What Should Pandora's Gui Be?

[magicman5421]

or we chuck out the spuds and use something more interesting like an apple.

 

[PoisonedV]

Alright, I don't think you guys are taking me serious- the default theme should be, or ONE of the themes it comes with should be mashed potato, or dinner based. seriously.

 

[cb88]

crayon physics anyone? you can draw a potato in crayon... X.x

 

[magicman5421]

ok.
although looking at food all the time as my gui would make me hungry all day and since i'll be sitting around playing my pandora all day, the last thing i need to be doing is to be pigging out on food. i don't wanna get huge.

 

[Spadoof]

lets just make a pot pie

-spadoof

 

[emil10001]

My vote is Maemo/hildon. It's not my favorite UI, but I think that there are some compelling reasons to use it over a simple launcher. First reason is that it's available, and the hardware/architecture is pretty similar to the pandora's. Second, it'd come over with the immediate ability to use a slew of apps written for that platform, and the NIT's have a pretty good community of their own, they would likely welcome some company. Although the biggest reason is something that i feel is being overlooked here, which is that this system has the ability to be marketed as a MID/UMPC, not just a game system. If you bundle it with a bare launcher UI, as opposed something a bit more polished then you're going to be putting the system firmly in the 'game-platform' category, and in that category, this device is pretty expensive. In the MID/UMPC category, where this device could seriously compete, it is dirt cheap! This thing is less money than i paid for my n800, my gf's EEE PC, and a lot less than my old OQO 02, but I'm betting it's going to be a lot better than any of those (my n800 turned out to be more useful than the oqo).

I think that a full UI is necessary for this device to really have a decent shot at succeeding in the larger market outside of this community. Which, again, I believe that there is a significant chance of that. I also think that the community as a whole would benefit from a larger user base. Maybe Maemo isn't the best UI, but I think that it would get this project a lot closer to being a polished platform, ready for the general population.

 

[argor]

My vote is Maemo/hildon. It's not my favorite UI, but I think that there are some compelling reasons to use it over a simple launcher. First reason is that it's available, and the hardware/architecture is pretty similar to the pandora's. Second, it'd come over with the immediate ability to use a slew of apps written for that platform, and the NIT's have a pretty good community of their own, they would likely welcome some company. Although the biggest reason is something that i feel is being overlooked here, which is that this system has the ability to be marketed as a MID/UMPC, not just a game system. If you bundle it with a bare launcher UI, as opposed something a bit more polished then you're going to be putting the system firmly in the 'game-platform' category, and in that category, this device is pretty expensive. In the MID/UMPC category, where this device could seriously compete, it is dirt cheap! This thing is less money than i paid for my n800, my gf's EEE PC, and a lot less than my old OQO 02, but I'm betting it's going to be a lot better than any of those (my n800 turned out to be more useful than the oqo).

I think that a full UI is necessary for this device to really have a decent shot at succeeding in the larger market outside of this community. Which, again, I believe that there is a significant chance of that. I also think that the community as a whole would benefit from a larger user base. Maybe Maemo isn't the best UI, but I think that it would get this project a lot closer to being a polished platform, ready for the general population.

it has bin state that Maemo will not be the gui

 

[emil10001]

QUOTE
it has bin state that Maemo will not be the gui


Where was it said? and why not?

I'm not trying to stir up trouble or anything, but I figured that this would be a topic on the Developer's Corner board, but didn't find anything definite there. I haven't seen anything stating that Pandora wouldn't be using Maemo, or any real decision in terms of UI. I have seen several people requesting a simple launcher only, and others requesting something a bit more full featured. There were also several people who, like me, thought that maemo seemed like a logical choice.

I'm an engineer, I don't necessarily have a preference, but to me, maemo seems like a very logical choice. If you look at the 'Non-gamming Apps' thread, all of the apps that people want have been done for maemo, and many of them have been very well integrated, like the chat client, e-mail client, and sip client.

If anything, people wanting just the simple launcher should be going backwards from the fuller UI to the launcher, as opposed to going from the launcher to the full UI. It could even be set up as a boot option. The reason for this is, as I said, it will be much more approachable for the general public to use something like maemo, as opposed to a launcher.

By the way, have you used the EEE PC's default UI at all? It's a simple launcher, and it is not a whole lot of fun to use, especially if you want access to something that isn't on there. I think that they did themselves a disservice by using that as opposed to kde, gnome or xfce. So, when I got it, the first thing I had to do was to figure out how to get a better desktop running on it. This is not something that the general public is going to be excited about doing first thing when they get their device.

 

[Chip]

Where was it said? and why not?

DJWillis is working on the OS, and while he has not expressly come out and said "Definitely no Maemo", what he has said tends to discount it as a likely candidate. Read here, here and here.

And as for why not, I suggest you read this.

 

[TaG]

Another reason for not going with Maemo is product differentiation. I remember looking at the summary spec comparison that Chad added and thinking how similar the N8?0 specs sounded to Pandora, and that to those not in the know Pandora sounds no better. If they both used the same OS, same GUI and similar specs many would assume Pandora was a clone with extra novelty controllers.

Pandora looks and sounds so different it is special. It needs to have a lean and mean GUI so that it can shine. Then various people will work on getting all sorts of linux flavours running which if successful can be booted from SD, giving the best of all worlds, especially as you could have several SD cards each running something different - either for fun or for specific tools, or just because you can. Viva choice.

 

[emil10001]

Hmm, well, it seems as though I was looking in the wrong board for ui ideas. I see that maemo is not necessarily the platform of choice, which is ok. My point was more along the lines of wondering why there aren't plans to ship the device with anything more than a relatively simple launcher. I get the arguements for the simple launcher, but I still feel that it would not live up to this device's potential.

 

[CronoTriggerfan]

Personally, I see absolutely no problem with using a simple launcher as a GUI shipped. Not only would it be fairly easy to use, but it would also be developed quickly, getting the device in my hands all the faster. We all know there will be all kinds of skins ported and made custom for the Pandora as time goes on, so what's the big deal with having a simplified stock GUI, anyways?

 

[.Gogeta§§J4BR.]

I hope it makes a smart use of the analog sticks, keyboard and touchscreen, and not just throw in a cheap filemanager-like menu
*having ideas*

 

[emil10001]

@Chip

Thanks for pointing out those threads, I just got a chance to read through them, and I feel a lot better about the simple/advanced ui. I guess that my worry was that the device would only ship with the simple ui, and then there would not be a 'standard' advanced UI, and thus splintering development efforts. But, it sounds like the devs working on this have this all under control. I should've had more faith. =)