On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 3:09 AM, Loïc Minier
<lool dooz org> wrote:
On Sat, Nov 08, 2008, Stormy Peters wrote:
> I think GNOME Mobile could use a goal. Something we are all aiming for. (And
> perhaps we have one and I'm not aware of it.) We have a mission that is
> good,
http://gnome.org/mobile.
<http://live.gnome.org/GnomeGoals>) for GNOME Mobile such as improving
startup time, having more scalable UIs, reducing wakeups to save power,
finger-friendly interactions...
But rather than a goal, I wonder whether there should be a /product/.
For instance, the GNOME Desktop and Platform are good products for
laptop and desktop uses. And gnome.org/mobile presents this GNOME
Mobile Platform product.
I agree. A vision with some goals and perhaps reference products?
But before we can think about new products (and how to get there) such
as a GNOME Mobile Desktop or GNOME Mobile UI or whatever we would need
to refine what GNOME Mobile targets -- gnome.org/mobile *does* have a
list of devices, but these differ wildly:
- OLPC is 7.5" 1200x900 at 200 dpi with touchpad (multi-touch, pressure)
- the Neo1973 is 2.8" 480x640 at 283 dpi with touchscreen (pressure)
- N800 is 4.1" 800x480 at 228 dpi with touchscreen
- labquest is 3.5" 320x240 at 115 dpi with touchscreen
Differing DPIs, differing display sizes, differing input methods.
What about MIDs, UMPCs, and netbooks? Especially netbooks are much
more common than the above gadgets, even among geeks. Is GNOME Mobile
aimed at MIDs, UMPCs, and netbooks? (I shovel SlatePCs and web tablets
into MIDs.)
So do we want GNOME Mobile to build one or more product(s) apart of the
technical product which is the GNOME Mobile Platform?
I don't know if we could (or would want to) develop something on all the products but maybe a few representative ones (working with partners) so that people can see what's possible and easily take and adapt it.
I'd love it if GNOME Mobile would provide one or more UIs for some of
these devices. I know almost all devices will want a more or less
branded UI, but it's the same for laptops/desktops and distros: GNOME
is a suitable base for these, even if each distro brands GNOME
differently and pre-installed devices even brand the distro further.
> Could we make GNOME Mobile a complete solution like Android? A set of
> software and a spec that hardware vendors could write to and ISVs could
> develop on top of?
If you're asking whether such a solution would be useful and deserves
being made, I think so; if you're asking whether we have the resources
do to so, I don't know.
We certainly lack new applications:
* mapping software (GPS assisted or not!)
* photo taking app (cheese is really a photo booth; it doesn't
provide UIs for e.g. selecting the active webcam, disabling the
flash, triggering autofocus etc.)
or simply alternatives to the GNOME Desktop apps which would be
suitable for small screens, touchscreens, full screen usage such as web
browsers, PIM, games etc.
These could certainly be part of the vision. We've been focusing on the development platform but we could include these types of apps as our vision. (Open source apps for mobile devices.)
Stormy
We could also do with more dev tools (can you create UIs for the GNOME
Mobile Platform with the regular GNOME Platform tools?).
Above all, we need a driving vision, a force, a person or group of
persons not pulling or pushing others but inspiring existing and new
GNOME developers to create GNOME software for these devices.
--
Loïc Minier
