Pandora Is Starting To Really Interest Me

[Capn_Fish]

they're waiting for Duke Nukem Forever to be released

That could take a while...

[Chero]

More delays...

They're hoping to have some out by the end of the year, but projecting it may be Jan 2009 before people get them.

My wife and kids don't mind, I might spend some time with them during the Xmas holidays if I don't have my pandora by that time ...  

[ArchiMark]

Hey kids, just received the infamous refund/re-order email regarding Pandora...

If I re-order this will be the 3rd time!

First time PayPal, that got refunded for some reason, so paid again with credit card and now that's being refunded....

While I do understand that it's not really the Pandora people's fault, it does seem excessively complicated....

Anyway, now that I have a chance to either go or no go on this lil' guy, I'm really debating whether or not to re-order.

One reason for my hesitation is that I really don't need or would use the Pandora as a portable gaming machine, just don't have the time for that given my work schedule...

So, my main reason for buying if I do, is as more of a scaled up Zaurus replacement. Specifically, I'd want Pandora to be similar to the last setup I had on the 3200 I just sold. I put Debian/LXDE on it per the forums here and could use Zaurus like a very small linux laptop in terms of apps...

Now, I know that from Pandora forums that I should in principle be able to do the same kind of thing on it, but I realize that given the ARM cpu I'll be very dependent upon a small group of hacksters to put out a workable distro/apps to do this. And given the Pandora dev community on games, I wonder if I'd end up with the setup that I want...

Also, concerned that while the display and keyboard on the Pandora are larger than the 3200, they're not that big and thus wonder how usable it will be for my purposes....

So, anyone here want to take a stab at convincing me that I should re-order?

 

[Capn_Fish]

Ubuntu's officially supporting the Pandora's architecture (armv7a) from 9.04. Is that enough for you?

[ArchiMark]

Ubuntu's officially supporting the Pandora's architecture (armv7a) from 9.04. Is that enough for you?

Well, that's a pretty good start, Capn.....

Thanks!
 
 

[Chero]

Ubuntu's officially supporting the Pandora's architecture (armv7a) from 9.04. Is that enough for you?

Well, that's a pretty good start, Capn.....

Thanks!
 
 

Zaurus RAMx4 , Zaurus NANDx4.
You should take a look at the speed tests they are doing !!!
The pandora is gonna be really really fast !

[ArchiMark]

Ubuntu's officially supporting the Pandora's architecture (armv7a) from 9.04. Is that enough for you?

Well, that's a pretty good start, Capn.....

Thanks!
 
 

Zaurus RAMx4 , Zaurus NANDx4.
You should take a look at the speed tests they are doing !!!
The pandora is gonna be really really fast !

Another good point....will check that out....

Thanks, Chero!

[Capn_Fish]

This kind of goes with the RAM/NAND thing, but it'll have a MUCH better browsing experience. In a similar vein, watching 800x480 movies fullscreen should work prefectly.

The internal Wi-Fi and Bluetooth will be nice, if only for the reason of not having things sticking out of the device.

More pixels on the screen means you can see more of whatever you're doing.

A full-sized USB port means you don't need a cable to connect your mouse, USB flash drive, or keyboard. Plus, it has a USB OTG port, so you still can use the Z's host cable to connect 2 USB devices at once.

It has all-day battery life (well, working day for most people, at least, even assuming you're using it constantly).

Apparently people have discovered how to do basic pressure sensitivity on the TS, so things like GIMP (which should run very nicely, BTW) will be even cooler.

Lastly (for this post), the people who ARE getting one. myself included, will talk about how awesome it is and make you feel sad that you passed up the chance to get one from the first batch and now have to wait until ~March.

[ArchiMark]

This kind of goes with the RAM/NAND thing, but it'll have a MUCH better browsing experience. In a similar vein, watching 800x480 movies fullscreen should work prefectly.

The internal Wi-Fi and Bluetooth will be nice, if only for the reason of not having things sticking out of the device.

More pixels on the screen means you can see more of whatever you're doing.

A full-sized USB port means you don't need a cable to connect your mouse, USB flash drive, or keyboard. Plus, it has a USB OTG port, so you still can use the Z's host cable to connect 2 USB devices at once.

It has all-day battery life (well, working day for most people, at least, even assuming you're using it constantly).

Apparently people have discovered how to do basic pressure sensitivity on the TS, so things like GIMP (which should run very nicely, BTW) will be even cooler.

