G1 Limits of ARM and classic games like X-Wing - G1 Apps and Games

After playing some Doom on my G1 (Scheff's Blend) it got me thinking about the limits of the phone's ARM processor. If it can play Doom, then why not X-Wing, considering it was released the same time as Doom in 1993. Obviously not the cd collectors edition released later, by why not the original floppy disc version.
Maybe I got some work to do, because it would be an awesome port.
I guess the Mac version of X-Wing would be easier to port, at least I think it would. Just got to find me the old floppy Mac version and dust off my programming skills that I last used in probably 1999 with some C++!

The problem is finding somebody willing/interested in such a project. Coding for ARM is different than your x86. smaller cache, more registers, etc. It's a new way of thinking.

SiXiam said:
After playing some Doom on my G1 (Scheff's Blend) it got me thinking about the limits of the phone's ARM processor. If it can play Doom, then why not X-Wing, considering it was released the same time as Doom in 1993. Obviously not the cd collectors edition released later, by why not the original floppy disc version.
Maybe I got some work to do, because it would be an awesome port.
I guess the Mac version of X-Wing would be easier to port, at least I think it would. Just got to find me the old floppy Mac version and dust off my programming skills that I last used in probably 1999 with some C++!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Someone was able to port quake3 running at 30FPS (not even optimized yet.) I forgot where the video was. But im sure X-wing should be an easier task if anyone is up to the challenge

SiXiam said:
After playing some Doom on my G1 (Scheff's Blend) it got me thinking about the limits of the phone's ARM processor. If it can play Doom, then why not X-Wing, considering it was released the same time as Doom in 1993. Obviously not the cd collectors edition released later, by why not the original floppy disc version.
Maybe I got some work to do, because it would be an awesome port.
I guess the Mac version of X-Wing would be easier to port, at least I think it would. Just got to find me the old floppy Mac version and dust off my programming skills that I last used in probably 1999 with some C++!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it open source? Doom, quake, etc. are open source and therefore possible to "port". Closed source programs would require an emulator and would therefore be stupidly slow, especially if compiled for different CPUs.

Well I stumbled upon this thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=147798
Apparently the easiest solution is to use the Linux version of DosBox, combined with X-Wing.
I managed to find/acquire the old floppy disk version of the game (from 1993) and I just have to manage to get DosBox working on the G1...
And pray that it has enough ARM power to play it...

