The 1000-traces-puzzle

[PokeParadox]

Compton works fine with XFCE on my desktop.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

It uses OpenGL, so you'll need a working 3D driver, and something like GLshim for someone to port it

OpenGL ES 2.0 support went mainline almost 3 years ago.However, since Canonical took over they kept screwing up things, causing all sorts of bugs with Compiz on other DEs. I really can't recommend using it with anything other than Unity, which would be a rather bad choice for a handheld, anyway.It's dead, Jim.

Just fork an old version from before they screwed the pooch?

 

[Exophase]

But what does "being used" mean? If you have like a semi-transparent terminal on top of some other window (where the transparency is handled by the compositor, which uses the GPU to do the alpha blending), wouldn't the SGX be constantly on?

If it has to update the screen because you moved something it'll be on for that. It'll probably use less power than the CPU for doing the same thing.

 

[CrazyIvan]

Well, without compositing, you can switch off the 3D chip, which certainly safes battery.

It's not like it's 2005 nowadays and the unit can be either "on" or "off". Modern GPUs (especially mobile ones) can do very aggressive power saving while actually doing something and especiallywhen not doing anything. The main "problem" with compositing is that it's easy for a user to turn on some power hungry options like full screen or other heavy animations.

With compositing you can have proper window and desktop previews. That could make switching between windows or desktops a lot easier when using pyra touchscreen then it is now on Pandora.

As for Android it uses GPU to also draw window contents so it's not quite correct to compare Android to modern linux. It uses more GPU power to look 'responsive' and 'smooth', not because it uses GL compositing.

 

[_wb_]

I wish Imagination Technologies would just release the source code of their old SGX drivers. The only reason for not doing that, is fear for patent trolls. But if that's the problem, then can't they leak the code in some way, e.g. remove the comments that point to the company, and dump it on github anonymously claiming it is a reverse-engineering effort?

 

[bzar]

Why would they risk getting caught? What's in it for them?

 

[_wb_]

Why would they risk getting caught? What's in it for them?

If I would be the one who designs some piece of equipment that ends up being mass-produced and in the hands of a lot of people, I would be pretty proud and happy. I would be even more proud and happy if those people could actually use the equipment. I would be sad if I would know that those people own my equipment, have paid me for it, but cannot use it.

 

[bzar]

Why would they risk getting caught? What's in it for them?

If I would be the one who designs some piece of equipment that ends up being mass-produced and in the hands of a lot of people, I would be pretty proud and happy. I would be even more proud and happy if those people could actually use the equipment. I would be sad if I would know that those people own my equipment, have paid me for it, but cannot use it.

If you can no longer use their old equipment, that means they can try to sell you a new piece of equipment. Obsolesence recreates demand in markets. Sadly, many companies are in the business of creating maximum profit for their shareholders, not making people happier at their expense .

Disclaimer: being the devil's advocate here

EDIT: Also, you're asking them to break contracts for public benefit. I'm sure I can come up with examples where that principle would be at best morally ambiguous.

 

[_wb_]

Why would they risk getting caught? What's in it for them?

If I would be the one who designs some piece of equipment that ends up being mass-produced and in the hands of a lot of people, I would be pretty proud and happy. I would be even more proud and happy if those people could actually use the equipment. I would be sad if I would know that those people own my equipment, have paid me for it, but cannot use it.

If you can no longer use their old equipment, that means they can try to sell you a new piece of equipment. Obsolesence recreates demand in markets. Sadly, many companies are in the business of creating maximum profit for their shareholders, not making people happier at their expense .

Disclaimer: being the devil's advocate here

EDIT: Also, you're asking them to break contracts for public benefit. I'm sure I can come up with examples where that principle would be at best morally ambiguous.

I'm not asking them to break contracts. Either their code does not break any patents (which is unlikely, given the absurd amount of ridiculous software patents out there), and then they can safely release it under any license they want. Or it does break patents, and then they're theoretically in legal trouble whether or not they release the code. Releasing the code just makes it potentially easier for patent trolls to spot alleged patent violations.

