PetterHJ's BLOG

Haiku Distribution

Petter HJ — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 18:53:46 +0100

There are an ever ongoing discussion in the BeOS community about distributions, and now the announced distributions of Haiku. We're all acquainted with the distribution hell of Linux, and there are few of us that are interested in seeing the same situation for Haiku. Different APIs, different package managers, poor compatibility, different looks. The list is longer.

With Linux, this is bound to happen. Linux is first of all a kernel, and to be able to use it as a desktop operating system, you will have to assemble it piece by piece from the kernel up to window manager. And there's not only one window manager. There are plenty of which you can chose between. With a system as divided as this, different views on how to put it together is natural and needed, as there are no unified system put together by a �Linux Inc.�. This generates a complete mess for the end users. Haiku is different. It's one system. No need for any distributors to assemble and choose between the different pieces for you. Haiku is ready to be installed on any/most computers by most computer users.

During the last few weeks at least two Haiku distributions has been announced, and as far as I know, more will come. I can't help ask why? Why are Haiku distributions needed? In my eyes, Haiku is (at least will be) a complete system, ready for install � just as much as Windows and OS X is. Windows either doesn't ship with plenty of applications and games. It's just the basics. If people want a more powerful image editor than Paint, they get Photoshop. If they want a better video editor than Windows Movie Maker, they get Sony Vegas.

The last few days I've been trying to understand this �I-want-to-create-a-distro�-mentality. I've been reading, following discussions, and seen some of the arguments as to why creating a distro (of any OS):

Putting a system together for end users.
Poor or none consensus on which direction to choose.
Make it work on different kinds of platforms/hardware.
Different distributions for different kinds of usage.

Does any of these arguments apply to distribution of Haiku?

No, not generally. Haiku comes ready. It's not only a basis for different distributions. It has what you need to make your computer function. You can browse the web (when a browser is available � preferably a native one), view images, videos, listen to music, send mail and so on. I feel that Haiku do bundle some quality basic applications, and I also think they can bundle a few more basic, native and good applications, for R1, which will make this argument even more invalid.
I can see this one coming. Tough decisions will be made in the future about which direction to chose for Haiku. For example when it comes to package management. Will there even be package management? How will it function, and how much will it do for you? The BeOS community seems generally very united on a lot of these questions, but when Haiku is released, and new decisions needs to be made, the community has probably grown substantially, and new opinions will come forth. A fork of Haiku is highly plausible at this stage. But I don't think this either is a valid argument at this point.
When the day comes when Haikus is mature enough to move onto other plaforms (PPC, smartphones, PDAs and so on), different distributions is needed. They don't have to be different from eachother, except supporting different architectures and bundling platform-specific drivers and preference-panels. It doesn't have to be Haiku Inc. that provides these distributions, but it's important that there are a tight relationship between the distributor and Haiku Inc. (to maintain the same goals), and that they are allowed to use the Haiku name. When it comes to BeOS MAX, it was maybe needed because it provided an easy way for people to install BeOS on newer hardware. That argument does not apply with Haiku.
This is valid in any case. With different uses, I don't mean for example developing and artistry. I would rather see a �developer-tools-pack� for Haiku as provided by Be for BeOS. A dedicated developer-distro is silly. However, I do see the need for some different distributions when it comes to for example provide Haiku to people with special needs. DebianEdu/Skolelinux and OLPC comes to mind.

To summarize. I for one don't see the need for any Haiku distributions with the same goals; provide the end user with a desktop operating system. �Haiku MAX�, Pingwinek and Haiku share this goal. If it's about bundling applications, why not provide a application pack to install on top of Haiku? This will release us from unneeded confusion. If some day, a group of developers do want to head in a another direction, so be it, but that day are not today. I don't understand why people already have made up their mind about that their Haiku-distro is needed. At this point, it all seems to boil down to bundling of applications, and creating a distro-mess just because you would want your preferred applications bundled, is just silly. There are already enough confusion in this community. New people have problems understanding the difference between BeOS Pe / Max / Zeta / Dan0 / Phos / more. Throw BONE and net_server in the mix, and the confusion is even greater. To be a bit harsh. The problems arise when people need support: �How do I get this to run on Max?�. Imagine a future with 20 different Haiku (desktop-)distributions, and one #haiku channel. Is it expected that support is provided to people that use Haiku Distro #3, with Package Management System #4, and so on?

