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I have my doubts that Google will ever support anything flexible enough to work as a general purpose OS. Android could work, but I think it will require a major

by learc83 14y ago

I have my doubts that Google will ever support anything flexible enough to work as a general purpose OS. Android could work, but I think it will require a major community driven fork. Just one example: I was trying to develop a tablet kiosk, I considered Android, until I learned that with every release it gets harder and harder to remove the on-screen navigation. Google has a very specific user experience in mind, and they make it increasingly hard to deviate from.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
KirinDave 14y ago
Why wouldn't they embrace it? They already have a system flexible enough to make a product like the Transformer Prime feasible. All that's missing, really, is some compatibility work with the new wake lock support in the Linux kernel and a tileing window manager.
KirinDave 14y ago
I also might note it's trivial to hide the soft buttons bar at any time as of Ice Cream Sandwich. I'm not sure where you heard it's "getting harder" when there is an explicit API that everyone uses. An explanation at Stack Overflow: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8469112/hide-ics-back-home-task-switcher-buttons http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8469112/hide-ics-back-hom... A reference: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/View.html#SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/View.htm...
- learc83 14y ago
  That method doesn't work for kiosks, because they reappear whenever the user touches the screen. I think there is a way around this (keep them hidden even on user interaction) in ICS, but they have removed it in Jelly Bean, i,e, apps that hide the on screen nav permanently in ICS no longer work in Jelly Bean. Google has a specific use case for android (single mobile user) and deviating from that is like swimming upstream.
  - KirinDave 14y ago
    Okay, point taken. But kiosks are more than a little outside the scope of the discussion here. The people who want a great, open Linux laptop, tablet and desktop far outweigh the folks making kiosk software.
    - learc83 14y ago
      That's just the first thing that comes to mind that I wasn't able to do. The only purpose was to illustrate it's inflexibility. I love the concept of Android, but a general purpose OS needs to be flexible--at least under the hood. As of right not Android is not a general purpose OS. I'm not saying it couldn't become one, just that it would take some pretty major changes. The UI will have to change pretty significantly as well.
      - KirinDave 14y ago
        > The only purpose was to illustrate it's inflexibility... I'm not saying it couldn't become one, just that it would take some pretty major changes. I think the changes are moderate and of an additive nature. But to bring out that hammer of frankness again, what the hell else do we have for desktop and laptop linux that is anywhere near close enough. Hint: nothing.
rdtsc 14y ago
So what did you end up picking?
- learc83 14y ago
  A small embedded Linux distro and embedded Qt.
  - rdtsc 14y ago
    Makes sense. I am trying to pick something for a similar use case and android+tablet hardware at first seem perfect and I thought, "oh, I'll just disable the home button" but unfortunately that is not possible. That would completely mess up the basic use case of Android -- to run mostly isolated apps on a consumer smart phones, allowing any app to lock the screen would kind of break that. (NOTE: one way to hack it maybe is to encase the tablet in another box and cover the bottom bar, haven't tried that).
    - learc83 14y ago
      >(NOTE: one way to hack it maybe is to encase the tablet in another box and cover the bottom bar, haven't tried that). That works--it was the first thing I tried as quick fix, but I thought it was a bit ridiculous to have to do that, so I decided against it.

by learc83 14y ago

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

KirinDave 14y ago

Why wouldn't they embrace it? They already have a system flexible enough to make a product like the Transformer Prime feasible. All that's missing, really, is some compatibility work with the new wake lock support in the Linux kernel and a tileing window manager.

KirinDave 14y ago

I also might note it's trivial to hide the soft buttons bar at any time as of Ice Cream Sandwich. I'm not sure where you heard it's "getting harder" when there is an explicit API that everyone uses. An explanation at Stack Overflow: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8469112/hide-ics-back-home-task-switcher-buttons http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8469112/hide-ics-back-hom... A reference: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/View.html#SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/View.htm...

learc83 14y ago
That method doesn't work for kiosks, because they reappear whenever the user touches the screen. I think there is a way around this (keep them hidden even on user interaction) in ICS, but they have removed it in Jelly Bean, i,e, apps that hide the on screen nav permanently in ICS no longer work in Jelly Bean. Google has a specific use case for android (single mobile user) and deviating from that is like swimming upstream.
- KirinDave 14y ago
  Okay, point taken. But kiosks are more than a little outside the scope of the discussion here. The people who want a great, open Linux laptop, tablet and desktop far outweigh the folks making kiosk software.
  - learc83 14y ago
    That's just the first thing that comes to mind that I wasn't able to do. The only purpose was to illustrate it's inflexibility. I love the concept of Android, but a general purpose OS needs to be flexible--at least under the hood. As of right not Android is not a general purpose OS. I'm not saying it couldn't become one, just that it would take some pretty major changes. The UI will have to change pretty significantly as well.
    - KirinDave 14y ago
      > The only purpose was to illustrate it's inflexibility... I'm not saying it couldn't become one, just that it would take some pretty major changes. I think the changes are moderate and of an additive nature. But to bring out that hammer of frankness again, what the hell else do we have for desktop and laptop linux that is anywhere near close enough. Hint: nothing.

rdtsc 14y ago

So what did you end up picking?

learc83 14y ago
A small embedded Linux distro and embedded Qt.
- rdtsc 14y ago
  Makes sense. I am trying to pick something for a similar use case and android+tablet hardware at first seem perfect and I thought, "oh, I'll just disable the home button" but unfortunately that is not possible. That would completely mess up the basic use case of Android -- to run mostly isolated apps on a consumer smart phones, allowing any app to lock the screen would kind of break that. (NOTE: one way to hack it maybe is to encase the tablet in another box and cover the bottom bar, haven't tried that).
  - learc83 14y ago
    >(NOTE: one way to hack it maybe is to encase the tablet in another box and cover the bottom bar, haven't tried that). That works--it was the first thing I tried as quick fix, but I thought it was a bit ridiculous to have to do that, so I decided against it.