Ui Menu?


DaveC said:
All of those desktop OS types should be optional for someone that wants something like a PC.
I am one of that people who want a PC-like interface, but I agree with you: that UI shouldn't be the default (but it MUST be optional).
 
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Since the screen will be wide, the default interface should be horizontally aligned icons: Games, Internet, Music, Video, System (examples, also in user-arranged order, and replaceable altogether). This way one would only need to tap a vertical slice of the screen in order to get where they want, or just press left/right a few times. Tabs and shortcuts should only come after the user got past this initial screen.
 
Magnulus said:
Huh... I must be some kinda retard or granny then, because I much prefer Mac OSX even though I've used windows since around '92. It gives me power, stability and a robust file system. Not to mention a unix console, should I wish to use that, which I don't, 99.99% of the time.
No offense meant, i'm not anti-MAC i just love the mix of linux desktop environments and hope that the Pandora gets most of them ported or represented in some form on the Pandora
 
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Maybe we ought to use the Oxygen Icon Set because it's so awesome.

10.png


9.png


I don't have the SVN link on hand, but I'll find it when I get home.
 
MechsWillOneDayStepOnYou said:
No offense meant, i'm not anti-MAC i just love the mix of linux desktop environments and hope that the Pandora gets most of them ported or represented in some form on the Pandora
Openbox should run great on the Pandora, it is very lightweight. Still it is not an efficient game/apps gui, however it is still much better than KDE or Gnome for 'low spec machines' like the Pandora.
 
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The Oxygen icon set looks cheap and tacky. The monoblack icons are what icons are all about. Functionality! We need a compromise between the two.
 
BaDToaD said:
The Oxygen icon set looks cheap and tacky. The monoblack icons are what icons are all about. Functionality! We need a compromise between the two.
Totally agree! Personally I like the Ruckage skin for gmenu2x http://www.gp32x.de/board/lofiversion/index.php/t35302.html

It uses only 2 colors, makes all icons feel very integrated and easy to look at.
 
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OMars said:
Here's mine from a while back:
guicopy1aq4.jpg

Here is link to the same gui with what it might look like with multiple windows (I know, it's not good on a portable...) open at once with music playing:
LINK
ONE WITH A FOLDER OPEN
Here's a different GUI that I came up with:
LINK
SAME BUT WITH FIREFOX OPEN

Enjoy! :)



Those UI designs look badass, maybe would give someone the impression that they would be extremely memory/resource intensive, but I know those are just concepts. I'll put some of mine up later.
 
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OMars said:
Here's mine from a while back:
guicopy1aq4.jpg

Here is link to the same gui with what it might look like with multiple windows (I know, it's not good on a portable...) open at once with music playing:
LINK
ONE WITH A FOLDER OPEN
Here's a different GUI that I came up with:
LINK
SAME BUT WITH FIREFOX OPEN

Enjoy! :)


Interesting designs, might work. but it won't be easy to convert firefox into that. Mabye just take the mozilla rendering engine for a little built in browser. As long as it has tabs and a full screen button. Because browsing anything but google on a window that small on a screen that small won't be fun.

Personally though I think something cross between the EEEPC's interface and GMenu2x would be a better place to start. Myself I'd want the FULL features of every program. Including file browser. A complete custom remake of everything (file manager, browser etc) though good in theory is a LOT of work and may end up with a lot of limitations and few features if it's not done properly. Depends on the type of user really. Maybe a lite and extended interface may be needed. For people who just game, vs people who use desktop apps too.
 
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I realise many people won't want a PC like desktop interface but for that side of it may I recommend openbox for window manager, rox for file and desktop manager and the matchbox tools for handling things like battery, volume, auto-mounting of memory cards etc. Come to think of it, although the matchbox tools worked great under Linux 2.4, I'm not sure they ever finished porting them to 2.6?

rox is by far the fastest FOSS gui file and desktop manager available whilst still remaining feature-packed but it has one problem in the way it handles the copying of files and folders. In true RiscOS style it uses drag and drop (or you can type in your destination path manually) but this method is awkward on small touch screen displays and the right-click/copy/paste method most people are used to would be much more suitable and so should be patched in for pandora's customised rox version.

rox has a bookmarks menu and within this there needs to be links to /usr/bin and/or /usr/local/bin or wherever the pandora binaries (programs) are going to be stored as well as bookmarks to /usr/share/icons or wherever the icons for the programs are stored. This will make it easy for users to create shortcuts to stuff on the desktop. All common file associations should be pre-configured (ie Abiword for .doc, vlc for .avi and .flv etc etc.) for rox, which also controls the desktop icons and so should be configured to have a nice, readable font by default.

This setup (openbox+rox) runs lightning fast on a Zaurus and the Z only has half the RAM of the pandora. I've also made an impressive Linux box out of a normal xbox using these same programs.
 
Being a nokia 770 user I rather like the maemo user interface.
Recently Canola 2 was released.
Canola is a mediaplayer but with a very nice and beautifull interface.
Build in Python and using the enlightenment-foundation libraries.
It's very cool to use and even works smoothly on my underpowered Nokia 770.

It would be very cool to see a userinterface on the pandaro that looks a bit like this.

Canola link: Canola Webpage
 
Rox is an alright filemanager. If it's light on the memory then it's probably worth considdering.

I'd also like to recommend the new XFCE file browser. Thunar. Good standard GTK look and it's lightweight without lacking common features or doing things in unusual ways. (It also has a good compact horizontal scrolling "list view" like in windows explorer, which is hard to find in a linux file manager.)
 
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