The Pandora Os

[goonaman]

Wanted to ask ED how he was planning to develop the Pandora OS. Is it always going to be a customised Angstrom Linux with a desktop environment or are there any plans to produce something in the long-term like Maemo or Ubuntu Mobile that's designed specifically for the Pandora. It's cool to have a full linux desktop like XFCE but at the moment we're making a choice to boot into either an application launcher or full desktop and something in-between that gives the best of both worlds would really appeal to the gadget people who don't know much about Linux and like the finger-friendly, kinetic scrolling kind of thing

 

[barnesy]

Once there are real Pandoras out there in teh wild, there'll be all sorts of alternatives to the 'official' OS. There's been a lot of talk of doing stuff with various other distributions, but I wouldn't expect any of them to come directly from the OP team.

 

[EvilDragon]

Wanted to ask ED how he was planning to develop the Pandora OS. Is it always going to be a customised Angstrom Linux with a desktop environment or are there any plans to produce something in the long-term like Maemo or Ubuntu Mobile that's designed specifically for the Pandora. It's cool to have a full linux desktop like XFCE but at the moment we're making a choice to boot into either an application launcher or full desktop and something in-between that gives the best of both worlds would really appeal to the gadget people who don't know much about Linux and like the finger-friendly, kinetic scrolling kind of thing

Well, for a different GUI or finger friendly Window Manager it's not necessary to switch to a completely new OS.
You can port or code anything you like. You can port Ubuntu Mobiles finger-friendly GUI to Angström. You can even remove all GUIs and use Angström from the Shell, if you like.

We'll surely stick with Angström as it would make probably older games incompatible if we'd use a noew one.

Remember: We're using Linux here, not Windows. With Windows, you're stuck with their desktop manager (well, you can hack in new ones, but that's not working too well). With Linux, you have your basis distribution and can install and use any GUI/WM/Desktop Manager you want.

You can run Ubuntu with Gnome, XFCE, KDE, LXDE or just a simple Window Manager. It's the same with the Pandora

 

[Chip]

Whether or not there are any "official" plans, you can pretty much count on multiple OS/UI options in the long run. There are lots of people interested in trying out different setups. Open source, ARM-centric platforms like Maemo and Android are pretty much a given. There are several people working on Gentoo already. Matchbook was dropped as the official WM for several reasons, but there's nothing stopping someone from picking it up again. If you want something really compact, Pmenu is coming along nicely.

There are a few projects under way already, and there will be a whole lot more once the Pandora ships. I don't think you'll have much trouble finding a UI you like.

 

[goonaman]

That's the good thing that there will choices for what you can run on the Pandora. I liked having that choice on the Nokia n810. Just wondered what EDs and the OP teams plans are for developing the OS in the future? I know it's probably a huge amount of work to produce your own linux distro, UI, libraries etc. so we'll probably just stay with the current Angstrom as the default.

 

[skeezix]

You do have to remember that big distros are usually supported by oh say.. hundreds of people, including full timers with fat corporate backing Building atop the shoulders of giants, as it were..
jeff

 

[goonaman]

damn, you all post too quick! by the time i've posted there's already some answers
I need to know more about Linux - I guess you can run any window manager on any distribution...what confused me a bit earlier when looking something up was that someone was talking of using Matchbox or XFCE on GNOME but i thought GNOME was already a window manager

 

[dflemstr]

damn, you all post too quick! by the time i've posted there's already some answers
I need to know more about Linux - I guess you can run any window manager on any distribution...what confused me a bit earlier when looking something up was that someone was talking of using Matchbox or XFCE on GNOME but i thought GNOME was already a window manager

There are 3 big desktop environments for Linux:

• KDE
• Gnome
• XFCE

These DEs can be combined with a window manager of your choice:

• KWin (KDE default)
• Metacity (Gnome default)
• xfwm4 (XFCE default)
• 9wm
• blackbox
• Compiz
• dvtm
• e16
• e17
• fluxbox
• fvwm
• hackedbox
• icewm
• matchbox
• mutter
• openbox
• openmotif-mwm
• ratpoison (XFCE alternative WM)
• windowlab
• WindowMaker
• wmx
• xmonad
• twm

Might seem complicated to the uninitiated.

EDIT: Fixed some mistakes.
EDIT2: Enlightenment is also a desktop environment, but it only works with the e16 and e17 window managers AFAIK, so you can't choose another window manager if you use E.

 

[goonaman]

damn, you all post too quick! by the time i've posted there's already some answers
I need to know more about Linux - I guess you can run any window manager on any distribution...what confused me a bit earlier when looking something up was that someone was talking of using Matchbox or XFCE on GNOME but i thought GNOME was already a window manager

There are 3 big desktop environments for Linux:

• KDE
• Gnome
• XFCE

These DEs can be combined with a window manager of your choice:

• KWin (KDE default)
• Metacity (Gnome default)
• ratpoison (XFCE default)
• 9wm
• blackbox
• Compiz
• dvtm
• e16
• e17
• fluxbox
• fvwm
• hackedbox
• icewm
• matchbox
• mutter
• openbox
• openmotif-mwm
• windowlab
• WindowMaker
• wmx
• xfwm4 ("new" XFCE window manager? Dunno.)
• xmonad
• twm

Might seem complicated to the uninitiated.

EDIT: Enlightenment is also a desktop environment, but it only works with the e16 and e17 window managers AFAIK, so you can't choose another window manager if you use E.

Thanks, I wasn't aware there was a difference between the desktop environment and the Window Manager. I'm a Windows/Mac tech so I could understand it fine if i got around to using it. Pandora is my chance to really learn Linux!

 

[Vorporeal]

damn, you all post too quick! by the time i've posted there's already some answers
I need to know more about Linux - I guess you can run any window manager on any distribution...what confused me a bit earlier when looking something up was that someone was talking of using Matchbox or XFCE on GNOME but i thought GNOME was already a window manager

<list snip>

Might seem complicated to the uninitiated.

EDIT: Fixed some mistakes.
EDIT2: Enlightenment is also a desktop environment, but it only works with the e16 and e17 window managers AFAIK, so you can't choose another window manager if you use E.

That second edit might be true, but I know for a fact you can use Enlightenment's window manager (EWM?) on top of other DEs, as one of the options on the computers in the CS department is KDE with Enlightenment's window manager.

 

[skyeyemachine]

Personally, I'm hoping somebody gets around to porting Arch Linux, but I'll probably be trying several different options once my unit arrives to see what works best with the Pandora's unique control schema.

 

[Sphinxter]

There is no such thing as e16, dr16 is the desktop before the e17 concept of a desktop shell was created based on a complete ground up re-write of dr16.

 

[Alec]

There is no such thing as e16

Not sure where you got that from...