Lastly (for this post), the people who ARE getting one. myself included, will talk about how awesome it is and make you feel sad that you passed up the chance to get one from the first batch and now have to wait until ~March.

OK, I'll cry "uncle" now, Capn.....  

Well, just one more question please, before I breakdown and reorder....

You mentioned that Ubuntu will be available, (I've also read over at the Pandora forums about people working on Gentoo...)....while that is good, won't I still be in the same boat as with the Zaurus, that is being dependent upon people to recompile apps so that they run on the ARM  CPU??

Thanks.

[Tom61]

You mentioned that Ubuntu will be available, (I've also read over at the Pandora forums about people working on Gentoo...)....while that is good, won't I still be in the same boat as with the Zaurus, that is being dependent upon people to recompile apps so that they run on the ARM  CPU??

Thanks.

With Gentoo, you could compile apps directly on the device by just using the package manager, and Ubuntu should have a fair number ARM packages available. Still, the utility of this device to a non-gamer, and non-programmer is highly debatable, pending you need more than web browsing and terminal use.

[ArchiMark]

You mentioned that Ubuntu will be available, (I've also read over at the Pandora forums about people working on Gentoo...)....while that is good, won't I still be in the same boat as with the Zaurus, that is being dependent upon people to recompile apps so that they run on the ARM  CPU??

Thanks.

With Gentoo, you could compile apps directly on the device by just using the package manager, and Ubuntu should have a fair number ARM packages available. Still, the utility of this device to a non-gamer, and non-programmer is highly debatable, pending you need more than web browsing and terminal use.

Thanks for the input, Tom61.... think you're point about the utility of this device to a non-gamer, like myself is very pertinent....

[Capn_Fish]

You mentioned that Ubuntu will be available, (I've also read over at the Pandora forums about people working on Gentoo...)....while that is good, won't I still be in the same boat as with the Zaurus, that is being dependent upon people to recompile apps so that they run on the ARM  CPU??

Not at all. Ubuntu is OFFICIALLY porting Ubuntu to the Pandora's architecture (armv7a), meaning it will be like Debian on the Z (except faster due to increased CPU speed and the correct optimizations for the CPU): Just about everything that's open-source and in Ubuntu will be available for the Pandora.

I've got mixed feelings/impressions on Gentoo. While I love the distro (hence me using it on my main box), it seems odd to port it to the Pandora, only to add in a packaging system. Seems like it would be better to just port Debian with the optimizations or something to me, but I'm not going to complain having about more (as in quantity) optimized distros available.

EDIT:
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS9527593286.html

EDIT II:

Ubuntu for ARM is expected to arrive in products in April, 2009, says ARM.

[gojira]

Not at all. Ubuntu is OFFICIALLY porting Ubuntu to the Pandora's architecture (armv7a), meaning it will be like Debian on the Z (except faster due to increased CPU speed and the correct optimizations for the CPU): Just about everything that's open-source and in Ubuntu will be available for the Pandora.

unfortunately, just because ubuntu or debian etc support a given cpu architecture doesn't mean that it'll run on any given platform using that architecture...

[Capn_Fish]

Not at all. Ubuntu is OFFICIALLY porting Ubuntu to the Pandora's architecture (armv7a), meaning it will be like Debian on the Z (except faster due to increased CPU speed and the correct optimizations for the CPU): Just about everything that's open-source and in Ubuntu will be available for the Pandora.

unfortunately, just because ubuntu or debian etc support a given cpu architecture doesn't mean that it'll run on any given platform using that architecture...

They already have Ubuntu running:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOPNurKei0I

so I doubt that will be an issue.

@ArchiMark: One more thing to twist your arm: If you decide you don't want your Pandora after you get it, there are a good deal of people who are looking to buy off of those who preordered.

[Tom61]

I've got mixed feelings/impressions on Gentoo. While I love the distro (hence me using it on my main box), it seems odd to port it to the Pandora, only to add in a packaging system. Seems like it would be better to just port Debian with the optimizations or something to me, but I'm not going to complain having about more (as in quantity) optimized distros available.

Reasons are two fold:
1) Hard-core Gentoo users are almost as fanatical as hard-core BSD users on wanting to port their operating system choice on every platform imaginable.
2) Portage allows you to port and do some optimizations with almost no effort of the end user, just emerge the needed package (pending it's flagged as Arm compatible).