Great discussion. My main issue with this whole system is that its designed for Hobbyists and Developers. Yes developers who know what they are doing can work through issues and develop what they require. Hobbyists however, not so much, obviously depending on the skill of the hobbyist though. I am a hobbyist, never touched linux on embedded devices before, only played with linux on a PC for as many hours as I have fingers. I brought a LCD4 and a BBB to start with thinking they would both work together and the 'advertised' OS would work 'correctly'. I had touch related issues along with many more, basically rendering the combo useless to do anything without an external mouse, which defeated the whole purpose of what I was trying to achieve. Various issues were fixed over the next few months however the touch issues remained. I then brought a LCD7, and then the 4DCAPE-43T and 4DCAPE-70T, but all had the same touch issues, no doubt stemming from a common cause. None of these boards will do what I want, which is simply to have a working OS with touch screen capability. I wouldn't have thought that was too much to ask for.
I know of many people/companies who have brought BBB's and LCD Capes and wanted to develop systems for them, but due to the OS being so buggy and touch not working correctly, along with other issues, the companies have had to move to another platforms. These companies have linux developers, however not developers who could modify the kernel or write improved drivers, they could write applications to suit their company that run on Linux. Like what was mentioned above by Mike, you have to have a stable OS in order for companies/individuals to write applications on. Since we dont have that, and 90% of people dont have the skills or know-how to fix OS related problems, or write drivers or modify the kernel etc to fix issues before they can even get started. Personally I think that is a bit rough and harsh to expect people to have to do that. Yes its open source, however you still need a base to work from that actually works. I would actually say I purchased the BBB and capes with incorrect information, or to an extent 'false advertising', as these really are not suited to hobbyists. If you have a BBB and want to blink an LED or do some simple Arduino type things with IO, then sure, that is all hobbyist level. Rant over. Just think the whole situation sucks to an extent. Circuitco/Ti/who ever is making money, should be putting money back into software development so all the thousands of people who purchased these things and expected some sort of stable system out of the box, or their capes to work as advertised, have working systems they can then build on. No doubt I will get 'flamed' for what I have written also. Terry On 31 December 2013 03:35, David Lambert <[email protected]> wrote: > Excellent summary Paulo. I would add one level: > 0) Novice user level - Expects a shrink wrapped system to just work > like Windows, but without the crashes ;) > > A very Happy New Year to all, > > Dave. > > > > On 12/30/2013 03:13 AM, Paulo Ferreira wrote: > >> On 30/12/2013, at 02:03, Mike Bremford <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Where is this documented? And why should I care? The above two >>> paragraphs are unintelligible to anyone that hasn't been involved in >>> embedded Linux for some time. >>> >>> >> It seems you are "barking at the wrong tree". >> >> Unix is a tool. A powerful tool. As all powerful tools, power should come >> after some knowledge and practice. >> >> Think of a razor sharp kitchen knife, a chainsaw, an arc welding machine, >> a forklift, a pickup truck. All those are examples of very useful tools, >> but they only can be used in a productive way, after some practice time, >> and after having acquired some knowledge about how they work, and how to >> use them correctly. >> >> >> The standard phrase is that Unix is very user friendly, but picky about >> the friends... >> >> You can approach Unix at several levels: >> >> 1) User level - command line use of the Unix utilities, and >> understanding of shell scripts >> 2) Admin level - know how to manage users, programs, networking >> 3) Programmer - know the POSIX programming model and all the UNIX >> programming tools (config, make, gcc, etc...) >> 4) Kernel developer - all of the previous ones + how to compile a kernel >> >> >> If you want to work with BeagleBone, you must at least understand that >> many people are doing all those levels on the cutting edge of technology, >> and that knowledge takes time, because you need to make things, to >> understand how they work. >> >> >> The saddest thing, is that people want "things done" (or instant >> gratification) without "being involved". Open Source does not work that >> way, and most important, life does not work that way. >> >> In order to do things, in order to get what you want, you need to involve >> yourself. >> >> >> Happy New Year to All >> >> Paulo Ferreira >> >> > -- > For more options, visit http://beagleboard.org/discuss > --- You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the > Google Groups "BeagleBoard" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/ > topic/beagleboard/WYrk-JUAkbM/unsubscribe. > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- For more options, visit http://beagleboard.org/discuss --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BeagleBoard" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
