What Does This Mean?

[Trevsweb]

one thing on the list that worried me was abiword crashing with help files... surely if its not essential to operation these things should be left off and provided as apps. just thought it keeps out the clutter and saves space for OS fixes in the future. failing that is there a hack we can do so the file is there but has nothing in it?
i think now more devs are getting the pandora (hopefully more to come) we will see that list deminish very quickly glad some devs have been working almost blindfolded by not having a pandora yet

 

[r00tw00t]

Hihi, all the n00bthreads are going to be fun when the pandora is out loolx

 

[hobbyman II]

since abiword is open source and was compiled specifically for arm, it should be trivial to just remove the help option from the application, if you can't select help, it can't crash

edit: I don't see why we need abiword when the system will have at least VI, maybe even VIM, leave it out and save space, punters can stick their word processor of choice on SD, it's a personal thing anyway, you just need something basic to edit system files when needed, hhmm, even VI might be ott.

 

[marshal]

Does the help file really take that much space ?? I mean there are there for a reason and quite nice to have in some situation IMO.

 

[trooper]

Hihi, all the n00bthreads are going to be fun when the pandora is out loolx

No worse than any of the other three handhelds that came before it, I shouldn`t imaging.

Trooper

 

[Butterman]

Hihi, all the n00bthreads are going to be fun when the pandora is out loolx

I think it's best if we all hide in the cupboard with our Pandoras until that shitstorm ends.

 

[Asiyura]

My sony-ericsson cell phone has to be turned on to charge the battery.
When you plug it while it is turned off, it startup a small interface that informs you that the battery is charging...
And that's exactly what the Pandora will do later, based on what ED wrote on the blog.

Well, looks like the Pandora will be more polished than I was thinking, good news
I hope we will get a good wifi driver to be able to navigate on the web smoothly.

 

[Prometheus]

What exactly is the 3rd GUI option: "netbook-launcher". Everyone is familair with Pmenu now but it's the first time I've heard of Netbook-launcher. If someone has some info it would be greatly appreciated. It's nice to see the dev have working on a number of things

I seem to recall ED mentioning something about providing the interface from Ubuntu Netbook Remix as an option. The "netbook-launcher" is probably that. (It's rather nice, I can imagine it working rather well on a handheld.)

 

[Butterman]

What exactly is the 3rd GUI option: "netbook-launcher". Everyone is familair with Pmenu now but it's the first time I've heard of Netbook-launcher. If someone has some info it would be greatly appreciated. It's nice to see the dev have working on a number of things

http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=netbook-launcher&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-GBfficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi

:rolleyes:

 

[Aimless_E]

None of the problems seem to be "that" detrimental to the overall use of the Pandora. The only thing that strikes me as odd is the video driver issues. Are the Power VR drivers designed for fb access only? If so that would explain most of the X's problems.

Netbook-launcher is very nice indeed, and will be quite awesome with PND support. I wonder if they are using the standard Ubuntu version (heavily leans on compositing) or the EFL version they have been whispering about.

I only worry that having to many options will cause a support nightmare down the way.

 

[mali]

french :unsure:

You are not alone, there are more french speaking people on these boards
I learned French at school, but I'm not fluent, because of missing practise.

So to answer your question in other words. The table on that site shows the _current_ status of Pandora's software.
They are permanently working on it(the developers have got prototype Pandoras or developer boards), so some of those issues might be fixed, before you get your Pandora. The rest will be fixed over time.

 

[Aninhumer]

Hmm. This is starting to sound like it may be a mess, especially for people who aren't linux experts. It will take some organization/officially supported versions to keep it from becoming a hundred variations and modifications of the OS with a hundred different quirks and issues. Three operating systems available the first time you start it looks nice at first glance. But some users are going to be completely lost if forum members start releasing their own complete operating systems with little changes rather than those changes being put into an official Angstrom/Pmenu/ect update.

I think they already have a versioning repo of some kind (svn? git?) so it would be easy enough to give devs commit access and roll it all into official updates. If not, it shouldn't be too difficult to set one up.

 

[Rapfnny]

The Ubuntu Netbook Launcher looks really great, I got it working on my ARM version of Ubuntu.
Looks a little different though.

 

[hobbyman II]

oh yeah, the dumbed down icky thing! :huh:

why does everyone make a dumbed down interface for small devices when .........

(1) the whole world and their granny knows how to use a WIMP style interface

(2) asking new users to learn something wildly different just confuses em (if they can manage to learn it at all)

(4) these interfaces NEVER have the degree of support of the "full" desktops used in every other machine on the planet (update compatibility, software support etc)

(5) since it looks dumb and stupid, people assume it will run windows applications, creating even more confusion.

