On Apr 7, 2010, at 8:41 PM, Graham Cobb wrote: > On Wednesday 07 April 2010 18:35:49 Dave Joubert wrote: >> 1) We should apply our brains to getting Debian to boot and run on as >> many pieces of kit as possible. >> >> Take for example the O2 Joggler; it is a reasonably capable machine >> (esp at the current pricepoint), but the boot process is 'hidden' and >> once it has booted, the machine is restricted. We should apply our >> brains to the problem, and make sure that the first outside OS that >> boots on it is Debian, rather than Ubuntu, Meego etc etc. > > What a ridiculous waste of time. Why not spend time getting an appropriately > targetted distribution (like MeeGo or some other embedded device distro) to > boot? > > Debian is a great distribution. Probably the best. I certainly use it on my > desktops and servers. But that is what it is great at: desktops and servers. >
Well, yeah it is great on desktops and servers. But recently it has become pretty great on Laptops and Netbooks as well. I think it is a pretty good embedded Linux too since it runs rather well on my N900. Plus chips are getting so fast that "embedded" is beginning to feel like my old desktop as far as computing power is concerned. So I don't see any problem running Debian on embedded devices. > 1) To provide development environment, build engine, community > infrastructure, > etc. These things are already done for a number of architectures. All the build software is free so you can take the tools and create your own build farm for MIPS, ARM, PowerPC, IA, etc. > > 2) To provide a very large pool of well maintained, high quality software > which can be reused in the embedded world when appropriate. And what about developers who are experts in their domain? In the free software world, of which the Linux kernel is but a part, debian often serves as a sort of reference platform because of all the architectures it supports. > >> These three courses of action would fit well with Debian's goal of >> being an open system. Debian's openness relies on the dsfg, not on being the OS on the latest bauble with a chip. >> I would much rather have a system now, that runs >> on current hardware (with USB GSM and 3G modems (with voice)) than >> wait for 6 months for some vendor to adopt Meego. > > That is up to you. But I have no desire to run Debian on my phone. Well, what about Maemo? Oh yeah, that project is dead. Sad. > >> Note the strong emphasis on publicity. Hopefully some of this is >> already happening, but the average man in the street (like myself) may >> be unaware of this. Publicity is hard to do well. It requires heaps of money. > > I am a strong supported of Debian, and I participate in the debian-publicity > list, but I would not support Debian claiming to be a viable option for an > embedded system. Me too! In fact I am helping to revive the DWN, or whatever we decide to call it, and I would claim that embedian and even debian's base OS or a debian derived system is an excellent choice of embedded system. Jeremiah _______________________________________________ MeeGo-dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.meego.com/listinfo/meego-dev
