distribution choice

[Daniel Benoy]

You should be able to make software that runs on all the distributions, because they have X11 in common.  If it can run on a Linux X11 PC with one mouse button and at 480x640, it should be able to run on any distribution in the forseeable future.

The rub comes when you plan to do something special with the phone hardware.  (i.e. SIM card stuff, multiplexing the GSM modem, checking the cellular signal strength, etc) at that point, the method will vary from stack to stack.

The FSO stack was designed to help people in your situation.  They're looking for it to be the openmoko standard, regardless of which interface is running on it.  (i.e. The aim is to get the interfaces from 2007.2, 2008.8, zhone, qtopia-x11, etc. all using the same API for communicating with the special smart phone functionality I described above)

If all you're doing is manipulating files in flash or on the SD card and/or using IP networking, then you're probably not going to have to worry much about which stack you choose, but if you are doing anything else and you want to be reasonably future proof, then use the FSO distribution as your reference implementation.

Are you planning to make a it free software (FSF definition), or not?  Because the way you package the software will vary depending on which way you choose.  With free software, you can get it published to the openmoko feeds, and the debian tree, etc and they'll take care of distributing it for you.  Otherwise, you're going to have to come up with something else.  (i.e. deb files and ipk files and such)

On Monday 15 September 2008 14:41:20 Kevin Dixon wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> My company is planning to roll out a suite of applications to be ran on the
> openmoko/freerunner platform.
> 
> I'm researching which distribution would be best for our needs. We are not
> so concerned with the current state of available applications, since we will
> be writing out own.
> 
> So here are a few questions that hopefully you guys can field:
> 
> We are debating between Om 2007.2 and Om 2008.8.
> 
> Which release is more stable? 2007.2 or 2008.8, in regards to the
> Freerunner.
> 
> Is Java a viable choice to implement a suite of applications on this
> hardware? What is the state of the JVM? Are there restrictions, e.g.
> accessing the Accelerometer or other hardware?
> 
> If we do not target Java, what API/framework should we target? I suspect for
> 2008.8 and future development, it would be Qt?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> -Kevin Dixon
> 



-- 
Daniel Benoy
http://daniel.benoy.name