Re: [Familiar] strategic direction

Hi All,

If I may be so bold, I'd like to second Russ' observations, and
offer the following reasons.

On Tue, 14 Jan 2003, Russell Nelson wrote:

>I think the strategic direction for Familiar, Familiar-GPE, and
>Familiar-Opie should be that everything should run over X, and that
>Familiar installs X by default. The base distribution should have a

I have no opinion on whether everything should run over X, since there
are others who are much more qualified to address that issue. However,
I think it important that Familiar does install X, and a minimal subset,
at that. If the machine is to be truly usable, some sort of GUI is a
necessity. For some folks, the added overhead of GPE or Opie precludes
the installation of other files. If one is aiming for a configuration
that does not require external storage, it may be necessary to remove
things to make room.

>VERY minimal set of X files -- just enough so that a user can get
>their machine online without a serial console.
>
>Y'see, the problem with the serial console is that it forces Familiar
>to be a bastard stepchild of another computer. It isn't! It's a
>real computer. I think we should be able to get Familiar to the point
>where you can insert a CF card, install the bootloader, install
>Familiar, and get your handheld on the net, all without needing
>another computer.

I've always "assumed" that this was the direction things were heading.
In its current state, Familiar is obviously not for the faint of heart
-- your typical Palm Pilot user, for instance. There's no reason it
should not be relatively easy to do with a system such as the above.

>Alternatively, if we just *can't* get the Opie folks to sign onto
>Opie-over-X, is to have Opie uninstall the Standalone-X packages.

I would not have cross-posted, except that I spent a lot of hours
with the last installation trying to extricate X from GPE and Opie,
minimize the basic footprint, and still feel like I had a system with
all the tools that I need. Not to knock either of them, just that
they're overkill for my application, and a couple other folks that I
know of.

just my two cents,
...dave

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