(6) since it's simplified and comes with limited default applications people assume it's somehow inferior to a "real" computer, so the device gets looked down on

(7) they make even the most powerful device look like a new line released by Fischer Price for pre-schoolers

(8) many people will shy away from learning something else new, and just not bother.

even the major netbook makers have moved away from the "simple" interfaces and gone back to full Windows or Linux desktops, people don't like simplified devices that much in my experience, my mate at work was bitterly disappointed with his "toy" Asus eeePC, so I stuck eeeBuntu on it for him, and now he's totally pleased with it, in his words (or as close as I recall em) once I showed him the system all set up he said "why didn't they put a proper system on it from new, was it too expensive?"

so the customers are thinking, "hey!...my new device doesn't have a proper OS, this is just kiddy like and useless", way to go guys, I guess the only reason so many makers went down this road is cos they blindly copied Asus and the original eeePC, the only people I know who use netbooks regularly DON'T have the default toy OS installed, they are either Windows or a full Linux install.

I suppose some people are more comfortable with simplified interfaces, but of the people I know, not one uses em (including my Bosses kids, who went for Puppy/Ubuntu Linux respectivley)

 

[Butterman]

tl;dr

you can just turn it off.

 

[Prometheus]

(4) these interfaces NEVER have the degree of support of the "full" desktops used in every other machine on the planet (update compatibility, software support etc)

Actually, as far as Ubuntu Netbook Remix goes, it's just regular Ubuntu. There's no difference in compatibility, software support, and so on (and if you really want to spend more time mousing around than getting stuff done, you can switch to a regular GNOME desktop in one click).

It's vastly different from Asus' godawful Xandros setup on their EeePCs, which I have to agree was truly awful on the compatibility/support/etc. front, due to its bizarre cobbled-togetherness. :lol: I shudder to even remember it.

 

[aq21]

The charging only while its on thing is sort of odd though? My cell phones, & pretty much every other device I have will charge while off? Interesting?

Not really. Most phones turn themselves on in order to charge, even if they leave the radio off, don't give you any user interface, and sometimes even turn the screen off.

 

[DaveC]

oh yeah, the dumbed down icky thing! :huh:

why does everyone make a dumbed down interface for small devices when .........

(1) the whole world and their granny knows how to use a WIMP style interface

(2) asking new users to learn something wildly different just confuses em (if they can manage to learn it at all)

(4) these interfaces NEVER have the degree of support of the "full" desktops used in every other machine on the planet (update compatibility, software support etc)

...I suppose some people are more comfortable with simplified interfaces, but of the people I know, not one uses em (including my Bosses kids, who went for Puppy/Ubuntu Linux respectivley)

Because Windowing interfaces are cumbersome and awkward if you are just trying to quickly launch a game, emu, or video etc. This is especially bad on the go, who the hell wants to fumble around with the damn stylus always?

I know I find it annoying to have to pull out the stylus (or smudge up the screen with fingerprints) tap an icon wait, move and scroll around and resize windows, find what you want click that and finally load. They don't support the d-pad so scratching around on the screen is a must.

With a simpler interface they have less overhead so they boot faster and you can use the d-pad to quickly select the game etc and run it. Since the overhead is less emus will probably run smoother too. Why the hell do I need a full desktop to just have a quick go at MAME or listen to a tune or something? It is a waste of time and is harder on the screen with the needless tapping and dragging.

Remember this is NOT an EEE PC. Many of us will mostly use it for games. For those of us the fast launcher will be much quicker. I know I will use it for gaming 98% of the time, for me I want the FAST version of the OS that lets my games be as smooth as possible and get to them without the hassle. In the off chance I want to check an e-mail and just happen to be near a WiFi hot spot (rare) then I can always boot up the full desktop. Having different interfaces allows users to tailor the Pandra better for the way they use it.

 

[hobbyman II]

I guess it's horses for courses, I don't do anything unless I am all set up for it, I don't even turn my phone on most of the time, if I am going to be talking I turn it on, if I'm not it doesn't need to be on, just checked for missed calls every hour or so, all or none, that's me

oh, edit: as for stylus, I,m gonna make sure the desktop has the mouse controlled by one of the nubs, window scrolling by the other, and mouse clicks on the shoulder buttons, no need for stylus.

 

[Asiyura]

Yep, easy interfaces with big icons are great on those smallish screens!
Don't forget that even if we got 800x480 pixels, the screen is only a 4,3".

And it's easier for those who never used linux before, gives them the feeling that linux isn't that geeky thing everybody around them is talking about.
And that linux can be sweet to the eye. Watching the screenshot, I don't see the Fisher Price look, it's a simple menu with big icons easy to recognize and click, even without the stylus.
Moreover like Prometheus and DaveC said, it's a complete ubuntu.
If you're "fluent" with linux, just switch to the complete interface (and if you're a true linux guru, just use the console ).