Opie Or GPE?

[systemparadox]

Seeing as OZ 3.5.2 will be released very soon and I'll be upgrading anyway, what do people prefer?
Interested in the pros/cons and your experiences of each.
Prefferably SL-5500, but feedback on other models may be useful too.

Thanks
Simon

[adf]

Actually i've been using opie.  I think gpe is made of better ideas, has more of a future, etc...  But in 3.5.1 too much of it was broken.  My first flash in 3.5.2 will be gpe.
btw what is this "e" thing?

[Elleomea]

By "e thing" are you refering to e17 (Enlightenment DR17)? Which has recently become vaguely usable and includes oe package data in the CVS repository. If so more details can be found at http://www.enlightenment.org but e17 is still a fair way from being usable.

[pixelFiend]

Actually i've been using opie.  I think gpe is made of better ideas, has more of a future, etc...  But in 3.5.1 too much of it was broken.  My first flash in 3.5.2 will be gpe.
btw what is this "e" thing?

I'm glad to find this thread. I have been thinking about switching to GPE from Opie recently, and the new version of OZ is a perfect opportunity.

So if GPE has a brighter future, what is the reason? Is it based on X? I can't remember offhand and have only had my Z for two weeks.  

PF

[h4rdc0d3]

I agree with adf. I am looking forward to the 3.5.2 gpe. It's a solid idea... now we just need it to mature into a solid gui. I prefer gpe because in contrast to opie, it's purpose is not to build an open source version of the sharp gui. I like the new, progressive, slick look to gpe. However due to limits in 3.5.1 gpe's maturity, I was forced to go back to opie or qt to do anything substantial.

[adf]

Basically, yes. I think gpe has better future because it is based on X. the components for gpe are (from what i can tell) from some of the really really big opensource projects, like gnome and mozilla. I think these factors give it an overall edge in future development--and scalability as handheld devised change.

[systemparadox]

Well, whilst I wanted to use GPE, I installed the GPE version of OZ and wasn't impressed.

1. The sidebars and buttons are far too big and clumsy- come on people- its a pda with a 320x240 screen, not a laptop with 1024x768!
2. Things are very unintuitive, I have never liked graphical configuration tools for linux, but the gpe one is really bad.
3. You have to have a password! I wouldn't mind, but I have to type it in too often.
4. Where do you shut it down? There is only a suspend option.
5. What exactly is the point in the button on the toolbar which makes my stylus draw blue lines all over the screen?
6. The menu and toolbar config method is really confusing.
7. A mouse cursor pops up in random places and gets in the way.
8. There is no docs tab, which i would have said is a very good point, but I can't find any file browser.
9. You have to close open programs to get to the desktop???
10. The todo app is so rubbish it isn't true.
11. The other pim apps are also very unclear and are missing a lot of functionality.
12. The shortcut buttons cannot be configured to do something when held.
13. I had to reset it to get it to turn on again after resume. Don't know about shutdown since there isn't anywhere to shut it down.

I've gone back to opie, looks like I won't be trying gpe for a long time.
Simon

[ironstorm]

3. You have to have a password! I wouldn't mind, but I have to type it in too often.

While this is a good idea, I find it frustrating that if you edit the owner information the login screen breaks and you can't get back into GPE...  

4. Where do you shut it down? There is only a suspend option.

Dido...  very annoying.

5. What exactly is the point in the button on the toolbar which makes my stylus draw blue lines all over the screen?

That's for handwritting regconition... it's actually a cool idea, but can sometimes be a bit hard to find some blank space to write in (i.e. try editing a contact)....  Look at Roesetta in the setttings folder to learn/adjust the handwritting....

10. The todo app is so rubbish it isn't true.
11. The other pim apps are also very unclear and are missing a lot of functionality.

All of the PIM apps are rubbish...    I'm pissed off about the Opie Calendar - why doesn't it respect the alarm preset settings in day view for example...   but GPE's calander and PIM stuff is a lot worse...