Related

Ubuntu/Linux realease for mobile devices planned soon

The release is planned for October, but there are bound to be betas beforehand.
Normally with Ubuntu there are major new releases every six months(ish) and with being open source there is no risk of anyone spitting the dummy at libraries of ROMS.
http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-for-mobile-internet-devices
For the benefit of those wondering WTF ubuntu is - its already been voted one of the top 100 products of 2007 in PC World. (Can products be free?)
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,131935-page,13/article.html
It is also being offered now by Dell as an alternative to Vista...
http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/05/01/13147.aspx
...prompted by Michael Dell using it on his home PC for years.
Well, if I'm not mistaken, the Mobile Internet Device referred by the news, are UMPCs (e.g. fully functional PCs). As such, porting the OS over is easy job, as compared to porting it over WinCe devices.
However, having said that, it is not all lost. With Intel on the market with Linux, chances are, probably there will be more applications written for Linux based OS and will then encourage the dev on Linux on WinCe (if you google, there is a Linux for Wizard project running already).
As far as I know there have been a few shots at linux for the wizard (et al), although the benefit of being ubuntu would be a far wider range of developers, the release structure they favour, and the finances to back it.
I still have a windows 98 boot (for some specific software than runs badly on any newer versions) and if you look at the spec of machines from then (I swapped the board, processor and memory from a Cyrix 166 with 32meg, to a pII 450 with 128 meg about late 1998), the older machines spec does not look particularly good compared to the wizards.
The xubuntu flavour of ubuntu is quite capable of extending the life of older hardware, by running more efficiently - and I have set up a few older machines I was given as scrap to play games for friends' children - to introduce them to 'proper computers' when it does not matter as much when they discover jacobs crackers fit in the floppy, or a CD rom cannot close with enough force to cut off action mans legs.
Anyway - returning to the plot - I would suspect xubuntu is currently not too far from working in a PDA - but the xubuntu project has far lower funding than ubuntu, but could be an excellent platform to adapt.
Well, as far as I know, Linux based systems do not 'really' run more efficiently. The primary reason that Linux OS is able to utilize older hardware is that it is lightweight. Thats like running DOS on older hardware.. it works well.
die, bill, DIE
hanmin said:
Well, as far as I know, Linux based systems do not 'really' run more efficiently. The primary reason that Linux OS is able to utilize older hardware is that it is lightweight. Thats like running DOS on older hardware.. it works well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah, its my experience that ALL windows OSs are resource hoggging pigs and linux isn't and it makes much better use of system resource than winblows
take a web server running apache under winnt, replace the os with a flavor of linux and the same machine running apache has more throughput than before.
and there are distros that run very well on just about any machine, put xp on a 200mhz pentium mmx and see if you have a useable machine, that same puter with linux will work great for the average joe blow who just, web browses, emails, does word processing/ doc. creation.
linux will put computing power in the hands of people who cant blow 1000$ every 2 years to get the latest greatest pc. I wont even go into the ridiculous amounts of cash micro$oft charges for new versions of the bug ridden code they pass off as a finished product, then release 4 service packs to band-aid it together.
thanks linus, you should get a nobel peace prize or some sh1t...
bhang
bhang said:
Nah, its my experience that ALL windows OSs are resource hoggging pigs and linux isn't and it makes much better use of system resource than winblows
take a web server running apache under winnt, replace the os with a flavor of linux and the same machine running apache has more throughput than before.
and there are distros that run very well on just about any machine, put xp on a 200mhz pentium mmx and see if you have a useable machine, that same puter with linux will work great for the average joe blow who just, web browses, emails, does word processing/ doc. creation.
linux will put computing power in the hands of people who cant blow 1000$ every 2 years to get the latest greatest pc. I wont even go into the ridiculous amounts of cash micro$oft charges for new versions of the bug ridden code they pass off as a finished product, then release 4 service packs to band-aid it together.
thanks linus, you should get a nobel peace prize or some sh1t...
bhang
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's a good example of some everyday anti-Microsoft rhetoric.
Linux on a slow computer won't make it do anything more than it could do running a Microsoft product. Sure, a finely customized (read: limited) Linux system might use a little less memory, but a slow computer is a slow computer.
Back on topic, I'd look more towards the already-existing Linux projects for the Wizard being useful before any Ubuntu branded distributions would be available. The BlueAngel Linux project from a couple of years ago got pretty far, I wonder if the Wizard is really all that much tougher to get working.
tone007 said:
Here's a good example of some everyday anti-Microsoft rhetoric.
Linux on a slow computer won't make it do anything more than it could do running a Microsoft product. Sure, a finely customized (read: limited) Linux system might use a little less memory, but a slow computer is a slow computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yours will be a good example of a .. anti-old PC rhetoric?
