Netbook Tracker

1

Hello everyone,

I own an eeePC 900 and wasnt really happy with the rather outdated and aparently unsupported xandros.
so i installed mandriva with kde 4 even its a bit slow (i cant seem to start liking *buntu, so no easy peasy for me)

For a usable netbook Haiku according to my opinion (admitted, i’m not a frequent tester of haiku, but following it from open beos time and before since beos r4.5)
there is only a few things missing, like

  • wifi
  • DVB (mainly the T flavour)
  • Instant messenger with webcam (a kopete 0.12 port anyone?, amsn? gyachi? jabber…)
  • proper removable media handling
  • some office program (doc, docx, xls, pdf…)
  • and what i want to suggest here: A netbook friendly version for tracker, I like the concept of asus’ xandros and ubuntu netbook launcher. I personally like the xandros look and feel, but the ubuntu/easy peasy launcher seems more robust and easier to use…

now what about something similar for haiku?
i think we should have something similar, but different, also i dont think we should use too much of the Be legacy, as the idea behind haiku on netbooks should be to make haiku popular with a new group of users (nongeeks), people like ie my mom, who hardly are able to use a pc. now my mom uses easy peasy linux and likes it, even XP is still on her laptop, she never boots back to win…

just in case you have no idea how the before mentioned desktops are looking:
Easy Peasy
Xandros and more

your answers and opinions are highly appreciated :slight_smile:

2

BeOS had such interface, very similar to Easy Peasy, in BeIA modification (see Sony eVilla screenshots):

In my opinion, it’s not a bad interface even for a desktop, not only a netbook. I would like to see it refurbished and available side-by-side with ordinary interface, allowing user to switch between them on the fly :slight_smile:

But it will require modifications in app_server, as I see it. Or at least writing a launcher replicant that will occupy the whole desktop, hide the ordinary Tracker and Deskbar, and launch all applications maximized regardless of their settings (still a hack in app_server though).

3

i think this sony interface is a bit playful :wink:
but still looking nice…
the auto maximise function doesnt make much sense on most screens, so its not first priority feature.

im wondering if it wouldn’t be possible to implement such interfaces in a future release of haiku just through theming/scripting/you name it, of the standard desktop, instead of having a separate launcher.

in my opinion deskbar isnt the most intuitive tool to use, so the above mentioned configurable desktop might be a good idea in general to improve flexibility of haiku gui.