Let's instead join hands, as some people including me suggest, and build the greatest operating system ever. I think the community are good at providing healthy discussion about matters that concern us all. What direction will Haiku go next? Let's come to a consensus. That would benefit Haiku. Distribution-hell won't.

The Gathering 2006

Petter HJ — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 06:01:54 +0100

Then it's over. The Gathering 2006 ended for my part this morning. I'm sure a lot of people stay until 12:00 when they shut down the power, but I and my friend found it wise to go before the "rush". The Gathering, in Vinkingskipet (Vikingship, OL 94 and all that) at Hamar (my town) in Norway, is the worlds next largest computer party with about 5500 gamers, demoers, programmers and computer musicians under one roof. It last for 5 days with a lot of competitions and seminars.

The nicest view you can imagine?

I'm not a gamer, but there were some workshops and seminars that was very interesting. We've heard Microsoft present Vista (with all it's new revolutionary technology), Opera talk about standards and their new widget system for Opera 9, an interesting talk with EFN (the Norwegian version of EFF), as well as "Demomaking for dummies". We also had a live video stream from the Scene Awards 2005 held at Breakpoint in Germany, which was very fun.

The Microsoft presentation of Vista didn't impress me at all. First of all, the guy presenting it didn't handle questions very good (especially the ones from the critics), and he kept saying "why are you here?" to those who didn't use Windows and said "We've had that in Mac for years". Vista didn't impress me either. It seemed utterly slow, and the "revolutionary" technologies didn't seem so revolutionary. In fact, it all felt kind of familiar, but he kept babelig about the "smart guys at Redmond which did this and that". Still, pretty interesting though.

Heres some recordings of these seminars/presentations (from The Gathering's FTP server):
- Opera: Standards and cool tools (Held in english, 884mb, ASF)
- Demomaking for dummies (Held in norwegian, 783mb, ASF)
- EFN: Intellectual property and digital media (Held in norwegian, 918mb, ASF)

I'm not sure of the quality of the recordings, and I'm not sure if they are any good. On the server there is a lot of demos from The Gathering's demo compo each year dating back to 1992, as well as more videos and pictures.

I would really love to se Haiku present R1 at The Gathering in 2007, maybe 2008. No more than a couple of hundered of the 5500 would probably show up (which was about the number of spectators at the seminars), since most of them are gamers, but it would still be fun to see the Haiku Operating System presented to the few real geeks there.

BeOS Media Center

Petter HJ — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 22:39:14 +0100

First of, let me say that I have completely taken water above my head on this project. But as I'm eager to learn more, I started this new project to bring a Media Center to the BeOS. Inspiration, as you can see from the screenshot below, mainly comes from an open source project called Media Portal (HTPC software for Windows XP).

I've been using it for some time now, and it's great. But as any software it does have shortcommings. I wanted to help, but with my limited programming skills and not wanting to learn C#, I started my own little project for BeOS. It's not nearly something, other than Media Portals graphics, but it's a start.

Click it for a larger version

The thing I'm working on now is the "Movies" part. I'm still working out a plan on how to integrate IMDB information lookup. I'm learning as I go, and it's very likely that I'll never manage to complete this project. I don't want any expectations, I just wanted to show what I've done so far.

Update: One more thing, is it possible to add some kind of video controller using something from VLC for an example? Or would I need to write my own video player? Please kill my project as soon as possible. :)

Life is Good

Petter HJ — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 14:46:54 +0100

GPE

Yep, thats GPE on the Palm LifeDrive. Thanks to Alex Osborne at hackndev.com this has become reality! Theres still some miles left, but it runs :)

Linux on the Palm LifeDrive!