I beg to differ. A PC's speed heavily depends on how many instructions it is running. The number of instructions run per second for any PCs is fixed, but having less unnecessary instructions to runs, yields a faster PC. Try running Vista with all fancy eye-candy enabled and browse the internet. Do the same with Windows 95. A slow PC is slow when you run something heavy on it, hence 'a slow computer is a slow computer' isn't true.
hanmin said:
Yours will be a good example of a .. anti-old PC rhetoric?
I beg to differ. A PC's speed heavily depends on how many instructions it is running. The number of instructions run per second for any PCs is fixed, but having less unnecessary instructions to runs, yields a faster PC. Try running Vista with all fancy eye-candy enabled and browse the internet. Do the same with Windows 95. A slow PC is slow when you run something heavy on it, hence 'a slow computer is a slow computer' isn't true.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When Ubuntu for Mobile phones is in 20 years of development, then I will consider it, however for my everyday needs, WM6 has me covered. Thanks, but no thanks. This is just the beginning for Linux on a phone, it has a LONG way to go to keep up.
Not only that, you have to find someone WILLING to create the software for FREE and well, you get what you paid for.
If you are a C++ programmer, Linux on a Mobile Phone will be a welcome challenge, but there is no market for Linux on a phone YET. Only reason anyone one the market will choose to switch is due to a CHANGE from what's already out there. I do not feel it compares at all to WM6 yet.
Sure, you can run faster, once you remove all of the graphics, background processes, etc, but you can do that with WM6 too. That's what people are creating their own roms for.
Water down any OS and you will find that it runs really fast and really well.
I wonder if there will be Blackberry support? It might be interesting to toy with.
NeoDMD said:
When Ubuntu for Mobile phones is in 20 years of development, then I will consider it, however for my everyday needs, WM6 has me covered. Thanks, but no thanks. This is just the beginning for Linux on a phone, it has a LONG way to go to keep up.
Not only that, you have to find someone WILLING to create the software for FREE and well, you get what you paid for.
If you are a C++ programmer, Linux on a Mobile Phone will be a welcome challenge, but there is no market for Linux on a phone YET. Only reason anyone one the market will choose to switch is due to a CHANGE from what's already out there. I do not feel it compares at all to WM6 yet.
Sure, you can run faster, once you remove all of the graphics, background processes, etc, but you can do that with WM6 too. That's what people are creating their own roms for.
Water down any OS and you will find that it runs really fast and really well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So that's why Motorola already have, and Palm are developing linux mobile phones?
Linux on a mobile device is going to be here on mainstream handsets very soon, within the next 12 months guaranteed.
The reason?
Licensing costs.
If you develop an open source OS, and set of codecs to handle media, you don't have to pay so much to all the companies you traditionally hand money over to when you sell a phone.
People who buy a mobile phone rarely care if it can run Microsoft's pocket office apps, or RIM's office apps, or anyone elses, just as long as they can write that document, or email, and easily send it, or get it onto their PC.
People also don't care if it runs WM6, Symbian UIQ, S60, Linux, Palm, or Blackberry, they just care if it can do xyz functions, looks nice, and they can afford it.
We care, but we are not the majority of the market.
And lets be honest, out of all the mobile OS' out there, which is going to be the most hackable?
Linux on our HTC devices is always going to be a hobby more than a real alternative OS, since it's based on who wants what, and has the time to develop it. But on a commercially available device sold with it, it's already here, and more are on the way!
Linux is faster - especially non GNOME distros.
There is also Ubuntu light on the horizon.
I read this article which to me is a good summary...
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40532
...and to reiterate my aforementioned point in addition to the seeking of fees - who requested the removal of the rom library here? So greater control with open source to the savvy end user.
Additionally - many of us are running linux without even realising - as its often the OS running in your routers/wireless modems.
Finally - if Windows kit for PDAs/smart phones was any good - would there be a reason for a forum like this to improve upon it, or are we all just really pernickety people?
Ubuntu is a really amazing OS.
I have been running it for a while already, and I love it (except sometimes I screwed up, need to resetup).
U should all try it
Straight from the disk it saw and set up everything - including setting the two hyperthreading processors as 4 processors (I have the non server disk version too).
Only problem so far is its not happy with my Sandisk U3 Titanium.
Another point worth mentioning is the lightest/fastest/most secure browser is purportedly 'Dilo' which is written for Linux - but I have not tried it yet. (Although the security is based on the 'you cannot hijack it - if we dont support it' school of thought.)
Linux rocks, I have ubuntu running on one of my desktops and am seriously considering dual booting my other with Fedora KDE. It really did a lot to speed up my old compaq, and i am not running a "watered down" version, I have more aps and programs on this than i did on xp, and it still boots faster and i have yet to have a weekly crash like i did with xp. I really would like it on my wizard, but in the meantime i'm going to watch palm's develpment and look in that direction.
Linwizard
If you want to play a bit this works on my wizard. Still a long way to go but I can say I have linux on my wizard. And I don't have to change anything or lose my current setup. Just extract the folder to your SD and run the app. I haven't figured out how to exit the program with out a soft reset, but big deal. Also there is no touch screen support or shifted or symbol support for the keyboard.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/linwizard/
Cheers...

