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Old 06-09-2008, 09:17 AM   #1
slashdotray
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Alternative OS for iliad

Hello community,

a have found something wich would be a very good alternative for the -in my opinion- poor OS for the iliad :

http://code.google.com/p/einstein/

As i´m not a coding god like you are, i´m simply not able to try that.

so i´m interestet in your comments on this :-)
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Old 06-09-2008, 10:34 AM   #2
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Originally Posted by slashdotray View Post
Hello community,

a have found something wich would be a very good alternative for the -in my opinion- poor OS for the iliad :

http://code.google.com/p/einstein/

As i´m not a coding god like you are, i´m simply not able to try that.

so i´m interestet in your comments on this :-)
You are not the first one who wants it:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...5&postcount=13
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...3&postcount=33

One problem is you still need a copyrighted [no sharing allowed] Newton OS ROM image.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Einstein user's manual
Einstein Platform requires an MP2x00 US, an MP2x00 D or an eMate 300 ROM image.
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Old 06-09-2008, 10:44 AM   #3
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Originally Posted by slashdotray View Post
Hello community,

a have found something wich would be a very good alternative for the -in my opinion- poor OS for the iliad :

http://code.google.com/p/einstein/

As i´m not a coding god like you are, i´m simply not able to try that.

so i´m interestet in your comments on this :-)
Linux is not at all a poor OS!

Don't mismatch the user interface with the operating system!

While I agree the iLiad Userinterface is not so great, its not the underlying OS fault.

"Einstein" is actually the Newton interface on a Linux OS.
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Old 06-09-2008, 10:49 AM   #4
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[...]
"Einstein" is actually the Newton interface on a Linux OS.
Yepp, it's a emulator, which you start as an app on Linux/Mac/Windows.
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Old 06-09-2008, 01:55 PM   #5
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Old 07-05-2008, 06:10 AM   #6
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Originally Posted by mvoosten View Post
OpenInkPot is IMHO a project born to fail. Reason is, its goals are far too general for a good project to be strived for one team. This project seeks to be:
* A kernel project
* A user interface project
* + targets *all* readers.

Pick out at most two of these 3 to make one senseful project, but all 3 is IMHO just too much.

Last edited by axel77; 07-05-2008 at 06:14 AM.
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Old 07-05-2008, 09:38 AM   #7
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Originally Posted by axel77 View Post
OpenInkPot is IMHO a project born to fail. Reason is, its goals are far too general for a good project to be strived for one team. This project seeks to be:
* A kernel project
* A user interface project
* + targets *all* readers.

Pick out at most two of these 3 to make one senseful project, but all 3 is IMHO just too much.
ROTFL. Thanks for input, we'll shut down the project immediately.
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Old 07-05-2008, 09:57 AM   #8
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When do you anticipate that the first version of the software will be available?
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Old 07-05-2008, 10:02 AM   #9
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When it's ready. OI is a volunteer project being worked on in free time (except the GSoC-sponsored students, and they're doing great!).

Said this, I should add that anyone who is interested to develop for the OI can already get the something installable on V3 and start hacking.
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Old 07-05-2008, 11:18 AM   #10
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ROTFL. Thanks for input, we'll shut down the project immediately.
I wouldn't say shut it down, I would suggest concentrate on one or two things instead of "putting a focus on everything".

Maybe its just because the e-ink world is just too young, to come up with a set of intertwined projects, where one project does one and only one thing really well (the unix philosophy).

At your case, Id say either concentrate on one of this points:
* One eInk device providing an intertwined kernel with an UI for it or
* A kernel running on all kind of devices or
* A general UI interface running on a given kernel.

and leave other combination to other "spinnoffs".

But this is just my opinion and suggestion to be more sucessfull, its your project.
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Old 07-05-2008, 11:24 AM   #11
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OK, we're dropping all readers except V3 right now (while it sounds like "We're dropping all PC except Dell ones").

Oh, wait! All we develop is portable source code and Wenjie and Ondřej just need to build several drivers in kernel... So even if we drop everything except V3, they will complete their GSoC tasks and we'll get the support for Cybook (+several similar devices) and Sony PRS-505. Damn! Our project will be doomed immediately

I assume you're not familiar with how things work in the field: the idea that every device is unique and requires thorough and hard work is a myth: all the boards are quite standard ARM devices and userspace is just the same for most Linux devices all around the world.
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Old 07-05-2008, 11:44 AM   #12
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OK, we're dropping all readers except V3 right now (while it sounds like "We're dropping all PC except Dell ones").
Especially that comparision highlights what is different, because especially on the PC there is not the "one project that does it all". There is a project that does a kernel for all kinds of PCs. There is a project that does User Interfaces. There is a seperate project that just links all this things into a distro and so on.

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Oh, wait! All we develop is portable source code and Wenjie and Ondřej just need to build several drivers in kernel... So even if we drop everything except V3, they will complete their GSoC tasks and we'll get the support for Cybook (+several similar devices) and Sony PRS-505. Damn! Our project will be doomed immediately

I assume you're not familir with how things work in the field: the idea that every device is unique and requires thorough and hard work is a myth: all the boards are quite standard ARM devices and userspace is just the same for most Linux devices all around the world.
I just observe several years various OS projects that worked well and ones that didn't. And IMHO approperiate focus is a key issue. Take for example worldforge, they concentrated on everything and ruled nobody out, as "hey this isn´t our project" now over several years they still didn´t manage to come out with anything significant. I consider for example if they said people to come with "their stuff"" but wanted to be part of worldforge, if instead they said, okay but our project does only this and that, they'd be far more succesfull, sure some people would have just done nothing, but other would have changed their work to fit the project, so there were at least some people pulling at the same rope.

In your case, now okay so the e-ink devices are very similar. Making one linux kernel variation for all kind of e-ink readers is a good and complete project on its own. There is no need to intertwine it with a specific user OS. This should be another project, maybe it are the same people working on it, maybe they arent. But one key task should be one project. Maybe make the projects work with each other. But both should be seperate projects, possible seperate downloads/installment, possibly maintained by different people. Thats my criticism to put it all into the one big project.

Last edited by axel77; 07-05-2008 at 11:48 AM.
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Old 07-05-2008, 11:50 AM   #13
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Originally Posted by axel77 View Post
There is a seperate project that just links all this things into a distro and so on.
All major distro projects do the significant development work. OI is a distro project.

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Making one linux variation for all kind of e-ink readers is a good project on its own.
I don't understand what "Linux variation" is. Do you mean kernel? All we need is couple thousands lines of patches which will be included in Linux kernel ASAP. So, there is no need of separate "kernel project".

Quote:
There is no need to intertwine it with a specific user OS. This should be another project, maybe it are the same people working on it, maybe they arent. But one key task should be one project.
I don't understand what "user OS" is.
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Old 07-05-2008, 11:51 AM   #14
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I don't understand what "user OS" is.
User interface.
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Old 07-05-2008, 11:53 AM   #15
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To sum it up: OI is a distro project.

We do not develop the software, we just package and integrate it.

While OI is a specific distro, there is some amount of "pure" developement required, and everything developed goes to the corresponding upstream project: kernel, X.org, E17, FBreader (well, this is tough one, but anyway).
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