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I still haven't understood the advantages these custom mobile UIs have over a basic X11 DE with a software keyboard. PalmOS had it's own GUI because the whole

by swiley 6y ago

I still haven't understood the advantages these custom mobile UIs have over a basic X11 DE with a software keyboard. PalmOS had it's own GUI because the whole OS was this insane feat of software engineering and something like X11 didn't fit on the abstractions they built. The result was something that could run forever on a couple of AAA batteries. If you're just sticking things on top of X/Wayland/Linux anyway at least make it usable.

AshamedCaptain 6y ago
Rather than a "insane feat of software engineering" I would define PalmOS as rather "extremely simple", complexity-wise on the level of classic macOS despite appearing a decade later. Right now, mobile stacks are usually even more complex that desktop stacks.
- mjcohen 6y ago
  One of the neat things about PalmOS is that it ran apps directly from where they were stored. No need to load them into "memory". I loved the stylus because it allowed apps to be quite functional (I remember EasyCalc which could do wonders) on a 160x160 screen. 320x320 meant that you could do anything.
  - microcolonel 6y ago
    > One of the neat things about PalmOS is that it ran apps directly from where they were stored. No need to load them into "memory". In practice this is not the way it worked on PalmOS on actual hardware past a certain point, and the way it actually worked is not that different from how code is loaded in a conventional desktop operating system.
    - AshamedCaptain 6y ago
      What is called NVFS enters the picture so late in PalmOS story, and so few years before PalmOS hit the curb, that we can safely forget about it. For most of PalmOS story, programs would for all intents and purposes be installed to RAM and reside entirely in RAM.
Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
Last time I made a similar comment here, someone linked the 'Sxmo : Simple X Mobile'[1] for PinePhone and I'm returning the favour to anyone who needs it. [1]https://sr.ht/~mil/Sxmo/#strongsxmostrong-simple-x-mobile https://sr.ht/~mil/Sxmo/#strongsxmostrong-simple-x-mobile
- swiley 6y ago
  I own a pinephone, How exactly does this improve on fluxbox?

by swiley 6y ago

AshamedCaptain 6y ago

Rather than a "insane feat of software engineering" I would define PalmOS as rather "extremely simple", complexity-wise on the level of classic macOS despite appearing a decade later. Right now, mobile stacks are usually even more complex that desktop stacks.

mjcohen 6y ago
One of the neat things about PalmOS is that it ran apps directly from where they were stored. No need to load them into "memory". I loved the stylus because it allowed apps to be quite functional (I remember EasyCalc which could do wonders) on a 160x160 screen. 320x320 meant that you could do anything.
- microcolonel 6y ago
  > One of the neat things about PalmOS is that it ran apps directly from where they were stored. No need to load them into "memory". In practice this is not the way it worked on PalmOS on actual hardware past a certain point, and the way it actually worked is not that different from how code is loaded in a conventional desktop operating system.
  - AshamedCaptain 6y ago
    What is called NVFS enters the picture so late in PalmOS story, and so few years before PalmOS hit the curb, that we can safely forget about it. For most of PalmOS story, programs would for all intents and purposes be installed to RAM and reside entirely in RAM.

Abishek_Muthian 6y ago

Last time I made a similar comment here, someone linked the 'Sxmo : Simple X Mobile'[1] for PinePhone and I'm returning the favour to anyone who needs it. [1]https://sr.ht/~mil/Sxmo/#strongsxmostrong-simple-x-mobile https://sr.ht/~mil/Sxmo/#strongsxmostrong-simple-x-mobile

swiley 6y ago
I own a pinephone, How exactly does this improve on fluxbox?