Gameboy and NES

Anybody working on gameboy advance emulator like the iphone has or working on NES emulator coz i would love to have them on phone. I want to have some good games on my phone like the iphone has bowling, basketball, accelerometer racing(all using 3d engine) coz as android is amusing me day by day it is also getting a bit boring. i would happily pay $10 fo such games. Please somebody develop or just give me a hint how to develop. Can work for them days and nights.
well it all comes down to developement... the only way this will happen is if someone develops it hehe.. i second your thoughts eventhough i don't have a android...
personally i think the phone should be utilized to it's potential, granted i like what the phone can do, but i would love to see it do more, i don't usually download games, but i have a few and would download an nes/gba emulator if it was made, i love playing excitebike on the nes, i will keep an eye on this thread and hopefully we can get one up and running.
There are a couple of nes/gameboy color emulators out there but they really don't work well. The framerate at highest was 10 fps and no sound. From what I understand, the java side of android (java layer) seems to slow down everything game/video related. My old HTC Wizard (aka tmobile mda) 200mhz processor, 128 MB memory runs NES at full speed and almost runs SNES. This is because java isn't used in the WM emulator and the g1 uses it all the time. Since most of us have root access now, may be java can be bypassed and we can run games/video at a faster speed but that would be extremely difficult. A version of Quake 1 was used in a demo before the g1 was released and ran quite well but it was never released and allegedly ran independently from the OS. BUT if they could do it... why can we? It would be tough but it is possible.
Agreed. And the issue isn't just that the SDK is reliant on Java, but the Android implementation of Java is interpreted - so it is far slower on comparable hardware than a typical Java implementation.
What would fix the issue would be if an organization formed to promote alternate Android SDKs with supporting firmware. It would need some standard libraries that developers could leverage, and ideally it would support installation via the Market (or another Market-like app). Hopefully Google would merge the resulting interaface into the main Android codebase, but even if they didn't people with rooted phones could use the non-Davalik applications.
Just do it.
I don't know how to develop anything. i can just give ideas. Someone in this world should be able to do it. So that person please do it. G1 is one of the best phones and it is a shame for it to not do it.
i would love gameboy or NES (or, even better, SNES..) on my G1.
rich0 said:
Agreed. And the issue isn't just that the SDK is reliant on Java, but the Android implementation of Java is interpreted - so it is far slower on comparable hardware than a typical Java implementation.
What would fix the issue would be if an organization formed to promote alternate Android SDKs with supporting firmware. It would need some standard libraries that developers could leverage, and ideally it would support installation via the Market (or another Market-like app). Hopefully Google would merge the resulting interaface into the main Android codebase, but even if they didn't people with rooted phones could use the non-Davalik applications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Superb idea.
rich0 said:
Agreed. And the issue isn't just that the SDK is reliant on Java, but the Android implementation of Java is interpreted - so it is far slower on comparable hardware than a typical Java implementation.
What would fix the issue would be if an organization formed to promote alternate Android SDKs with supporting firmware. It would need some standard libraries that developers could leverage, and ideally it would support installation via the Market (or another Market-like app). Hopefully Google would merge the resulting interaface into the main Android codebase, but even if they didn't people with rooted phones could use the non-Davalik applications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it possible to run apps with a decent UI from within Mono on Android?
Have you checked out Mystique on the market from Bendroid? Its a 3d game.
support
I am ready to give support of anykind if anyone agrees to develop.
wimbet said:
Have you checked out Mystique on the market from Bendroid? Its a 3d game.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, Mystique is 3d and I didn't realize they had it for android. It's been around for a while now and remeber playing it on my htc wizard. It's a rpg game and doesn't require a high framerate from what I remember. There are a few 3d games for android but they are pretty simple and don't use a ton of resources. I'm sure this can happen and some developers are working on emulators. Android is still pretty new and sure everything is more difficult when java is concerned (as far as performance goes, not actual development) but it will happen. Just takes more time when compared to an older, more widely used OS such as Windows Mobile.
Anybody Trying
Anybody trying to develop it.
There's a few 3D games on the Market, heck I wrote one of them(the first one in fact). The problem when it comes to GB and NES and SNES shouldn't be processing power so much, the G1 can clearly handle graphics that are closer to being on par with N64, the problem is that it has to run any games for those systems as emulations, so basically you have a software version of GB/NES/SNES processor running on a software version of a Java processor(virtual machine) running on the real hardware.
Forgot to say: This should be extremely possible if someone can write a program for android in an actual binary(written in C/C++) and deployed a normal app that just called an execute on that binary. That said, I've never delved into emulators so we'll have to wait until some enterprising person who knows about writing such things does so.
The Kid GBC app only plays gameboy color games but i have been able to get pokemon games to play at about 16 fps on parts so whoever developed it should be asked more questions about it and how he got it to do that.
Looks like its not impossible to run native C programs on the G1...
http://benno.id.au/blog/2007/11/13/android-native-apps
now if only we could figure out how to access the graphics APIs
wizern23 said:
The Kid GBC app only plays gameboy color games but i have been able to get pokemon games to play at about 16 fps on parts so whoever developed it should be asked more questions about it and how he got it to do that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
His source is open. http://code.google.com/p/kiddgbc/
anybody
What about BASEBALL SUPERSTARS 2009. Anybody going 3d
[email protected] said:
There's a few 3D games on the Market, heck I wrote one of them(the first one in fact). The problem when it comes to GB and NES and SNES shouldn't be processing power so much, the G1 can clearly handle graphics that are closer to being on par with N64, the problem is that it has to run any games for those systems as emulations, so basically you have a software version of GB/NES/SNES processor running on a software version of a Java processor(virtual machine) running on the real hardware.
Forgot to say: This should be extremely possible if someone can write a program for android in an actual binary(written in C/C++) and deployed a normal app that just called an execute on that binary. That said, I've never delved into emulators so we'll have to wait until some enterprising person who knows about writing such things does so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well Nintendo DS's use ARM processors like the G1 I know, and IIRC many other systems do as well. I don't know if they have the exact same assembly languages, and the GPU would be tricky. If the assembly langauge is compatible they could use a VMware style emulation where instructions are executed natively as much as possible. The big gotcha would definitely be the GPU. So there's a chance for DS emulation atleast, maybe, possibly.
With it's touch screen a G1 would be ace at emulating a DS interface wise.
IANA assembly level programmer yet so I may be full of crap, and emulators are tricky business so who knows?
just a quick bump...
has anyone heard any new developments with gaming emulators in Android recently?/

[Q] Hp Touchpad running Windows 8?

