis quia Pyra et popula pandora. adventus Pyra, tamen Nescio, si num cadent a ligno.

I mean, at the beginning the Pandora was awesome, but with many limits, and after 4 years it became optimized EVERYWERE, making it able to run a lot of things that were impossible before !!

Others have said it before... I would like to address the Software tinkerers now: Thank you. You made me feel like the Pandora went through many hardware upgrades, making the device better, smarter and faster. And doing that in software only is.... simply amazing.

 

[comradekingu]

i checked, just in case:


openkeb.ab


openfalaf.el


opendoen.er


are not available

Openpandon.er still avail.

 

[Ziz]

Yes, in fact I thought I leave the board, but subscribe some threads so I don't overlook any useful feedback. This worked quite well for the Hase thread. But I will unfollow this thread with it's random pointless discussion - I didn't want to swap the board spam for e-mail spam...

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Let's vote about ED's new activity :

http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/18005-unofficial-kebab-layout-poll/

 

[PowerGod]

I suppose Ziz is not counting all the other new arguments that can raise with the new device, for example those about "accelerometer and gyroscope programming"... many new Pyra games can be created to use those and the other functionality... I suppose that in the Debian repo only rare things are present that already support for those...

For the Pandora there are many emulators, but none is still "perfect", there is still much that can be obtained...

 

[PokeParadox]

Some thoughts:

On a personal level, I generally check the boards on my lunch break.

My Pandora is currently broken(back light not working) so I haven't been able to try out some of the new releases.

I'm waiting for and trying to put money aside for a Pyra.

Development wise I'm finding it hard to sit down at a PC after I've been sat at one all day at work(even for gaming) so I'm mostly playing games as opposed to trying to make them and have been for a long while now.

Ocassionally I get some motivation (I managed to get a PenjinTwo version of RainyDay running, but it has problems with collision detection I need to solve) but progress is very very very slow.

I tend to agree that it feels like things have slowed down, I guess some people have moved on, others will be passively enjoying their devices.

 

[levi]

FWIW, when I first heard about the GP32 I heard about it because it could run emulators.  I remember seeing some homebrew posted for the GP2X, but tended to think it didn't looks as good as emulated games, so largely dismissed it.  I followed the Pandora discussions because they were there on GP32X, and initially got excited for the device because it would be able to run Amiga games properly, and because it would improve on my old N770 tablet at being a media consumption device, and basic computer.  Only after following there for a while did I start to see how much work goes into some of that homebrew software, and learn to appreciate it more.

Right now, I like the warm feeling that homebrew stuff gets by reminding my of the old 8-bit computer days.  Perhaps the excitement over them is slightly dismissed because of the enormously detailed work that goes into some of the more complex emulator projects though - there's certainly more to talk about in the emulator threads, about which game works and which doesn't and so on.  But that doesn't mean I appreciate homebrew any less though.

 

[ingoreis]

This Thread makes me sad about what some of you write.


But renember and view out of the Window.


It is Spring and i think that many Users are outside and enjoy that good Weather.


I dont see any real Reason for negative Reactions.


My english is not the Best too and i feel somehow that i am not realy Welcome in this Thread.


Remind:


When anyone of you changed to a negative Thinking then will the Pandora realy die a little and when anyone go away then do he help with dying OpenSourceHandhelds.


When you go the will we miss you all realy then only WE all are the Community


My thinking changed not into negative because this Thread but i thinked long over some Parts.


We have only a few Users on forum.gp2x.de but we dont give up because that.


Raik,Giggo,Nabz_32x,me and some other Users are still there


My fourth Pandora is nearly underway to me and i love this System,i never want to miss this Device more.

 

[renegadechic]

You know, I think this is kinda to be expected in a whole lot of ways. This community in its Pandora focused iteration has been active for over 7 years now. Pre-Orders started in 2008 and the devices started really getting to people in 2010 which was 5 years ago.

For a product with not actually all that much profile compared to some mainstream tech, it has done incredibly well. I've mostly lurked for the last few years but I check back on the boards every day just to see what is going on.

I've always been an end user so have very little to add to the smarter conversations and in many ways I really neglect my pandora and have only used it for very niche things in the last 6 months (master control to set up my raspbmc). I used to use it for things like messenger and the internet and a few other bits every day but i have to admit that I got a Galaxy Note 2 and it tends to cover almost all of those internet related things I used to use the pandora for. Back when I first got my pandy I was using a Sony Xperia x10 mini pro running eclair and the pandora wiped the floor with it.

In my lurking there was a definite tail off with Pandora interest when the Pyra was announced. Having gone through the motions of buzzing about the Pandora, I suspect a lot of people don't feel the need to do it again this time round. Like me, we wait to see what you guys come up with and are excited about the possibilities.

Another thing to remember about time frames is that 7 years is a really long time. That's two generations of university students. People who were programming and getting excited and following the project have graduated and are working and a lot are probably doing all kinds of adult stuff they weren't before. The Pandora audience has officially grown up and really, there has not been the same hype and drive with the Pyra to drag in a new audience yet.

It seems to me like things have been intentionally on the down low to avoid the lows of the Pandora experience, but I expect that when the marketing push for the Pyra happens, things will really brighten up round here