OZ/Sharp ROM & Opie Options

[highfell]

Newbie alert (but keen to learn).

I am keen to understand the combinations of Operating System and GUI that are possible.

As I understand it, OPIE is an alternative GUI to QTOPIA. From looking at the OZ(?) Feeds directories it looks like OPIE can sit on top of both the Sharp ROM and OZ ? Is this correct? Which Sharp ROM? I have a 5500 and 3.1 ROM at present. I presume that the OPIE files would need to be different in some way for each underlying system.

I have real problems understanding what I need to download in order to get a system that works.

Whilst I applaud the time that must be spent for the guys doing all the work behind this. I have to say it is incredibly confusing as a newcomwer to know which files that I need to download and if I look at that directory it seems that I have to download about 50 files and then where do they go !!??. I am surprised that there isn't a zip file that includes all the files and places them in the correct directories?

I want to try it out but I just don't know where to start. Even the FAQ or manual can't seem to be downloaded in one go which makes offline reading very difficult.

Any help or pointers would be appreciated.

I hope this isn't taken the wrong way but as a general comment to those developers and trying to be helpful as someone completely new to the 'scene' - if you are interested in getting 'ordinary' users to try out OZ & OPIE etc., you really need to present an easier way into understanding the process because it ain't easy to get a clear understanding beneath all that fog !!

Nigel Bamber

(Also posted to the General Forum)