Petter HJ — Sun, 04 Dec 2005 15:02:03 +0100

I have for the last few months been following a project aimed to run Linux on the Palm LifeDrive. When I bought mine, there was a lot of discussion going on about how slow and crappy the LifeDrive was. Reading all the bad reviews, and the good ones, I decided to buy one. The LifeDrive had indeed problems, and at one point I was really looking forward to seeing a project that would port Linux to the LifeDrive. I have been generally happy about my LifeDrive, and with the very recent update 2.0 released by Palm, things are really starting to shape up for this pretty device.

Still, running Linux on this device would be way cool. If this means that either GPE (preferably), OPIE or even Qtopia could be started on the LifeDrive, I would be very thrilled.

The Linux on the Palm LifeDrive project is runned by one guy, and seeing the progress the last few days, I'm really impressed. With help from other Linux on Palm projects and the porting of Garux (Linux bootloader for the Palm OS), he has been able to start the kernel.

Linux' tux on the LifeDrive

The current status of the project is frequently updated at handhelds.org, and the current status of today includes working bootloader, LCD, keypad with the MMC/SD slot working partially. I asked Alex Osborne, the single one member of the project team, if there is something I could do to help. What Alex needs is more information about the LifeDrive's internals, as well as pics of the LifeDrive dissected (mostly for finding information). Anyone know for instance what kind of WiFi chipset the LifeDrive uses? Such information is much appreciated.

Keep it up Alex - you are doing a great thing for us LifeDrive owners!

Haiku and default software

Petter HJ — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 14:14:33 +0100

I may be a bit ahead of time, but I would like to write some views on Haiku and it's preinstalled software. The first question I should address is if this is something to talk about at all. I know that some people would like for instance IM integrated, and some not. I'm much in favor of a operating system which provide only the essential software at install stage (non-Zeta approach), but then we may discuss what this "software-group" consist of.

Basicly, when we say essential software we usually think of applications like StyleEdit and ShowImage. BeOS came with a simple mail client and web browser as well. Some people may argue that BeMail and NetPositive isn't what we call essential software. Well, thats understandable, but in my opinion simple and easy applications like these should come default. On the other hand I don't think Firefox should come default. Why? Let me try to explain.

The reason why I believe that applications like NetPositive and BeMail should come default is that they take fully advantage of the operating system itself. None of these are big and complex software "suites", which I don't should come default. BeMail is for instance only a little app to view and send mail. Email listing and such is done by the Tracker itself. This is possible in BeOS, and soon Haiku, so thats why I think BeMail is a great application to include as default. Same goes for NetPositive (of course, probably not in Haiku, since it's really outdated, but Haiku should have a native web browser). If people need more powerful software, then they could buy or download as it suites them. The point is that it's important to offer a simple, but good, solution. BeMail is for instance so simple and elegant, but still a good solution that I don't have to install any new mail client.

When it comes to instant messaging, I don't think this kind of software goes under the "essential category" yet, but maybe it should? I don't want a client for MSN, ICQ or AIM on it's own, but like with BeMail, I would suggest a simple and good client that takes advantage of the OS. It should of course be modular. I'm sure most of you allready have the BeOS IM Kit in mind.

The first mockup of the BeOS IM Kit

When I first saw this picture I found it to be a really good idea. To me it was very BeOS-ish. I would really like to see something like this for Haiku. Proper IM applications is something that is demanded of a modern OS today. With the IM Kit Haiku can provide a good IM client, and the best part, it can provide all protocols (in theroy).

So, why the heck should this be integrated in Haiku? Why can't the user surf to www.beosimkit.com, whatever, and download it there? Well, it would be really easy for us known to the BeOS and the IM Kit. Think about it. You install Haiku for the first time, and want to chat with your friends. Think how easy it would be to use the IM Kit for this purpose. The IM Kit is a great idea, and a great piece of software, and would please most people with it's basic capabillities. Not to mention that it's a little app that would fit right in.

In my opinion default software should be non-3rd-party, simple and basic, as well as is should take advantage of the OS. If such apps is created, I feel that basicly what ever could be installed by default (a simple Tracker-based torrent client for an example).

Anyway, keep it up Haiku people!

To which extent do we really want Haiku themeing?