I recently got my hands on Hp Touchpad 32gb. And I have been running windows 8 preview on another pc. I know that the windows 8 Market will be here in a couple months. And since I would love to use my touchpad at work to edit my office files kind of like what im able to do on my Windows Phone. I guess my question is am I alone in wanting to port Windows 8 to the Touchpad? Im not sold on the adroid port.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=20302829&postcount=2
Windows 8 for HP Touchpad
No you are not alone. I would love to have Windows 8 on my HP Touch pad.
I would love to see it, but it may be very hard to port with it only being sold on shipped devices. Realize that what desktops run and what is sold on discs is either a 32 bit or 64 bit Intel x86/64 based version. What the Touchpad needs is the ARM version.
spunker88 said:
I would love to see it, but it may be very hard to port with it only being sold on shipped devices. Realize that what desktops run and what is sold on discs is either a 32 bit or 64 bit Intel x86/64 based version. What the Touchpad needs is the ARM version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why anyone would want a resource hog like Windows on a tablet of any kind is beyond me. But it isn't going to happen anyway. MS has made it quite clear that the ARM version of Win8 will be strictly limited to devices that are manufactured to run ONLY Win8. Any port to devices like the Touchpad would be illegal and wouldn't pass activation.
BTW, this has been dicussed and debunked time and time again. If you had done a simple search of "Windows 8", you would know this.
lewmur said:
Why anyone would want a resource hog like Windows on a tablet of any kind is beyond me. But it isn't going to happen anyway. MS has made it quite clear that the ARM version of Win8 will be strictly limited to devices that are manufactured to run ONLY Win8. Any port to devices like the Touchpad would be illegal and wouldn't pass activation.
BTW, this has been dicussed and debunked time and time again. If you had done a simple search of "Windows 8", you would know this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
legal... lol. hackers unite!
Windows 8 will not hog resources like android does
This would be great. After using Win8 preview I thought it would be great on a touch screen. I liked it so much I ordered a WP7.5. BTW just but any software can be cracked.
hyperfire21 said:
Windows 8 will not hog resources like android does
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, really? Why do you think that?
Tilde88 said:
legal... lol. hackers unite!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a "developer's" forum, not a "blackhat" one. Read the forum rules.
---------- Post added at 09:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:56 AM ----------
hyperfire21 said:
Windows 8 will not hog resources like android does
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows not a resource hog? Get real!
It has a much better multitasking system than android. Of course i'm talking about the mobile OS version of Windows 8 and not the x86,x64 versions. Why dont u go to the microsoft store and pick up a free windows phone 7 device and try it out for yourselves.
Unrealwolf said:
Oh, really? Why do you think that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can tell you I have been running Windows 8 both desktop and server versions since early closed beta and it is easily the leanest and most resource-efficient Windows yet. With only 1GB of RAM it flies and the server runs very well with 2GB.
Availability of ARM version will be strictly controlled though (as was already said) and activation will be pretty much unbreakable.
nunjabusiness said:
Availability of ARM version will be strictly controlled though (as was already said) and activation will be pretty much unbreakable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's what they said about WP7 and we still got it flashed on the hd2
I would gladly pay for a utility that will format my TouchPad and install Windows 8 on ARM. Even if that means losing ICS and webOS. I think Microsoft has an audience here of TP users that could be doing their RC testing for ARM. If they provided an easy legal way, even at a cost (provided it was for a real license, not a RC that expires), I think a lot of Tablet users would switch to W8. And the TP must be the biggest community of powerful enough hardware, with users willing to experiment on their device.
Sent from my Galaxy S II (i777)
quarlow said:
I think Microsoft has an audience here of TP users that could be doing their RC testing for ARM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is an interesting idea. I think the TP is powerful enough, it is open, and it ticks the minimum requirements, although I am not sure whether it has the right CPU, graphics and hardware components. The display is a bit on the odd side (4:3 is rare, and 1024x768 especially so), and I would be surprised if Microsoft actually does anything like this.
But I would be happy to give it a try. On the desktop I can't find a reason to go with Windows 8, but on a mobile device it would look quite good.
I doubt MS would do this, we'd need a port from one of the WP8 tabs coming out this summer.
I'm sure if MS came out and said, pay a small fee and we'll license you an ARM version of Windows 8 for the Touchpad, people would jump.
I Am Marino said:
I'm sure if MS came out and said, pay a small fee and we'll license you an ARM version of Windows 8 for the Touchpad, people would jump.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They just would never do that. They only license it to actual manufacturers, the same idea went around with the WP7 for HD2 ports, but they'd never license it to individuals, we'll just have to port it.
I'm not sure if I understand why everyone thinks it will be a good idea to put Windows 8 on the Touchpad. Here are my thoughts:
1. Drivers will drive us crazy. There will have to be new drivers created for video, audio, bluetooth, etc. None of these exist currently, so it will basically be like starting all over again. Remember how long it took to get the Android drivers running? Some of them STILL aren't perfect.
2. Since the device is using an ARM chip, only ARM compiled apps will work. It's not like you are going to be able to load your standard x86 Windows apps on the Touchpad if Windows 8 is on it. The amount of ARM apps for Windows 8 is less than what the Blackberry Market has. (which isn't much. )
3. Chances are, we are going to have to completely format the Touchpad if we want to put Windows 8 on it. This removes any possible way of going back to webOS or Android if we want. I, for one, would not like that at all. As far as co-existing... I doubt that would work due to the nature of the file system as it is now.
It's fun to think that this will happen someday, but I'm not holding my breath.
reverendkjr said:
I'm not sure if I understand why everyone thinks it will be a good idea to put Windows 8 on the Touchpad. Here are my thoughts:
1. Drivers will drive us crazy. There will have to be new drivers created for video, audio, bluetooth, etc. None of these exist currently, so it will basically be like starting all over again. Remember how long it took to get the Android drivers running? Some of them STILL aren't perfect.
2. Since the device is using an ARM chip, only ARM compiled apps will work. It's not like you are going to be able to load your standard x86 Windows apps on the Touchpad if Windows 8 is on it. The amount of ARM apps for Windows 8 is less than what the Blackberry Market has. (which isn't much. )
3. Chances are, we are going to have to completely format the Touchpad if we want to put Windows 8 on it. This removes any possible way of going back to webOS or Android if we want. I, for one, would not like that at all. As far as co-existing... I doubt that would work due to the nature of the file system as it is now.
It's fun to think that this will happen someday, but I'm not holding my breath.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) hopefully most drivers will work out of the box, since you know they are going to make Win8 arm for a snapdragon SoC, maybe not this exact chip, but a dual-core snapdragon probably, they were also using TouchPads to pilot win8 arm, so if we can get a leaked build we'll be ok. If the drivers don't work and it's too much of a hassle then that's just how it is. We've still got ICS and JellyBean
2) that's fine, but there are going to be so many awesome win8 arm apps, just think of all the WP7 apps plus a lot more, it will be really awesome.
3) Not necessarily. Remember the same thing was thought of on WP7 on the HD2, but what the DFT team did was create a totally separate yaffs2 partition and write Android NAND and WP7 to that, so you could still operate the bootloader to load another OS from the sd card and dual-boot that way. Since this thing rocks 16gb nand, I don't see why some whiz dev couldn't just repartition and format a specific partition for win8 then the bootloader decides where to boot, hence 8 gigs for Win8, 8 gigs for Android, etc... or something of the sort. I think it's possible.
Like you, I'm not holding my breath, but I actually love how well CM9 currently runs on this tablet to keep it only for that, Win8 for arm port would just be a really amazing treat on top if it ever happens.

