Hi Ian, Firstly, I'd just like to say thanks for a nice email with a sensible point to it! :)
I understand the frustrations. I can't offer concrete solutions but I can explain some things and perhaps you can help us solve the problems! On Sat, 2007-12-29 at 20:53 +0100, Ian Bonham wrote: > I have been reading several threads over the past week or so about fractions > in the Angstrom Developers group. > This is depressing, because Angstrom seems to be a great project, and I keep > an eye on the releases to test on my Zau SL-C3000. I have had some great > help from developers on getting some silly things worked out, so offered to > try to help out. > > I can't do much, maybe some Doc based on my unit experience. I can write if > needs be, and that seems to be a desperate need. So I'd be happy to sit down > and document making my own hardware work with Angstrom. > > > I asked if anyone could point me to a howto where I could learn about > building for myself. Not a word. Ok, fair enuf. You guys are clever, why > share any knowledge u had to work for to help a newbie? This is a fairly frequently asked question. The problem for the developers isn't a reluctant to share, its more a lack of time to do everything we want and helping newbies isn't often at the top of the priority list :(. Having said that developers have shared this knowledge in the past and no doubt will continue to do so in the future if for example you look in the list archives or at the website. The real issue here is its evidently not obvious to newcommers how to get started and how to help. People have pointed you at some links to information to get started, try them and see how you get on. If that doesn't help, ask questions. As such a newcommer, can you help us improve the documentation so that newcommers do find the information they need? > I asked about a simple thing like getting a good PIM running, for me maybe > Evolution, so I could sync with EGW which I run on apache back at home. Not > a word > > Angstrom is a SUPERB idea. It has huge potential, but at the moment it's a > dev's toy. I'm on the verge of removing it, simply because it fails to > fulfil a users basic needs. PIM, Music, Video (maybe), the developers needs > are second. Yes, a place to play for devs is needed and an want from users > is needed to drive developers. At the moment with Angstrom, we have a > painful PIM, poor apps, and a total ignorance by the devs of users. > > How can u develop a system when no one listens to the users? > > Developers are brilliant. I never question that. I am skilled in some > areas, and brainless in others. However when I am working toward a system I > have to listen to users, potential users, and find a common ground. Angstrom > is lovely, it is a Linux box. > > For hackers. > > It will always stay that way until music, video, PIM, and something useful > happens. That will come from demand from users, which Dev's will have to > listen to. At the moment Angstrom is not delivering that. The Dev's want > pocket linux hackers boxes it seems, not a system that people can use. > > Angstrom will die. Simple as. Until dev's start to listen. > > Listen to users, ask what Apps are MOST important. Work to them. Make > something work really really well, or thins in another project that will be > assigned to the trash can of history. Totally agreed. There are big gaps in the application coverage and the software we do have has issues. Keep in mind however that Angstrom is a distribution and primarily integrates pieces of open source software, it doesn't write them. OpenEmbedded and its derivatives provide what I think is an amazing foundation. There is no build and integration system to rival its power as far as I know. What we're missing is application software to build on that foundation. Projects exist that are trying or have tried to produce a united software suite, Opie, GPE, Openmoko and to an extent Pimlico/Sato/Poky are all examples. I don't really want to get into why project X doesn't provide Y but I suspect a lot of it is a resources problem... Again this comes back to documentation. Something somewhere needs to explain what Angstrom is/isn't more clearly... Cheers, Richard _______________________________________________ Angstrom-distro-devel mailing list Angstrom-distro-devel@linuxtogo.org http://lists.linuxtogo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/angstrom-distro-devel