Petter HJ — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 15:43:06 +0100

Over the last few months I've seen a lot of activity at the Haiku forums when it comes to mockup GUIs for the future of Haiku. This has made me think about the themeing capabilities Haiku will have. I will take some pictures from the Haiku forum, as well as other sample pictures, and comment on some of them, but I want to make it clear that I do not have anything against any of the designers, I'm only stating what I think, and I hope (and believe) that no one is offended by this. At least, that's not my intension.

Let me dive straight into it, and start out with a mockup by a guy that calls himself haplishe.

Click it for a larger version

The above mockup is something I would call a GUI mockup. It looks like a GUI, and best of all, it looks like a BeOS GUI. I must say I like this GUI. Of course, there are some aspects which I don't like as well, but the thing about this mockup that makes it so great, is that it would probably work in a light weight theme engine, which I think Haiku should have.

If we look at GNOME, a Linux/BSD desktop environment, we'll see that it has a complex theme engine. I won't start discussing memory usage (since the GNOME theme engine may manage that very well, without me knowing), but speed issues is something I've seen and experienced. Let me go more thoroughly into this.

GNOME brushed theme

As we can see from this picture, GNOME supports themeing of the background view in applications. Even though this picture is Firefox, this is a systemwide theme. I've seen such theme in action, and the brushed GNOME theme must be one of the slowest. It's my experience that themes only interfering with window borders/titles are much, much faster than themes that change all the controls, at least those that theme the background view of applications. To me, this seems very obvious.

Haiku is probably going to have some kind of theme engine. If it will be a full blown one like GNOMEs, or a extremely moderate one like R5 (window borders/titles), only the future will show. Let me show another mockup from the Haiku forums that I hope we'll never see possible with a future Haiku theme engine (mockup by raitis):

Click it for a larger version

I don't think Haiku will ever look like this, but with a full blown theme engine, something like it will be possible. Do we really want a Haiku (inspired by BeOS) looking like this:

Click it for a larger version

or this:

Click it for a larger version

or this:

Click it for a larger version

Now is the time when some of you may say; "No, I don't want my Haiku to look like this, but it's up to the user, so I don't care". Well, this is the tricky part. Haiku will in my opinion do a big mistake when making a theme engine capable of doing such themes. Why do we even use BeOS? One of the best arguments must be it's simple and professional user interface.

Despite the fact that in the end it's the users choise, in an OS with a full blown theme engine, wether it will look like this (Please, someone, explain to me the advantage of transparency in GUIs?)

Click it for a larger version

or this

Click it for a larger version

it's still dangerous in my opinion to add the engine itself. Why? Because adding such a theme engine is the first and biggest step to bloat the whole system. One of the reasons why I use BeOS is because I want a full blown operating system, not a full blown eye candy experience.

When reading this it may seem like I'm totally against theming, but thats not exactly true. We should allow some kind of themeing. A moderate one that is. I would rather see the Haiku forums flourish with mockups like this:

This is themeing as it should be done

Of course, a theme engine that will allow something like the picture above illustrates, will also demand system resources, but I think our excellent Haiku developers are capable of creating a simple and moderate theme engine that will be fast and lightweight.

With a theme engine that will make it possible to do something like this, we'll still keep the elegant, simple and professional legacy of the Be Operating System as we like it, and the reasons why we do!

My blog and BeOS

Petter HJ — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 14:20:30 +0100

I've known since I first made this blog, that Firefox under BeOS didn't like it very much. I thought that it had something to do with my browser build, but MYOB told me yesterday that BeOS' Firefox didn't support iframes. Today I decided to fix this, and by moving some things around in my css file, it now works nicely under BeOS as well. Great!

Buying a LifeDrive - a high stake gamble?

Petter HJ — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 17:56:50 +0100

I have for a very long time been looking for a PMA/PDA, and I had for a long time decided that I was going to buy the Archos PMA430 when I got the money (about $700 import, $1100 in Norway), so it's quite expensive. On Wednesday I read over at frankps' blog about this new PDA line from Palm. Mobile Managers. The first device to hit this line was the Palm LifeDrive.

