OESF Portables Forum

Everything Else => Zaurus - Everything Development => Distros, Development, and Model Specific Forums => Archived Forums => Qt/Qtopia => Topic started by: sbarman on May 05, 2004, 03:48:58 pm

Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: sbarman on May 05, 2004, 03:48:58 pm
Since the Sharp ROM only support Qtopia 1.5.4 SDK and there seems to be no way to upgrade these libraries to the new 1.7 SDK and still have all the existing GUI applications run, is there any ROM out there which uses Qtopia SDK 1.7 and also provides the source code for the applications running in the ROM. I am mainly interested in a ROM that has the following things:
1. Qtopia SDK 1.7 or 1.6
2. source code for the PIM applications.
3. Kernel patched with Wireless extension 13/14/15.
4. Kernel source code  for the ROM.
5. uses the sharp style ipkg installer.

Thanks
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: lpotter on May 06, 2004, 07:12:56 am
soon to be a qtopia 1.7 rom based on openzaurus... stay tuned....
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: catachresis on May 06, 2004, 08:06:41 am
Thanks Lpotter - that\'s really good news.  Would you be willing to hint at the ETA for release?
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: ced on May 07, 2004, 03:25:18 am
lpotter --] when is the release date for that qtopia 1.7 ROM? are you basing your ROM on OZ or OE?[/b]
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: catachresis on May 07, 2004, 04:50:18 am
Says lpotter above: \"soon to be a qtopia 1.7 rom based on openzaurus... \"
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: amrein on May 07, 2004, 07:40:08 am
Only big problem: lpotter was talking about OE/OZ/Familiar Qtopia 1.7 rom release since the end of 2003. He has never released anything  .

I know that he works at Trolltech but... I\'m still waiting to see something to come out. My French translation of the wall Qtopia 1.7 source code + all HTML help files are waiting on sourceforge for so long...

Now I talk directly to you lpotter. Always covering up Trolltech Qtopia information although they are already on the net (like your last boss interview with a kde addict)? Or are you just  trying to freeze the market again because TT has not much resssource to put on Qtopia? Most of use has read about TT financial difficulties. Always covering the fact that Qtopia 1.7 snapshots haven\'t evolved  since the begin of the year (although there\'s always a few \'space/tab\' added or removed + release number change into source code to generate the snapshot of the day)? Perhaps covering the fact that it doesn\'t compile correctly anymore with QTE2.3.8 snapshots since 2 months and no more change since?

The Opie guys have already suffered from this...
If we have chance, lpotter is preparing the Qtopia 2.0/QT3.3.2 introduction but I don\'t think so.

My friends, companies have no friends but only curstomers.
If Trolltech continue the same way, I will begin to understand why GNU hasn\'t chose QT/KDE as their default desktop. We don\'t need another Microsoft at the root of an environnement. Opie guys were asking why pdaXrom have had this success (at the beginning): This is because it gave them their freedom back.

Sorry boys but you are attacking my favorit area: PDA. If you continue in the same way, I will work for reveal what I understand from your strategy and the Open Source Community won\'t like.
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: amrein on May 07, 2004, 07:48:28 am
Quote
stay tuned....


Yearh yearh we know we know... stay tuned stay tuned. You should have chose a recursive definition to freeze minds.
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: DrWowe on May 07, 2004, 07:52:44 am
Why does it matter?  What major improvements are missing in the 1.5.4 branch?
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: amrein on May 07, 2004, 10:48:46 am
Why does it matter? Why are you asking this kind of question?
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: DrWowe on May 07, 2004, 11:48:38 am
Curiousity.  What\'s in the latest and greatest that\'s worth breaking compatibility for?
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: amrein on May 07, 2004, 01:40:36 pm
Why a not finished software like Qtopia 1.5.4 shouldn\'t move to a new step? Why should we stay with Sharp 1.5.4 forever? Why Linux PDA can\'t move on to the mass market?
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: lpotter on May 08, 2004, 04:11:06 pm
Qtopia 1.5.4 lacks a lot of improvements. Most noticable would be quicklaunch. Another is the mediaplayer uses ffmpeg instead of mpeg3.

Amrein: these things take time. The images will be rolled out with a qtopia community web site. What is the url to your tr files?
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: DrWowe on May 08, 2004, 04:55:20 pm
Has Sharp made custom modifications to 1.5.4?  On the 6000L, I have quicklaunch and on the fly rotation.
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: lpotter on May 08, 2004, 05:59:12 pm
Sharp\'s 1.5 does not have quicklaunch, it has quickexec, which is the precursor to quicklaunch. and yes, they have their own Qtopia sources
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: amrein on May 08, 2004, 06:56:08 pm
lpotter wrote
Quote
What is the url to your tr files?


http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtopia-gpl/ (http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtopia-gpl/)
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: Mickeyl on May 08, 2004, 07:52:05 pm
Quote
Has Sharp made custom modifications to 1.5.4


Yes. And all of them closed source. So much for an open source based linux system...  
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: amrein on May 09, 2004, 04:21:47 am
The big Trolltech mistake: to sell Qtopia source code.