[Q] ICS 4.0 for Nexus One

Hi,
When do you think we can get ICS 4.0 for Nexus one or there is not chance ever? Thanks in Advance.
We already have two ICS ROMs.
look in the dev section
We will never see an official ICS ROM from Google, but devs have been hard at work, and as both above me said, we have two ICS-based ROMs in the development section of the forum.
bassmadrigal said:
We will never see an official ICS ROM from Google, but devs have been hard at work, and as both above me said, we have two ICS-based ROMs in the development section of the forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. Google has labeled the Nexus One dead less than two years after release. Pretty neat, huh? Glad you forked over all of that money for a Google supported Nexus device now?
Not that I'm bitter...
GldRush98 said:
This. Google has labeled the Nexus One dead less than two years after release. Pretty neat, huh? Glad you forked over all of that money for a Google supported Nexus device now?
Not that I'm bitter...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I kinda am. I mean, not even two years has passed since the release of it and they're already officially claiming it dead?
Bull, wait for it, ****.
By th way, GldRush98, what is stock 2.3.6 like on the Nexus? I cannot be arsed to try it out.
GldRush98 said:
This. Google has labeled the Nexus One dead less than two years after release. Pretty neat, huh? Glad you forked over all of that money for a Google supported Nexus device now?
Not that I'm bitter...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On ROM space alone it was already assumed the device would be unsupported. But hey, it lasted twice as long as my G1...
I'm already using ICS rom as daily driver on my N1 (no regrets but for camera). Ref: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1366897
GldRush98 said:
This. Google has labeled the Nexus One dead less than two years after release. Pretty neat, huh? Glad you forked over all of that money for a Google supported Nexus device now?
Not that I'm bitter...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With the how fast paced the phones are changing, it really doesn't surprise me that it had a less than 2 year supported life. Look at when the G1 first came out in October of 2008. It had a 528MHz processor with 192MB of RAM and 256MB for the ROM. Then, in just over 14 months, we had the Nexus One which pretty much doubled all the specs there. 1GHz process, 512MB RAM, 512MB ROM, double the screen resolution... Dual cores showed up 1 year later with even larger screen resolutions. And quad cores in phones are just around the corner. The software needs to be rewritten to utilize the extra speed and/or features the new hardware provides, otherwise you are paying for all these extra cores or memory that you will never use.
How long did it take for these jumps in the PC world? 500MHz processor? 1998. 1GHZ? 2000. Dual Core? 2005. Quad? 2007. Phone technology is moving much faster than desktop computers ever did. Plenty of people were pissed when they found out their hardware that was good with Windows 98 didn't work with Windows XP. Same thing happened when Windows Vista and 7 were introduced, and I am sure the same thing will happen when Windows 8 is released. In the equivalent of the PC world, we are trying to take hardware that was released when Windows XP came out and trying to get Windows 7 or 8 to work on it. That is not the easiest thing to do, and even if you pull it off, is it going to have all the same functionality that would be available on a modern machine?
And since it seems that this will mostly come down to space requirements, could you imagine if your Windows 7 install was the same size as Windows XP? When XP was released, 20GB drives were still the norm. Now you install Windows 7 and a modern game, and nearly 20GBs is used. As you upgrade software, you eventually need to upgrade hardware. There is no way around this.
The point is... We had a good run with our devices and they got numerous official upgrades including and spanned across 3 major software versions. I applaud Google for actually supporting their devices much better than any other manufacturer out there.
And now that the official Google updates have sailed away, it is time to turn our phones completely to the dev community. TexasIce and samuaz have done an awesome job trying to get ICS working on our beloved N1. There are only a few things missing for it to be considered a fully working ROM.
bassmadrigal said:
With the how fast paced the phones are changing, it really doesn't surprise me that it had a less than 2 year supported life. Look at when the G1 first came out in October of 2008. It had a 528MHz processor with 192MB of RAM and 256MB for the ROM. Then, in just over 14 months, we had the Nexus One which pretty much doubled all the specs there. 1GHz process, 512MB RAM, 512MB ROM, double the screen resolution... Dual cores showed up 1 year later with even larger screen resolutions. And quad cores in phones are just around the corner. The software needs to be rewritten to utilize the extra speed and/or features the new hardware provides, otherwise you are paying for all these extra cores or memory that you will never use.
