Will Linux Ubuntu be preloaded?

[mkdx]

How about leave it with a homebrew OS and software, with the option of downloading the Ubuntu crap later. It would only be a "Right click and save" away anyway. It would also allow for "other" ideas for the mobile market instead of all the same stuff rehashed over and over again.

I do agree with that. I think a good solution is to have Ubuntu loaded on SD cards sold at openpandora shop for those who want it and/or maybe a download link on the site.

 

[Wonslung]

i personally think the pandora sould come preloaded with a very quick very stable very basic os.
ubuntu would be great for the power user, and i'd probably fool around with it myself but i do not think it should be default.

actually, i think it should have a bootloader so you can play around with more than one os...

if i'm not mistaken there is a new version of gnome for mobile devices which i'd eventually like to try out on the pandora...but at the end of the day i think the os that comes preloaded should be as close to instant on, and as basic as possible...

just my 2 cents.

 

[ashdjones]

Yeah, I think a bootloader could be made much simpler too, maybe activated by a button press during boot-up for example. I think it should remember your choice and make it default after it's finished - if you want to switch your boot system back again, just repeat the procedure and select your old distro again.

 

[cosurgi]

How light and efficient? Let's make that list

Sorry, I didn't realize that you are asking for the list of "advantages".

rox:
- very light, because puppy linux uses it, can be well below 10 MB of RAM.
- provides spatial browsing interface very similar to RiscOS (but no tree view!)
- can generate thumbnail for anything! You only provide it a bash script for that. For instance I added GIMP .xcf support for thumbnails just in an hour of hacking.
- uses AppDir application installation method - this is very handy for sharing games among people - you just copy the folder - and the game is right there!

sawfish:
- light, below 10MB of RAM, and very fast
- you can match windows using regexp, and perform automatic actions on those that match.
- all functions it performs are written in lisp and can be edited in text editor. Sawfish is using a lisp interpreter to execute them. And it's faster than any other WM out there. Incredible, honestly.
- which means that it's extremely extensible, you can write anything and map it to some hotkey just after that
- but you don't need to write anything, hundreds of lisp scripts are already written for you. Like UNDO - allows to undo window movement/resizing/etc...
- because it is so highly customizable you can quickly configure it to emulate any other WM on the planet, of course with a nice GUI.
- not to mention over 500 themes

 

[yosh64]

hey

I say XFCE (Window Manager) plus Thunar (File Manager), Thunar is like the default for XFCE.

I use Archlinux myself, and for quite a while I used IceWM (I tried a few others also) and I also tried various file managers (most noticeable pcmanfm and rox). Anyhows I stopped using IceWM cause it looks pretty ordinary, had some issues with QT progs at one stage (maybe it's fixed now), and it was a pain updating my menus. Anyhows I now use XFCE, it supports the .desktop standard so menus are automatically built, it looks neat, has a settings manager, you can drag and drop things between different progs and such, and the compositing rocks, amongst a whole bunch of other things. edit: Also, you have desktop icons that you can easily change (you just have Desktop folder in your user directory), when using other Window Managers I used idesktop for icons, and it was a pain to add/change things on the desktop.

Something I really like about XFCE is that you can press Alt+F11 and make any window fullscreen , I really like this feature. I actually implemented my own feature recently into XFCE (haven't submitted it to the official thingy yet), where you can bias the smart placement of windows towards the center of the screen (I really don't like windows at the side of the screen). But yea, I added a slider to the Xfce Settings Manager -> Window Manager Tweaks -> Placement tab to control it .

Anyhows I've never tried Sawfish, so dunno about it.

edit
Another thing is that XFCE has with it a nice set of applications, like Thunar, Squeeze (archive manager, that itegrates with Thunar ), Mousepad, Terminal and a whole bunch of others.

cyas

 

[Prometheus]

How about leave it with a homebrew OS and software, with the option of downloading the Ubuntu crap later. It would only be a "Right click and save" away anyway. It would also allow for "other" ideas for the mobile market instead of all the same stuff rehashed over and over again.

I do agree with that. I think a good solution is to have Ubuntu loaded on SD cards sold at openpandora shop for those who want it and/or maybe a download link on the site.

+1.

