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MuditaOS: An open-source, e-ink mobile OS

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Re: MuditaOS: An open-source, e-ink mobile OS

#81

Post by kristopolous »

commonturtle wrote: post #74

I ask this with no malice: What makes people work on projects like this? I'm willing to bet that the phone is bound to fail and their OS will be doomed to obscurity. How do the creators not see this? Three reasons I don't think it will work out: 1. A huge number of people use WatsApp, Facetime, Messenger, etc., for sending messages and making calls. This OS won't support any of these apps. 2. We may hate our phones a…

Depends what motivates you.

The unstated part of crossing the chasm and everything that deals with new tech is there's potential social value in market failure.

Personally I'd rather spend my career at one Xerox Parc failed project after another instead of working on profitable but ultimately empty products

For some it's not about money or a career, it's about building new things

In an ideal world people like me would be academics. But that institution is also excessively career and status oriented so without many options, we run off to the private sector.

Your reaction helps solidify a heretical stance I've had recently, that money has been a corrupting influence on technology and has actually stagnated it by perversing the incentives towards strictly monetary goals without regard for the social. It's like we replaced traditional banking with casinos.

The people who went to the moon, built the atomic bomb and invented the internet did so on a modest government salary.

Re: MuditaOS: An open-source, e-ink mobile OS

#82

Post by webmobdev »

commonturtle wrote: post #74

I ask this with no malice: What makes people work on projects like this? I'm willing to bet that the phone is bound to fail and their OS will be doomed to obscurity. How do the creators not see this? Three reasons I don't think it will work out: 1. A huge number of people use WatsApp, Facetime, Messenger, etc., for sending messages and making calls. This OS won't support any of these apps. 2. We may hate our phones a…

> I ask this with no malice: What makes people work on projects like this?

There is market for these kinds of phone. Check out the "Classic Phone" segment of Nokia - https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_in/classic-phones ... they've even recently released a 4g "dumb" phone.

Not everybody can afford a smartphone. And "dumb" phones like this provide the much needed mobility and connectivity to low-income group of our society (especially in a developing country like mine). Apart from this, the other reasons to consider these phones is the long battery life, and the less distractions they offer.

> I'm willing to bet that the phone is bound to fail and their OS will be doomed to obscurity. How do the creators not see this?

Yes, the phone will fail. But not for the exact reasons you cited.

They will fail because they are targeting a niche market - people with good income who have chosen a minimalist lifestyle. And that's why it is priced at the nonsensical price of $314 dollar ("discounted" from the "original" price of $369). The pricing makes no sense when you consider that Nokia offers 4g capable dumb phones for $40 to $48.

Re: MuditaOS: An open-source, e-ink mobile OS

#83

Post by swiley »

Abishek_Muthian wrote: post #72
swiley wrote: post #34

I still haven't understood the advantages these custom mobile UIs have over a basic X11 DE with a software keyboard. PalmOS had it's own GUI because the whole OS was this insane feat of software engineering and something like X11 didn't fit on the abstractions they built. The result was something that could run forever on a couple of AAA batteries. If you're just sticking things on top of X/Wayland/Linux anyway at le…

Last time I made a similar comment here, someone linked the 'Sxmo : Simple X Mobile'[1] for PinePhone and I'm returning the favour to anyone who needs it. [1] https://sr.ht/~mil/Sxmo/#strongsxmostrong-simple-x-mobile

I own a pinephone, How exactly does this improve on fluxbox?

Re: MuditaOS: An open-source, e-ink mobile OS

#84

Post by pedalpete »

commonturtle wrote: post #74

I ask this with no malice: What makes people work on projects like this? I'm willing to bet that the phone is bound to fail and their OS will be doomed to obscurity. How do the creators not see this? Three reasons I don't think it will work out: 1. A huge number of people use WatsApp, Facetime, Messenger, etc., for sending messages and making calls. This OS won't support any of these apps. 2. We may hate our phones a…

I somewhat agree with your comment from the perspective of using e-ink as a replacement for mobile.

However, I do think an opportunity exists for us to use e-ink device in new ways.

I ordered a Boox Note Air on the weekend to replace my kindle (12 years old now) with something I can read and write on.

The Boox runs full android OS, but I really think the only things I'll need are note-taking, drawing, kindle app.

Is there an opportunity to really do something great in replacement of notebooks?

How about a new paradigm for what kids go to school with? The size of the bags kids are using to carry all their textbooks and notebooks is ridiculous. Of course, it breaks the model of the publishing industry, but screw that. The learning hardware is destroying kids backs.

