Which distro

[klapse]

Who needs cross-compiling anyway when you can just compile directly on the Pyra (maybe with an external screen and/or keyboard, or using ssh)? That's how many of us do it on the Pandora already; on the Pyra, compiling will take an order of magnitude less time, and big stuff like LibreOffice will already be in the distro, so I don't really see why easy cross-compilation is that important.

I know, the pyra will be much better in nearly everything. But you still have to add Monitor, keyboard and often mouse to be able to develop in a productive way. Instead I could just use my Desktop system without the need of cable-switch-magic.

From your PC or laptop open as many terminal windows you feel comfortable with and ssh into the Pyra with each. You get your PC keyboard, mouse and monitor, while compiling and editing directly on the Pyra. No need for cable-switch-magic.

(EDIT: assuming you are using console based editor and compiler.)

 

[comradekingu]

Intel isnt exactly doing anything right

https://www.youtube.com/embed/o9tn1cG8PGw?feature=oembed
Hardkernel odroid u3 is a good contender.

 

[Ziz]

Who needs cross-compiling anyway when you can just compile directly on the Pyra (maybe with an external screen and/or keyboard, or using ssh)? That's how many of us do it on the Pandora already; on the Pyra, compiling will take an order of magnitude less time, and big stuff like LibreOffice will already be in the distro, so I don't really see why easy cross-compilation is that important.

I know, the pyra will be much better in nearly everything. But you still have to add Monitor, keyboard and often mouse to be able to develop in a productive way. Instead I could just use my Desktop system without the need of cable-switch-magic.

 From your PC or laptop open as many terminal windows you feel comfortable with and ssh into the Pyra with each. You get your PC keyboard, mouse and monitor, while compiling and editing directly on the Pyra. No need for cable-switch-magic.

(EDIT: assuming you are using console based editor and compiler.)

Thanks for the explanation, that I can connect via SSH to the Pyra. Instead of the need for a monitor and a keyboard now I need even a whole PC + the Pyra. I know, that there are manifold possibilities to develop just on the Pyra or at least to compile on the Pyra and sometimes this may even be more handy because of the possibility to test very Pyra specific stuff.But I think, I gave enough use cases, where a cross compile toolchain is needed. http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/15597-which-distro/?p=312348

 

[ZetaNeta]

No Ubuntu.

Worst choice.

Debian Testing I'd say.

Stable is too outdated I think.

Only choice I see is Arch.

EDIT:

Isn't it possible to let the user decide if he wants to use Debian Stable or Testing packages?

I mean it doesn't affect anything if I use XFCE 4.10 instead of 4.8.

Isn't this simply a matter what repository you choose in synaptic?

I agree that Ubuntu cannot be used no matter how much you change it.


Debian testing is quite good, especially considering that Wheezy recently gone into stable.


But thats for a default OS, and as for the OS on MY pyra.... i would go through "three layers of sweat" (Russian saying) just to get Gentoo working properly on it.

 

[theweirdn8]

Will there be a way to port Game maker Studio games to the Pyra?

 

[bzar]

Can you get your hands on game maker studio player source code so it can be ported? Or convince the developer to port it to Pyra? Or reverse-engineer the player, then code a clone for Pyra?

EDIT: OK, seems like the $300 professional + android version could work, if ED gets alien dalvik on Pyra. Other possibilities include HTML5 and Ubuntu (through QEMU) exports. The Tizen export option could be viable too, no idea.

EDIT2: Link to the source

 

[leathco]

Why not just stick with Angstrom?  It's worked fine on Pandora, and has a small footprint.

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Not much packages.

But yes, it's a neat OS.

 

[sebt3]

Why not just stick with Angstrom?  It's worked fine on Pandora, and has a small footprint.

Because SuperZaxxon cannot be built outside of ED's server. Angstrom is like that.Because all efforts send to upgrade it to a newer version of OE failed so far.

But yes, it's a neat OS.

SuperZaxxon is a neat OS, angstrom is a freaking mess.

 

[mclien]

I'd vote for Debian, maybe siduction is worth a look to have newer packages, but I'm not experienced with it.

Ubuntu is nogo for me too (pretty much fucked up in all aspects, well mabe not in beeing more windows like)

 

[ZetaNeta]

I vote for gentoo. There are too much advantages to list.