That's been my general thought all along. I've been looking forward to the OS and GUI that's been talked about for all this time, myself - being able to use alternative/bigger Linux distros was always in my mind as an optional extra.

EDIT: Also, @Gruso, I was hoping to see a "Zany Zeus" or something, for "Z".

 

[yosh64]

hey

If not, will it be hard to install for a newb? I have never used the Linux OS before, but think it's cool the Pandora will be able to run a full blown operating system.
Thanks for any responses, and thanks for making a great open source console. My preorder is already in :mrgreen: .

Yes it is possible that it will.

We will also have another option which is a very simple gMenu based interface for advanced users.

I'm +1 for this (see start of thread), as long as they have another option alike simple gMenu based interface . edit: BTW, I was darn impressed by what I saw of gMenu on youtube.

The Ubuntu focus is for casual users who are scared of Linux - it works very well with them, but we still want it polished and as optimised as possible, no doubt. Very good PR too - gives us a chance to compete with bigger devices.

Everyone else can use whatever they like, I'm pretty sure we will seem many versions available.

I also agree with this .

cyas

 

[ArchiMark]

Or it could be set up real well using Arch?

Arch uses 'pacman' a homegrown package manager. I can tell you that most of people here (including me) would prefer to use .deb + aptitude. Be it [?u]buntu or debian based distro. There was a voting about that on previous forum.

FWIW, I always like using Debian....

 

[Drack]

We need it to be lightweight. Look at the vid of it running Xubuntu. Note the results of "free" when just the desktop and terminal had been loaded ... 10 MB ram free! Unacceptable.

Xfce is a bit heavy. If you absolutely must run a *buntu, I'd recommend the unofficial fluxbuntu fork.

Me personally? I'd recommend a much lighter environment based on Debian, and a WM like Sawfish or *box or icewm. Sawfish looks particularly appealing as its maintainer *is in this community*

 

[ChairmanNow]

We need it to be lightweight.

Me personally? I'd recommend a much lighter environment based on Debian

How about Maemo?

 

[benjiro]

We need it to be lightweight. Look at the vid of it running Xubuntu. Note the results of "free" when just the desktop and terminal had been loaded ... 10 MB ram free! Unacceptable.

For your information, your looking at the wrong thing. It had 75MB or something free ( you forgot to take in account that it had over 60MB in cache - that can be relocated as free memory if needed ) at that point.

 

[Sphinxter]

I say go for an Enlightenment E17 Angstrom image, use the 3D hardware from the outset!

+5

 

[DynaMight]

I dont know Craigs intentions with Ubuntu but I hope they still continue to use gmenux as the main OS and Ubuntu is a sideline project.

I guess what I am saying is, I would rather there wasn't any kind of delay in the Pandora release while they tried make Ubuntu work.

Ubuntu/Fully fledged linux desktop is a nice idea but I dont think its something everyone will want, its more of a 'because I can' feature but when it does happen it needs to be 'official', theres nothing worse than 5 or so variations which may have bugs, half working features etc

 

[ish420]

What happened to the poll where the GUI would be a priority? Did it get swept under the rug with the all this talk of running Ubuntu? Was the optimization of the GUI just a hoax? If that's the case, you guys should have just worked on those emulators.

 

[Mqark]

Are there any pictures of what gmenux looks like running as I've never seen it before (didn't get too heavily into GP32 or GP32x)

I'd like to get a feel for the possible ways we may be launching our emulators other than through linux command line or x windows.

Thanks,
Mqark.

 

[DynaMight]

Are there any pictures of what gmenux looks like running as I've never seen it before (didn't get too heavily into GP32 or GP32x)

I'd like to get a feel for the possible ways we may be launching our emulators other than through linux command line or x windows.

Thanks,
Mqark.

It looks like this:

Idea menu system imo.

 

[Mqark]

Thanks, that doesn't look too bad I could live with that quite happily.

 

[the_darkside_986]

That looks nice. I'd much rather have that on the Pandora than a full XFCE desktop environment, as long as I can still access the command line if needed. Will that use PXML files and the touchscreen?

 

[fischju]

It's gonna have a lot of empty space

 

[dockthepod]

:lol: It is quite amazing how many more pixels we'll have to play with.

It's gonna have a lot of empty space