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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

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.

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.