How long did it take for these jumps in the PC world? 500MHz processor? 1998. 1GHZ? 2000. Dual Core? 2005. Quad? 2007. Phone technology is moving much faster than desktop computers ever did. Plenty of people were pissed when they found out their hardware that was good with Windows 98 didn't work with Windows XP. Same thing happened when Windows Vista and 7 were introduced, and I am sure the same thing will happen when Windows 8 is released. In the equivalent of the PC world, we are trying to take hardware that was released when Windows XP came out and trying to get Windows 7 or 8 to work on it. That is not the easiest thing to do, and even if you pull it off, is it going to have all the same functionality that would be available on a modern machine?
And since it seems that this will mostly come down to space requirements, could you imagine if your Windows 7 install was the same size as Windows XP? When XP was released, 20GB drives were still the norm. Now you install Windows 7 and a modern game, and nearly 20GBs is used. As you upgrade software, you eventually need to upgrade hardware. There is no way around this.
The point is... We had a good run with our devices and they got numerous official upgrades including and spanned across 3 major software versions. I applaud Google for actually supporting their devices much better than any other manufacturer out there.
And now that the official Google updates have sailed away, it is time to turn our phones completely to the dev community. TexasIce and samuaz have done an awesome job trying to get ICS working on our beloved N1. There are only a few things missing for it to be considered a fully working ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Technology always change, but we all loved linux in all this era, for it could still support old/lower end machines without problems.
Since, Android is built on top of linux , in my opinion it is fair to expect a "better" deal.
anubhav77 said:
Technology always change, but we all loved linux in all this era, for it could still support old/lower end machines without problems.
Since, Android is built on top of linux , in my opinion it is fair to expect a "better" deal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But hardware can be just as incapable as running the "latest and greatest" in the Linux world. My laptop was only 2 years old when compiz came out and I was never able to run it. Nor any of the advanced graphic features KDE 4 offers. But, you take that now almost 8 year old notebook, and it can still run the latest Linux version out there (I use Slackware and am running 13.37), but I am not able to use all the eye-candy that is available to it.
In fact, I don't really use it for much any more. It struggles playing youtube at resolutions above 360p (and can't do it full screen). And with all the AJAX heavy websites out there, it takes a toll on the system when you have a few tabs open. Essentially, I have turned it into a dev notebook. It is where I do all my web development.
The reality is that Linux will work on most systems, but it may be an extremely stripped and limited version of Linux. Google didn't want to put out a crap version that have people complaining that it can't do something that was advertised with ICS. Also, putting ICS on our phones requires repartitioning the internal memory. I doubt that is something that Google can do with an OTA update. Plus, we have yet to see if they can pull off full hardware acceleration (it has been done with hacks so far, but from my understanding, leads to a larger battery drain). And we have yet to make the camera work.
It would've been nice had Google pulled out their magic fortune-telling ball and given us extra internal memory or a better graphics card. But reading the future is not an easy thing to do. Just like you buying the phone. You bought the phone with the hardware that was in it. It was awesome at the time and seemed to have adequate space, but then google upped the limit of apks to 49MB and apps kept getting bigger and bigger. Suddenly, you were pretty much required to use app2sdext to be able to use all the apps you wanted.
There was no guarantee on how long our phones would get updates, but they have covered three major versions of Android and a ton of minor versions. As far as support goes (especially when you look at the other manufacturers out there), I feel we have nothing to complain about.
Now we leave it in hands like texasice and samuaz so use true geeks can figure out how far we can push this hardware until it becomes so slow and incapable to do standard things... just as my laptop. And that is how you know you have truly used the product to the extent of its useful life