Of course there could be other issues than just patents. Maybe their driver contains code which is owned by some other company, and they have the rights to use it and distribute it in binary form, but not in source code form. But if that's the problem, then at least they could help the FOSS community by releasing the parts that they do own.

But yes, you're right, from a business point of view there is not much to be gained, so they're probably not going to bother.

 

[rygD]

Compositing is also very useful for transparency when comparing multiple windows simultaneously such as keeping an eye on multiple server logs or htop process listings.

This.  I use transparency for a lot of different things.  I was recently in a conversation about copy/paste or fonts or something about clarity of text with characters that look similar (lowercase L, capital i, pipe, #1, etc.) and I went off on one of my tangents talking about things I set up after a fresh install, with drop down terminals, double click titlebar roll-up (or shading or whatever it is called) and transparency of windows without focus. (Moving and removing window buttons is also one of them, but I doubt I mentioned it.)  I will set window transparency so that when I pin a window above others I can see whatever and still work on the window behind it.  I have done this to trace images, reference one document while working on another, to see lessons while working in a terminal.  I currently only use a single display, but with all the great tools available there is no need.  I just use a few virtual desktops and other things set up how I like, and I am more productive than if I had to look, and possibly move the mouse, over at the other display, back and forth.

 

[bzar]

Of course there could be other issues than just patents. Maybe their driver contains code which is owned by some other company, and they have the rights to use it and distribute it in binary form, but not in source code form.

This is what I meant by "breaking contracts".

And they may not be able to help the FOSS community because of cleanroom policies. The moment they start giving inside information on the architecture is when companies start to wonder if the magically appearing reimplementation of their patented and licensed code happened without any NDAs breaking.

 

[Kev2442]

ED's tweet, 3 hours ago : "We found one company that can produce the 10 layer PCBs within 5 days- which means we'd have them for GamesCom. Twice the costs though."

May be worth it, may not be.

 

[Foxgod]

Wonder what he will choose, that tweet didnt really give a hint about what he will go for.

 

[Jumpman]

ED's tweet, 3 hours ago : "We found one company that can produce the 10 layer PCBs within 5 days- which means we'd have them for GamesCom. Twice the costs though."

May be worth it, may not be.

Wonder what he will choose, that tweet didnt really give a hint about what he will go for.

I saw that as well, and wondered what route he may take?

If he thinks the GameCom crowd is worth the extra effort, and it will get a bunch of potential buyers more interested, I say go for it. It may be good advertising.

If he's not going to get any real potential sales from it, I say save the money. Just my 2 cents!

Chris

 

[Nagelfar]

Depends on what the cost is. If it is 100 vs 200, well, go for it, if it is 10000 vs 20000 not so much.

 

[random lurker]

There's also the issue of possible bugs in layout that would require reworking. In such an unlucky case, being able to find out a few weeks earlier would avoid further delays. That's worth spending some extra dosh on IMHO.

 

[Stellanatus]

Tobad I can't use your mobile service being in the USA. I use google Fi which uses t-mobile/sprint towers simultaneously. So I don't even know if I can use a different service or not with sim cards. Thats no biggy though because wifi-sharing.

I totally cannot wait to pre-order! hopefully you guys have a selection I want the most expensive model with all accessories =p.

The TI help kinda worries me when you say early 2016. 

 

[Caine]

Oh wow, I look away for half a week and then there is a processor board

You guys are progressing much quicker than I expected. Keep up the fantastic work.

I'm really looking forward to see some cool demos from a first fully self-contained prototype unit.

 

[levi]

There's also the issue of possible bugs in layout that would require reworking. In such an unlucky case, being able to find out a few weeks earlier would avoid further delays. That's worth spending some extra dosh on IMHO.

There will be bugs; I'd be very surprised if something so complex could be done perfectly right the first time.

I'd just countenance against aiming for a tight fixed target like gamescom slightly though. If you spend the extra money to make it possible, the pressure to hit the target can become excessive. Perhaps I'm being overly pessimistic about how many revisions will be required though.

 

[milkshake]

@EvilDragon how come there is a move to all plastic keys? The original silicon coated ones sound like they would have a much better feeling.