What do we need in a modern operating system?

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serialjoepsycho
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What do we need in a modern operating system?

Post by serialjoepsycho »

We have a number of linux distributions, I think someone got xpe working, and there is  also a certain copy of xp floating around. I have to state some concern about non embedded xp and question if the natural state of fragmentation windows xp goes thru will cause memory wear.

I'd like to start a dialogue here to get together a consensus on what exactly a modern operating system should have to be useful. I think and would expect that every one here would agree that the stock windows ce operating systems that come on these toys is utterly useless. I think we need a Modern browser (my main problem with ce 5), A simple text editor, full driver support for the dt, and does anyone want to add or take anything away?

I don't think we'd need more than a 32 bit functionality (nor do I think we can but I could easily be wrong but I think I'm right lol). Anyone else have an opinion?
serialjoepsycho
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Re: What do we need in a modern operating system?

Post by serialjoepsycho »

What other operating sytems could we look at?
serialjoepsycho
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Re: What do we need in a modern operating system?

Post by serialjoepsycho »

I think windows 98 could work and if so you could use windows me as well but I think it might be to big.. It's possible the drivers will work standard bu if not heres a forum with a good bit of resources for windows 98 user created service packs and kernex gives windows 98 support for xp programming. http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showforum=91 It might reduce some of the risk of memory wear but I don't know by how much. If there is a risk Ntfs will tear it up quicker than fat32. And I would recommend if anyone wants to mess with windows 98 that they do format the drive to fat32.


There is the possibility of freedos with a number of guis if the dos driver on penmount is the right driver for the dt. If so I was looking at two gui projects in particular. one here http://www.doscore.net/ and one here http://www.ikongui.com/ and you can look at freegem open gem and a few other projects. These will work if the dosdriver works with freedos or if you can find the opriate dos version and the guis work with them and then if you can run the drivers from dos and not need one for the guis api.

Another thing to keep an Eye on I think is react os. It'll still be in alpha until 5.0 and then switch to beta but if all goes well with the release of 4.0 the windows drivers should be compatible.

If you look at the doscore website the guy is developing a unix like os for the gui he is writing because he thinks freedos is being slow about developing freedos. If you take a look at it and kinda like the way it looks you might see if he can either do a driver up or make one compatible with it.

any thoughts?
Any thoughts?
david_halliday
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Re: What do we need in a modern operating system?

Post by david_halliday »

I have been using Puppy linux 4.2.1 it runs from ram (yes even in 256meg) so no flash wear, has lots of apps including a full word processor and flash enables browser the downside..... I cant get the touch screen to work!!

I think this would be perfect and if I ever get any time I may even brush off my coding hat and take a look at hacking the open source drivers. No promises though I work 9am -> 7pm and have twin babies that take all the rest of my waking hours and some of the sleeping ones to.

Dave.
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Re: What do we need in a modern operating system?

Post by serialjoepsycho »

have you considered a pen mouse as a quick fix? You would have to calibrate the mouse by hand but that shouldn't be to hard. Or the have those optical finger mice. Either of those you could get for around ten bucks. I tried puppy and I did like it and hell it was easy to configure but Igot the little computer for portability.
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Re: What do we need in a modern operating system?

Post by quotaholic »

I donated a DT to Slackware in a similar effort to work around some obvious obstacles. Word back from the Slackware devs is that the t/s integration is a nightmare and its a P.O.S. in terms of code practice.

I would be interested in knowing about any functioning penmouse. On Fujitsu stylistic tablets (aka pen computers) linux is very possible by utilising the setserial package and mapping it to a tty. I dont know much beyond that and or if the DT has the right hardware to support such a configuration.

I do know that if you want a calibrated touchscreen that penmount will limit your possibilities. They support xfree86 so any linux distribution still using that in stead of xorg will be a possibility. Beyond that Solaris 10 has support as well as freebsd. We have the DMC9000 board in both dt366 and 360 models and they make downloads available on their website. www.penmount.com

I chose debian and slackware for the reasons that they offer minimal installs and support i486 hardware. Not something many distros can boast. With a gui slackware 12 - 12.2 can be as small as 325mb. Debian comes in at 375mb with minimal gui. Slackware has cleaner configuration and is nicer to work with in imo. Debian has the button controller that is needed for the hardbuttons working out of the box. Both distros are supported by penmout.

I have installed over 70 times, from cd, package by package on to one flashrom. I can not think of worse abuse. Although a concern depending on your intended usage flashwear may not be as much of an issue. I am setting up mine to control my home theater system through a webgui. If I dont cache the pages This will not be a concern for me.

Depending on usage, I think everyone's needs will be slightly different.
serialjoepsycho
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Re: What do we need in a modern operating system?

Post by serialjoepsycho »

Personally for my usage it's just a toy. I personally wouldn't worry with memory wear for your purposes. They have in the upwards of 100,000 or so writes. Linux a great full OS for embedded products.  I'm more worried with xp than linux. I screwed up a few flash drives with NTFS. A working penmouse: http://www.amazon.com/I-Pen-Digital-Wri ... _e_title_0 I should work with your standard mouse drivers and you'd need a special software (i'd assume) for the writing function but you probably won't need the writing function. and heres one:http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Ez ... oduct.html  and wireless one: http://www.katerno.com/detail/s/74643/p ... -Pen-Mouse and theres a few more. They should work on any computer just like any other mouse.
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Re: What do we need in a modern operating system?

Post by david_halliday »

You are correct, write wear should not be an issue with linux, almost all writes are to /var and /home and these can easily be placed on a CF card for just about any distro. 

Dave.
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Re: What do we need in a modern operating system?

Post by quotaholic »

That and if one sets "noatime" in fstab or early on in the partitioning scheme one can reduce unneeded writes.
serialjoepsycho
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Re: What do we need in a modern operating system?

Post by serialjoepsycho »

The work you have done is great quote and it is by far Helpful. The only area where it is lacking is the ease of install. You have went far to help in that area but it's not quite there yet. The problem is a certain copy of xp is real easy to install. It's not the best but it works and it's easy to deal with but it could lead to possible problems down the road.

Are they going to continue to screw with slackware and try to put it on the dt?
serialjoepsycho
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Re: What do we need in a modern operating system?

Post by serialjoepsycho »

Maybe we get a working puppy. I'll look more at it tomorrow or so I guess. Heres the small amount of info I have on it.

http://www.puppylinux.com/development/p ... gement.htm
Last edited by serialjoepsycho on Fri Aug 07, 2009 10:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
serialjoepsycho
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Re: What do we need in a modern operating system?

Post by serialjoepsycho »

the touch screen is all thats wrong with puppy right? Wait they probably ain't no button support either right? but that's it. I'm looking but I've yet to find the puppy slackware compatibility collection
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Re: What do we need in a modern operating system?

Post by serialjoepsycho »

I guess the main thing will be if the driver lines up with the kernel. I guess you can decompress a tgz and use dir2pet. http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... b4494380b2
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Re: What do we need in a modern operating system?

Post by quotaholic »

We would need to package the penmout calibration utility in to a tgz file for this to work. I dont know if their eula allows for this. Will have to do some reading.
serialjoepsycho
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Re: What do we need in a modern operating system?

Post by serialjoepsycho »

unless i am mistaken tgz is equivalent to .tar.gz and the slackware drivers are already in that format.
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