Every other competitor doesn\'t sell their OS but sell one licence by device (Palm, Pocket PC, Symbian, ...). I\'m not a master in this area but I still definitively think that Trolltech should too. Sharp cash was too tempting, wasn\'t it? You should burn the one that sign this contract without thinking about the future (even if it was for TT survival).

Sorry lpotter for having flamed you. I can understand (now with little thinking) that there\'s not commercial interest in supporting a device with no return on investment. You are not a saint but someone wanting to live and pay everyday invoices (building software and selling them).
Sharp certainly doesn\'t want to spend anything on improving Qtopia even if they bought it (again investment income versus expense). As long as Japan users will buy it like this, they won\'t change anything. Why should they (as DrWowe said)?
Add to this that Trolltech had financial difficulties... and the list of present problems is near to be complete (I don\'t want to talk about Opie, X11, commercial versus GPL licence...).

Today is 9 may. Tomorrow, Trolltech boss should speak about incoming Qtopia/QT/QTE version. If we have chance, we will hear Trolltech strategy: how they will get out of this deadlock and start a new story about linux on PDA.
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: lpotter on May 09, 2004, 04:41:45 pm
TT is a business first and formost, and is by far NOT having financial difficulties. TT has been expanding, in fact. TT sells Qtopia because, well, we are a business, and are in business to make money. There is no deadlock. If TT did not sell Qtopia, there would be no Qtopia, there definately would be no Qtopia Phone.
Sharp has improved their Qtopia. The Qtopia on the sl-6000 is a far cry from the Qtopia that came on my 5000d (didnt even have a release numebr - pre 1.02).
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: amrein on May 10, 2004, 01:07:13 pm
Quote
TT is a business first and formost, and is by far NOT having financial difficulties.


Search for break-even in this interview:

http://dot.kde.org/1081772638/ (http://dot.kde.org/1081772638/)

I have noticed that you used the \'present\' in \'is NOT having\'.

Quote
TT has been expanding, in fact.


I prefer this one.

Quote
TT sells Qtopia because, well, we are a business, and are in business to make money. There is no deadlock. If TT did not sell Qtopia, there would be no Qtopia, there definately would be no Qtopia Phone.


The deadlock is between all companies involved arround Qtopia and the way you deal with Qtopia source.
Sorry but I definitively think that Qtopia shouldn\'t be sold but its licence should be sold. If you still don\'t understand the difference than ask. Selling Qtopia is a deadlock. Not having a standard shared between all Linux PDA platform is a deadlock. Thinking that your Phone business will grow with this kind of strategy is a deadlock. You are closing your own business.

Quote
Sharp has improved their Qtopia. The Qtopia on the sl-6000 is a far cry from the Qtopia that came on my 5000d (didnt even have a release numebr - pre 1.02).


So what? You still think that to sell XXX licence of Qtopia and to be the root of future Qtopia/Qtopia phone developpement is less interesting than selling Qtopia? Does Trolltech frightens to become popular? Perhaps there\'s less money to grab but all draw I make doesn\'t say that. As I said, I\'m not a guru in financial area.

Good luck. I will be happy to see your success with this strategy.

And here is what TT had said about incoming QT4:

http://dot.kde.org/1061880936/ (http://dot.kde.org/1061880936/)

Still wainting for \'may 10\' speech.

Something to add to my previous message: I forgot to speak about Sharp main desire. I don\'t know if they want to to sell a lot of Zaurus in EU and US or if they want instead to be the root of PDA/Cell phone/Laptop/Embedded device. The Zaurus is perhaps just a demo, just enough to show what they can do and to pay their expense (for building the demo).

http://sharp-world.com/products/device/sol...tion/index.html (http://sharp-world.com/products/device/solution/index.html)

I stop the paranoia here. Make your mind.
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: DrWowe on May 10, 2004, 01:19:35 pm
Quote
Quote
TT is a business first and formost, and is by far NOT having financial difficulties.


Search for break-even in this interview:

http://dot.kde.org/1081772638/ (http://dot.kde.org/1081772638/)


The interview says NOTHING about having financial difficulties.  He said they were cash flow negative for a while because they were making a lot of investments.  So what, that\'s true of every startup.  You have to spend money to make money.
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: amrein on May 10, 2004, 03:28:46 pm
Please, just remember that TT has no financial difficulties. This is the only interesting point in what I wrote, doesn\'t it?
You should play chess more.
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: lpotter on May 11, 2004, 07:03:51 am
Quote
The deadlock is between all companies involved arround Qtopia and the way you deal with Qtopia source.
Sorry but I definitively think that Qtopia shouldn\'t be sold but its licence should be sold. If you still don\'t understand the difference than ask. Selling Qtopia is a deadlock. Not having a standard shared between all Linux PDA platform is a deadlock. Thinking that your Phone business will grow with this kind of strategy is a deadlock. You are closing your own business.