But i hope there will be no limits for a distro.
All we need to do, is to release both the kernel patches (patches, not the kernel pls)

and the userland tools specific to Pyra.
This will free the user from using the default distro, and lower the priority of this question.

 

[God Ginrai]

my vote also goes to arch linux.

I use it everyday for about 2 years now and i really *love* it!

k.i.s.s. rulez!

second favour is debian testing.

Until now, I broke every Arch installation when updating. It never lasted more then 2 weeks. Then the dependencies were messed up and the system couldn't find several libs and commands anymore.

That's your fault for not reading the Site/Wiki.

I gotta say, I love my Arch install, but I'm not sure a rolling-release distro would make sense on something like a gaming handheld for the default distro. It just seems too likely for things to break for the regular user. My vote would likely be for debian because of this. However, I don't believe I'd be disappointed if we used Arch. I don't use any of the alternate distros on the Pandora currently, but I'm sure that if we went ubuntu, I would be using an alternate distro exclusively so as to get away from that shit.

-God Ginrai

 

[ZetaNeta]

Lets not bring people from #archlinux here.

I personally vote for something Rolling-release... but basically, i dont care.
I dont care, as whatever will get on my console, will get "double formated in reiserfs" and replaced with a fresh gentoo.

 

[groovechicken]

I know I am late to this discussion, but I will add another vote for debian. I use it on all the servers (except 2 Windows servers I am stuck with) on a small college campus and have never had a single problem. I have a Raspberry Pi and have used it as a server with Raspbian with no issues as well. On my laptops, I am using SolydK, which is debian testing + KDE + middle-man repos to limit the updates to quarterly for additional testing and reduced bugs. I have had no problems with it and it is my current favorite distro. I even trust it enough now to have installed it on my wife's laptop.  

I have to say that all the previously mentioned advantages by those voting for debian make for a more cogent and convincing argument in its favor. Of course anyone can change the OS out for whatever else they choose after they get theirs, but debian makes the most sense as the default for all the reasons others have already mentioned.

 

[N3Cr0]

I think it's already decided to use Debian. They even run it on their devboards and ED doesn't need to buy a new t-shirt 

The problem with other distros is either a lack of transparency, stability or they are too sophisticated for ordinary users (for example Gentoo: There will not be many users who like to compile each package on their own, specially not on a mobile device).

 

[ZetaNeta]

I think it's already decided to use Debian. They even run it on their devboards and ED doesn't need to buy a new t-shirt 

The problem with other distros is either a lack of transparency, stability or they are too sophisticated for ordinary users (for example Gentoo: There will not be many users who like to compile each package on their own, specially not on a mobile device).

Gentoo can bring very serious speed advantage, which should be even more noticeable on the embedded machines.
My old iPaq 2210 (400MHz ARMv5, 64mb ram) can compile a small tool in ~7 minutes (against ~2 on desktop), and a full GPE desktop environment from nothing overnight.

It proves that pyra, with all those GHz, should be able to compile as fast as my desktop.

Anyway, some "good people" like me may make a user-friendly GUI to setup distcc, so compilation would be almost instant.

Portage supports using binary packages, meaning that we may start providing pyra optimized binaries for most used ebuilds, without limiting user to our version for pyra optimizations.

There are no stability problems, at all. You can freely unmask any package. Anything what "wont work" is hard-masked.

Other things, like pyra specific repositories are also available, but they are called "overlays" there.

Otherwise, there is not much difference between them, especially when the most packages including X and Firefox are pre-installed on Pyra.

 

[N3Cr0]

Please excuse my half-knowledge. I confess, I never really used Gentoo. I always thought there is only a software repository and a package management with some presets (If you don't like to compile everything manually), but your machine still has to compile everything itself.

However, Once I tried Sabayon (an already properly set up Gentoo derivate) and almost everything was buggy there.

So I hope you're right and there will be a way around those missconfigurations (so that everything works out of the box). 

 

[Ziz]

I don't think Gentoo will get ANY speed improvement.

The advantage of Gentoo is, that you can optimize the binary for every system, which is quite practical for PCs, where every system looks different.

But there will be only one specific pyra hardware.

