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JingOS: Linux Distro Inspired by the iPad

jingos.com

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Re: JingOS: Linux Distro Inspired by the iPad

#261
post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the makers of JingOS, Jingling, are a China-based company working on the JingPad, an ARM tablet designed to run Linux OOTB. I'm sure we'll see a lot of variants of that quite soon after their release in July, and many people having fun hacking them.

Aah, that explains the name! I was banging my head trying to understand what was “jingoistic” about this OS...

Haha my mind thought the same thing!

Re: JingOS: Linux Distro Inspired by the iPad

#262

This looks like a legal nightmare. I mean there are all kinds of protections of visual thinks like e.g. design patents. I would be highly surprised if this doesn't violate at least one or two apple hold still valid design patents or other protection mechanisms. Because lets be honest design/visual wise it's less iPad/iOs inspired but a bland clone of the iOs design on iPad with some/many minor but in the grater pictu…

Not a lawyer here but have UI design patents ever held up in court? All modern UI is derivative in some way. Apple lost a case to Microsoft on similar grounds. > The court ruled that, "Apple cannot get patent-like protection for the idea of a graphical user interface, or the idea of a desktop metaphor [under copyright law]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer,_Inc._v._Micros... .

Note that Apple was able to use their slide to unlock design patent and that Apple in the linked curt case tired to "get patent-like protection for the idea of a graphical user interface [..]".

In this case it's not about the idea about a GUI but the very specific way the GUI was made wrt. non-functional aspects of the GUI.

And even if there is no enforceable design patent there is still copyright and trademark protection. E.g. look at the settings icon which is basically screams "lets change the settings icons just enough to not be a copyright infringement". That icon is trademarked by Apple and the JingOs variant has still quite many of the points which define the Apple trademark, enough to open potential for a case. (They have 3 connection from the gear ring to the center at the exact same position, a "dot" at the center, a inner ring (but just one color instead of an gear) and the gear background color doesn't stretch to the sides of the icon (I have no idea why they didn't change that, it would be more different and look better), they also replaced light silver with white. Anyway I would guess a trademark case for this detail has a good chance, especially given that this icon looks different enough to the other icons to not fit in, making it super clear that they somewhat forcefully wanted to make it look as much like Apple as possible. Instead of just using similar visual clues).

Re: JingOS: Linux Distro Inspired by the iPad

#263
post #197

A lot has already been said about them copying or borrowing or just getting their inspiration from Apple, so I'll skip that. Unless they fully opensource the code it is unlikely to get any traction. And if it is really based on Linux we're likely going to see UI and UX issues, An OS is more than just a some fancy icons and modded apps. The transitions that they show in the demo are not easy to achieve as in stability…

I don’t think there’s an obsession with Apple so much as there is an obsession with the minimalism and an alignment of the design goals into an ecosystem that Apple has demonstrated.

You're not wrong about the alignment of design but it is definitely not minimalist design. I've been using and upgrading iPads for the last 6 years and with each release the menus and options are becoming more convoluted. But there is a certain consistency across all Apple devices which does make it easy.

JingOS seems heavily inspired as in a massive lack of any original concept. Even the browser shown in the demo looks so much like safari. The notifications on the corner. The swipe up gestures etc.

Even the design story of icons is heavily inspired.

Re: JingOS: Linux Distro Inspired by the iPad

#264
post #197

A lot has already been said about them copying or borrowing or just getting their inspiration from Apple, so I'll skip that. Unless they fully opensource the code it is unlikely to get any traction. And if it is really based on Linux we're likely going to see UI and UX issues, An OS is more than just a some fancy icons and modded apps. The transitions that they show in the demo are not easy to achieve as in stability…

I think it will get traction because there are tonnes of low end windows tablets out there that only have 2 gb ram and 32 gb storage that can barely even run windows and jing os which is using a modified plasma mobile will be way faster on these low end windows tablets

The low end tablets will meet the same fate as the low end android ones. Applications developed using the high end devices in mind will run painfully slow or perform miserably on the lower end ones. The higher end tablets might come with extra graphics support and such which would leave developers flummoxed on which devices to target.