Trolltech gives away source code. What more do you want?

Quote
So what? You still think that to sell XXX licence of Qtopia and to be the root of future Qtopia/Qtopia phone developpement is less interesting than selling Qtopia? Does Trolltech frightens to become popular? Perhaps there\'s less money to grab but all draw I make doesn\'t say that. As I said, I\'m not a guru in financial area.

Good luck. I will be happy to see your success with this strategy.

If you can dream up some way that a software development company can make money and grow without selling software, please let us know.

Quote
Something to add to my previous message: I forgot to speak about Sharp main desire. I don\'t know if they want to to sell a lot of Zaurus in EU and US or if they want instead to be the root of PDA/Cell phone/Laptop/Embedded device. The Zaurus is perhaps just a demo, just enough to show what they can do and to pay their expense (for building the demo).

Sharp Zaurus is the most popular PDA in Japan.


I really don\'t understand what your grievance is about.
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: amrein on May 11, 2004, 01:21:35 pm
:[

Quote
Trolltech gives away source code. What more do you want?


Trolltech have the more complete and more powerfull grapchical toolkit for Linux. I like Qt and there\'s no problem about this. I will try to explain where I see problems for Qtopia.

Qtopia is sold to manufacturer so:
-] Several manufacturer build there own Qtopia version. Main applications data are not compatible or closed source (see Sharp and its closed source PIM database).
-] No package compatibility between Linux Qtopia device even if they use Linux/Qtopia on the same processor.
-] Even the package format is not compatible (iPaq uses rar, Zaurus uses gzip.. and there\'re several version out there). No one knows who should manage ipkg (in fact we know who and we have seen what they have done with it).
-] No easy way to build software package. OE the \"revolutionary build system\" is easy for a few people, mainly the OE authors.
-] No standard SDK with complete RAD tools. If a manufacturer try to build one, other competitors will be able to use it. Manufacturers are not working for competitor well-being.
-] No source release for Qtopia improvement. If a manufacturer release one using GPL, other competitor will be able to use it too. Again manufacturers are not working for competitor well-being.
-] Developpers don\'t know if they should ask Trolltech or ask Sharp or ask... for software construction support. Where is Qtopia 1.5.4, where is SDL library source and where... ?
-] Developpers have to deal with those different environnements and have to build as many packages. They are using Qt but need to know what to do for X or Y (although it is Linux/Qtopia).
_ It\'s not the wall Qtopia PDA/Phone that will enjoy from a new Qtopia improvement. It\'s not Qtopia 2.0 for PDA/Phone but \"hey guys, want something new? Buy something else!\". As soon as you build a Qtopia Trolltech product, it\'s obsolete and will never upgrade (why a manufactuer would like to buy a full upgrade to something completely incompatible as it has no income).
... etc... etc...

Today, 60% of QT curstomers come from Windows and it is only recently that Linux takes this 3x%. When you think that 90% of the developers base are working on Windows, I can\'t understand why they are neglect. (I\'m not sure about the 90% but as it is the percentage of Windows user... I used a short cut).

Code: [Select]
If you can dream up some way that a software development company can make money and grow without selling software, please let us know.

My god, where do you read this in my post? Please tell me.
The open source community has no problem about making money. So am I. We all have to live.

Quote
Sharp Zaurus is the most popular PDA in Japan.
I really don\'t understand what your grievance is about.


So here is the other way I\'m trying to explain.
How do other like MS Symbian or Palm make their business:

_ They are always the root of their Graphical environnement
_ They sell license to manufacturer and the source code is available.
_ Their teams are pay to build anything that a manufacturer would like to see specifically build for their device (because it\'s more expensive to train developpers and to...)
_ They build their own complete OS distribution and support it.
_ They have their own and well managed package format standard.
_ They sell upgrade to manufacturer
_ Tools and knowledge base for developper are centralised on their web site.
_ More than Tools, they have easy RAD tools (impossible to compare them to qtDesigner nor to Kdevelop but perhaps to Gambas) with high valuable and easy to use debugger, package automatic creation and easy management...

And everyone know that they are the ROOT of their business. When someone asks, he asks for Pocket PC for PalmOS or for SymbianOS (or.. for Linux). If Qtopia is succeful, we will soon hear people talking about \"Qtopia device\" in EU/US too. If not, it will be the begin of a war between Qtopia and X11 environnement like it is between Opie and GPE.
Title: Which ROM supports Qtopia 1.7
Post by: lpotter on May 11, 2004, 04:06:25 pm
Quote

Trolltech have the more complete and more powerfull grapchical toolkit for Linux. I like Qt and there\'s no problem about this. I will try to explain where I see problems for Qtopia.