Look at the pandora: All emulators are optimized for THIS system just like gentoo would do it. But I don't have to build Drastic on my own, I can just download a binary.

Furthermore ED already mentioned a pyra specific repository for some pyra related packages. Some time-critical libraries could be replaced with optimized ones. But 90% of the libraries are not time-critical and we don't need to build them on our own...

And you really think to compile stuff in "just one night" is user friendly?

An user wants to download and play, not download, compile... and play tomorrow.

 

[T.T.]

My vote goes towards arch. As others have said, I've been using it for a while, and the only time I ever have a problem is when I try and experiment with my tower

Also some other advantages to it (IMO), are:

The way it manages package

It's lightweight and fast

The Archwiki

Easy to work with

If we were to go with arch though, we obviously couldn't have the default be the pure, GUIless, arch. we'd have to customize it, but keeping a "pure" arch distro for those who want it would be nice.

If we can't(won't) go with arch, debian is fine too.

 

[ZetaNeta]

Please excuse my half-knowledge. I confess, I never really used Gentoo. I always thought there is only a software repository and a package management with some presets (If you don't like to compile everything manually), but your machine still has to compile everything itself.


However, Once I tried Sabayon (an already properly set up Gentoo derivate) and almost everything was buggy there.


So I hope you're right and there will be a way around those missconfigurations (so that everything works out of the box).

When i tried Sabayon, i tried not to pick out my eyes with a fondue fork, when i saw their software management system.


Sabayon is based on Gentoo, but almost nothing is left from Gentoo in there.


And its really damn buggy. Very much.


Sabayon doesnt even properly support Portage. They burried it inside the system and forgot bout it

I don't think Gentoo will get ANY speed improvement.


The advantage of Gentoo is, that you can optimize the binary for every system, which is quite practical for PCs, where every system looks different.


But there will be only one specific pyra hardware.


Look at the pandora: All emulators are optimized for THIS system just like gentoo would do it. But I don't have to build Drastic on my own, I can just download a binary.


Furthermore ED already mentioned a pyra specific repository for some pyra related packages. Some time-critical libraries could be replaced with optimized ones. But 90% of the libraries are not time-critical and we don't need to build them on our own...


And you really think to compile stuff in "just one night" is user friendly?


An user wants to download and play, not download, compile... and play tomorrow.

Ok. You are talking about hardware optimizations, and assume that Pyra team will have time to recompile the entire Debian repo for Pyra.


Ok, we got one version of hardware (which will be wrong as soon as ED releases different CPU cards).


Yet, there are 2 more optimizations: USE flags, and just pure ricing flags.


Some people would prefer to safe memory, battery and etc by removing unneeded features.


Some people, would prefer to go ricing, and explore "what else they can add to CFLAGS".


1 night, is for my "i forgot how much" years old PDA, and for the entire desktop environment.


On a Pyra, the entire DE, from "clean stage3" would be much less. Maybe 1-2 hour. How much does it take on Debian? Much i guess.


And for a simple emulator, it would be just a matter of few minutes. (Or less)


Also, i stated that because the XFCE(Or whatever ED plans), FireFox and some other software will be already there, beats the need for all what i mentioned above.


You will barely notice the difference in speed. After all, we have a serious experience of compiling software from the source.

My vote goes towards arch. As others have said, I've been using it for a while, and the only time I ever have a problem is when I try and experiment with my tower


Also some other advantages to it (IMO), are:


The way it manages package


It's lightweight and fast


The Archwiki


Easy to work with


If we were to go with arch though, we obviously couldn't have the default be the pure, GUIless, arch. we'd have to customize it, but keeping a "pure" arch distro for those who want it would be nice.


If we can't(won't) go with arch, debian is fine too.

Who let the dogs #archlinux out?


I tried to learn "how", but i failed.


Gentoo is also light. And no one can argue bout the speed. How small can you Arch get?


Ok, ArchWiki wins at the points of "Change color of that exact pixel in KDE".


Arch didnt even let me get past the installation. Me! A experienced Gentoo user!


Doesnt that defeats you so loved "K.I.S.S"? I am not saying to put plain CLI Gentoo there either, i even want it to be distributed with pre-installed emulators for unexperienced users, and i also want (and will anyway install) pure Gentoo there after getting mine. (With LXDE and hookers)