Of course gaining traction as a closed source Chinese OS would be very difficult and unless we can see some code ourselves and run it locally, its all just speculation.

Re: JingOS: Linux Distro Inspired by the iPad

#265
post #197

A lot has already been said about them copying or borrowing or just getting their inspiration from Apple, so I'll skip that. Unless they fully opensource the code it is unlikely to get any traction. And if it is really based on Linux we're likely going to see UI and UX issues, An OS is more than just a some fancy icons and modded apps. The transitions that they show in the demo are not easy to achieve as in stability…

I don’t think there’s an obsession with Apple so much as there is an obsession with the minimalism and an alignment of the design goals into an ecosystem that Apple has demonstrated.

There definitely is an obsession with Apple in a subset of the "design community" - I've seen lots of aping of aesthetics with no functional justification (such as web sites with brushed aluminum and linen textures which became popular after OS X releases that featured the same cues)

Re: JingOS: Linux Distro Inspired by the iPad

#266
post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think there’s an obsession with Apple so much as there is an obsession with the minimalism and an alignment of the design goals into an ecosystem that Apple has demonstrated.

You're not wrong about the alignment of design but it is definitely not minimalist design. I've been using and upgrading iPads for the last 6 years and with each release the menus and options are becoming more convoluted. But there is a certain consistency across all Apple devices which does make it easy. JingOS seems heavily inspired as in a massive lack of any original concept. Even the browser shown in the demo lo…

> with each release the menus and options are becoming more convoluted. But there is a certain consistency across all Apple devices which does make it easy.

Honest question, how do you add more features + abilities to an OS without adding more menus in more places?

Re: JingOS: Linux Distro Inspired by the iPad

#267
post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not wrong about the alignment of design but it is definitely not minimalist design. I've been using and upgrading iPads for the last 6 years and with each release the menus and options are becoming more convoluted. But there is a certain consistency across all Apple devices which does make it easy. JingOS seems heavily inspired as in a massive lack of any original concept. Even the browser shown in the demo lo…

> with each release the menus and options are becoming more convoluted. But there is a certain consistency across all Apple devices which does make it easy. Honest question, how do you add more features + abilities to an OS without adding more menus in more places?

I am not saying that new features don't need menus but maybe they could be simplified? The copy, paste select system on iOS is poor IMO. The new tab/ new private tab has been done better on chrome. What I wished to say in the original comment was that if new ideas aren't given a chance we might never see something different, might be radically different and we might just like some things about it.

Re: JingOS: Linux Distro Inspired by the iPad

#268
post #68

I am happy to see projects that make Linux look beter or more user friendly. But to truly catch up with iPadOS one needs to recreate not just the UX but also powerful features that it comes with * can the Photo app recognize faces? or landscapes ? * can the Notes app do OCR on pictures and PDF’s? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25805137 * is there an iCloud like function that synchronizes in the background? It i…

I don't use any of this on an iPad and I miss every day some functionalities : a convenient terminal, a fully fledged text editor, a complete and free photo editor ...

Frankly whenever I use iOS (these days mostly on an iPad, since I switched phones to Android a few years ago), I miss that I don't have root privileges and full filesystem access.

Everything you mention would be possible if those were given :-(

Re: JingOS: Linux Distro Inspired by the iPad

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iPad (device) != iPadOS (OS)

Ok, yes, what’s your point? iPad != iPadOS != iOS which was your original modification to the title. My point is, it’s iPad specific. So iPad/iPadOS is fine here, and not iOS.

And iOS != IOS (Cisco).

Re: JingOS: Linux Distro Inspired by the iPad

#270
post #197

A lot has already been said about them copying or borrowing or just getting their inspiration from Apple, so I'll skip that. Unless they fully opensource the code it is unlikely to get any traction. And if it is really based on Linux we're likely going to see UI and UX issues, An OS is more than just a some fancy icons and modded apps. The transitions that they show in the demo are not easy to achieve as in stability…

I don’t think there’s an obsession with Apple so much as there is an obsession with the minimalism and an alignment of the design goals into an ecosystem that Apple has demonstrated.

I find the minimalism to become frustrating, when it involves burying things that were so easily accessed before. In windows you used to be able to right click the desktop to get to display settings.
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