Palm LifeDrive

I immediately fell in love with it's design. A bit big and heavy, but nothing I will mind. I startet to read some reviews, and over the last two days I've read a lot of them. The LifeDrive supposodly has a lot of bugs and annoyances. It's slow when starting applications (when it reads the applications from the built-in harddrive into RAM), and a bit sluggish when it comes to playing Mp3s and movies. The latter is something that I believe will be solved by application upgrades from Palm and/or 3rd party developers. This is the first Palm PDA to have a built-in harddrive, so the applications for it is not yet fully optimized. These apps do also cause the LifeDrive to soft reset a lot of times.

I have allready read a lot of forum posts about it, and it seems like there is a lot of people returning their LifeDrive, but there are also those who really love it. I think, and I've read people feeling the same, that many people don't know how to handle it correctly. According to Jeff Kirvin, long time Palm PDA user, the LifeDrive isn't as bad as most of the reviews states.

"I will say that the early negative reviews in the New York Times and BargainPDA were certainly reviews of unfinished, pre-release units. The CompUSA demo I tested (btw, word is that despite recent retrenching in PDAs, Best Buy will be carrying the LifeDrive) was much faster and displayed none of the issues I've seen cited in reviews. It looks like PalmOne (soon to be just Palm, Inc again, but that's another article) has a potential hit on their hands."

I read his review, and even though he has not fully tested the device, I've decided to trust him, and many others when saying that this is a great PDA. I also believe (and hope) that many of it's bugs will be fixed by Palm in future updates. An application to overcome the lag when starting applications on the LifeDrive has allready been developed by 3rd party developers. At PalmGear.com, one of the biggest Palm software providers, I've seen a lot of apps updated to work nicely with the LifeDrive, and it's probably only the beginning.

This is why I see this purchase as a gamble. Palm will probably make updates for it, or they will not!

LifeDrive specifications:

Wireless features
- Bluetooth� 1.1 wireless
- Wi-Fi� 802.11b wireless

Processor
- Intel� 416MHz XScale processor

Memory
- 4GB hard drive (3.85GB accessible to user)

Battery
- Rechargeable Lithium Ion

Operating system
- Palm OS� 5.4 (Garnet)

Size and weight
- 121h x 73w x 19t mm.
- 193 grams

Display
- 320x480 Transflective TFT colour touchscreen
- 16 bit colour / 65,000+ colours
- Portrait and landscape orientation

Expansion
- Supports SD, SDIO and MultiMediaCards via built-in expansion card slot
- Supports peripherals (sold separately) via the multi-connector (see #12 above)

Audio
- Stereo audio headset compatible via 3.5mm stereo audio jack - headset sold separately.

At a price of $500, I hope i'll work out!

How much can you hate American TV-shows?

Petter HJ — Sat, 09 Jul 2005 23:09:55 +0100

In Norway we have a shitty channel called "TVNorge" that buys all those crappy American TV-shows. Right now I'm watching a final in World Poker Tour with two dipshits as commentators. You know, those two typical smucks. After each commercial break they have to remind us what we are watching, and what their names are. Kind of annoying if you ask me.

And then you have all those shows like the bachelor and bachelorette. Those are really annoying to watch. Every episode starts with a resume of all the previous, and theres also the prologue showed in every show. After just a little commercial break, we have to be reminded on whats happened up till now. What kind of memory do they think people have? None it seems. Of course, I understand that they are doing this for viewers thats just joined, but hell, it's not necessary, is it?

Let's take the popular show "Lost". It's an 1 hour show, but if you take out all the commercial breaks, it's a 45 minutes show. Crazy. And those reality/game shows, which I'm watching now, is probably 50% repeat and commercials. Luckily, we don't have more than 1 break on 30 minute shows, and 2 in 1 hour shows in Norway, but still annoying all those "We'll be back after this", and "Welcome back, I'm Jim Dick, and this is my friend John Fuck, and we are watching the blablablabla". I've heard it 10 times now during this 1 hour show!!

Why do I even watch these shows? I'm a sucker!