X86 Ubuntu and Wine running on xt890?

I've been hunting around for any development progress for the K900 when I stumbled across this (Along with rumors of Wine for android x86 )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GT9lZDplJ8
The title translates to " Launching Ubuntu x86 + Wine under Android x86"
I know amost nothing about VNC but I'm guessing he did something similar to this but perhaps using ubuntu touch?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1966984
I'm trying to figure out if this is a worthwile way to run old windows games on a phone, rather than using QEMU on my Note 2. Are there any advantages to this? Or should I stick with QEMU until the next generation of intel phones are out?
My experience with Wine has been very positive, generally being more stable than running the games in Windows had ever been. I'd imagine that keeping everything x86 the whole way is probably good. QEMU has been slow enough and the reliability has been spotty enough to the point where I generally dont bother anymore. =(
Thank you for sharing this! i really, really hope they will continue developing this for our razr i!!
I've managed to do the same on my Orange San Diego.
If I remember correctly, I just followed the tutorials for installing ubuntu in chroot on android, but I used a x86 image instead of an arm image. Can't remember if I had to do custom stuff.
Then it was basically installing wine, like you'd do on an Ubuntu pc.
Wine worked, but Vmware/virtualbox didn't (I guess it's because ubuntu ran in chroot). I was/am hoping to run a full windows on a phone, but no-one seems to be interested in it, and I don't have the skills/knowledge to do it
Since this phone has an unlocked bootloader, you'll probably be able to install ubuntu directly (without chroot) (good chance you'll find a step by step guide for this phone), so maybe you could run vmware/vbox too. Can't try that on my orange, since it has a locked bootloader, and it doesn't look like it's getting unlocked any time soon.
If any developer would be able to have a look at this...? I'd change phones if someone managed to get it up and running, I'd guess
Terror Factor, How are speed and stability when running Ubuntu/wine through chroot?
I think there were some people trying to dual boot. I think there are probably some serious obstacles though. I belive this particular chipset has a proprietary driver which could make it difficult to use. The next generation of phones will use what is basically intels integrated grapics on a soc. Those might be the first to be able to dual boot a full desktop os. There is a phone out now in China, the K900 that uses the updated clovertrail plus chip that is supposed to be linux compatible. But it still seems to have a Power VR chip for grapics =(
Other than that. I could see there being issues with perhaps drive partitioning and installing the boot loader (grub, etc). I suppose it also depends how the boot sytem works. I don't belive phones use any type of BIOS. I dunno.
Fujistsu makes a phone/computer (loox f-07c) that runs full windows. It's kind of a bulky and inelegant solution though.
I can't remember any stability issues, but it's been a few months and I only messed around with it for maybe half an hour after it was installed (noticed I couldn't run virtualbox/vmware, so I was a whole lot less interested). The stock apps that came with wine worked fine (notepad for example). I can't remember if I installed anything else in wine though.
That Fujitsu is pretty big, and quite outdated hardware wise. Might be worth buying if I could find a cheap one on ebay, but battery life will probably suck and I am guessing it'll be way to expensive for what it is.
Once the intel cpu's are getting more popular for smartphones, I am guessing we'll eventually see a full desktop OS on one of them. That might be a year or two though, I'm afraid

Categories

Resources