Qtopia is sold to manufacturer so:
-] Several manufacturer build there own Qtopia version. Main applications data are not compatible or closed source (see Sharp and its closed source PIM database).

the \'Several\' you mention is one, Sharp. They released their DTM API.

Quote

-] No package compatibility between Linux Qtopia device even if they use Linux/Qtopia on the same processor.
-] Even the package format is not compatible (iPaq uses rar, Zaurus uses gzip.. and there\'re several version out there). No one knows who should manage ipkg (in fact we know who and we have seen what they have done with it).

huh?  the new version of ipkg uses ar and can create backwards compatible packages, and still knows how to deal with old packages. Anyone is free to update the ipkg on their Sharp Zaurus.
Quote

-] No easy way to build software package. OE the \"revolutionary build system\" is easy for a few people, mainly the OE authors.

Not many people are going to be creating distributions. it\'s not that difficult to type ipkg-build on a single package
Quote

-] No standard SDK with complete RAD tools. If a manufacturer try to build one, other competitors will be able to use it. Manufacturers are not working for competitor well-being.

http://www.metrowerks.com/MW/Develop/Embed.../ARM/Zaurus.htm (http://www.metrowerks.com/MW/Develop/Embedded/ARM/Zaurus.htm)
Quote

-] No source release for Qtopia improvement. If a manufacturer release one using GPL, other competitor will be able to use it too. Again manufacturers are not working for competitor well-being.

huh? TT releases code under the GPL.
ftp://ftp.trolltech.com/ (http://ftp://ftp.trolltech.com/)
patches welcome, provided you follow TT\'s guidelines.
Look at Opie. Do you see that from the other side? (Symbian, etc)

Quote

-] Developpers don\'t know if they should ask Trolltech or ask Sharp or ask... for software construction support. Where is Qtopia 1.5.4, where is SDL library source and where... ?

Qtopia 1.5 was released two years ago. Sharp is under no obligation to released their Qtopia source tree. As for any other libraries, and source code they may use, talk to Sharp about that, Trolltech can not control what it\'s customers do with someone else\'s source code.
Quote

-] Developpers have to deal with those different environnements and have to build as many packages. They are using Qt but need to know what to do for X or Y (although it is Linux/Qtopia).

What different environments? I can easily create applications that run on all versions of Sharp Zaurus, as well as Opie.
Quote

_ It\'s not the wall Qtopia PDA/Phone that will enjoy from a new Qtopia improvement. It\'s not Qtopia 2.0 for PDA/Phone but \"hey guys, want something new? Buy something else!\". As soon as you build a Qtopia Trolltech product, it\'s obsolete and will never upgrade (why a manufactuer would like to buy a full upgrade to something completely incompatible as it has no income).
... etc... etc...

Stop spreading FUD that this is completely incompatible. It\'s not. and so what if it is, thats why we up\'d the major version number.
Quote

Today, 60% of QT curstomers come from Windows and it is only recently that Linux takes this 3x%. When you think that 90% of the developers base are working on Windows, I can\'t understand why they are neglect. (I\'m not sure about the 90% but as it is the percentage of Windows user... I used a short cut).

See above RAD IDE for Zaurus on Windows. It\'s great!
Quote

So here is the other way I\'m trying to explain.
How do other like MS Symbian or Palm make their business:

_ They are always the root of their Graphical environnement
_ They sell license to manufacturer and the source code is available.
_ Their teams are pay to build anything that a manufacturer would like to see specifically build for their device (because it\'s more expensive to train developpers and to...)
_ They build their own complete OS distribution and support it.
_ They have their own and well managed package format standard.
_ They sell upgrade to manufacturer
_ Tools and knowledge base for developper are centralised on their web site.
_ More than Tools, they have easy RAD tools (impossible to compare them to qtDesigner nor to Kdevelop but perhaps to Gambas) with high valuable and easy to use debugger, package automatic creation and easy management...

And your point is....? I dont see how TT is any different, except TT\'s customers get source code.
Quote

And everyone know that they are the ROOT of their business. When someone asks, he asks for Pocket PC for PalmOS or for SymbianOS (or.. for Linux). If Qtopia is succeful, we will soon hear people talking about \"Qtopia device\" in EU/US too. If not, it will be the begin of a war between Qtopia and X11 environnement like it is between Opie and GPE.

War? What war?
http://www.embeddedstar.com/press/content/...edded14274.html (http://www.embeddedstar.com/press/content/2004/4/embedded14274.html)
Qtopia IS successful.