How great would it be to go into an office meeting (when we're back in offices) and rather than having everyone sitting there with a laptop open, we have these thin e-ink devices where we can comfortably share data and notes between us.

Sure, there are millions of excuses for why these sorts of things can't happen, but I don't think an OS that is targeted at black and white, somewhat limited devices should be treated as not having value.

Re: MuditaOS: An open-source, e-ink mobile OS

#85

Post by hamilyon2 »

BossingAround wrote: post #80
commonturtle wrote: post #74

I ask this with no malice: What makes people work on projects like this? I'm willing to bet that the phone is bound to fail and their OS will be doomed to obscurity. How do the creators not see this? Three reasons I don't think it will work out: 1. A huge number of people use WatsApp, Facetime, Messenger, etc., for sending messages and making calls. This OS won't support any of these apps. 2. We may hate our phones a…

> What makes people work on projects like this? I would love to dualboot a minimalist OS that is supported on my device (e.g. Galaxy S[6-10]), works for basic things like calls and sms, and doubles my battery life. Then, when I need the full-featured experience, I'd just boot into Android. The reason this won't work is rather the device manufacturers, sadly. I agree with your conclusion that these OSes seem to be doo…

Sony devices supports the thing you mention. Called ultra stamina

Re: MuditaOS: An open-source, e-ink mobile OS

#86

Post by foofoo4u »

paleogizmo wrote: post #45
dubcanada wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds to me like you want a regular phone.

I think this is the paradox that distraction-free phones always run into. Everyone including myself wants the useful or convenient niceties of a modern smartphone like maps, Spotify, various messaging tools, notes etc. without the dreck of social media. At this point, a stripped-down android launcher makes more sense than trying to bring back the candybar phone or some weird hardware middle ground. There are a bunch…

I just need the basics: phone, maps, contacts, banking, Uber, spotify, etc. But I don't want the dopamine slot machines on my phone: facebook, twitter, snapchat, etc. I struggled to find a solution that could address this. Then I followed some suggestions from others on here to enable parental controls. So far it's worked great for me! Only my wife knows the password to unlock. I wish the industry could provide a better solution, but so far this has been working out well. I get to enjoy being out more without having that itch go waste time on my phone.

Re: MuditaOS: An open-source, e-ink mobile OS

#87

Post by wojtekidd »

traverseda wrote: post #53
black_puppydog wrote: post #6

A bit sad to see that you have to fill out a typeform to get access to the code. I'm sure if it is actually FOSS (GPL or MIT or such) then there will be public forks on gitlab or whatnot. Looks cool though. Might be viable to adapt to different screen sizes too? I know the remarkable is already hackable, but can't hurt to have competing UI concepts there, right ? :)

I filled out the form a couple days ago and haven't gotten any sort of invite.

We're working on it - thank you for your patience :)

Re: MuditaOS: An open-source, e-ink mobile OS

#88

Post by bartvk »

kristopolous wrote: post #81
commonturtle wrote: post #74

I ask this with no malice: What makes people work on projects like this? I'm willing to bet that the phone is bound to fail and their OS will be doomed to obscurity. How do the creators not see this? Three reasons I don't think it will work out: 1. A huge number of people use WatsApp, Facetime, Messenger, etc., for sending messages and making calls. This OS won't support any of these apps. 2. We may hate our phones a…

Depends what motivates you. The unstated part of crossing the chasm and everything that deals with new tech is there's potential social value in market failure. Personally I'd rather spend my career at one Xerox Parc failed project after another instead of working on profitable but ultimately empty products For some it's not about money or a career, it's about building new things In an ideal world people like me woul…

You can still do that, though. Most countries have multiple scientific institutes aimed at defense, climate or space research. For the US, orgs like NOAA and NASA need engineers. For Europe, there's all the national institutes like DLR for Germany, and European communities like ESO and ESA. You can make a contribution to science there.

Re: MuditaOS: An open-source, e-ink mobile OS

#89

Post by bartvk »

BossingAround wrote: post #80
commonturtle wrote: post #74

I ask this with no malice: What makes people work on projects like this? I'm willing to bet that the phone is bound to fail and their OS will be doomed to obscurity. How do the creators not see this? Three reasons I don't think it will work out: 1. A huge number of people use WatsApp, Facetime, Messenger, etc., for sending messages and making calls. This OS won't support any of these apps. 2. We may hate our phones a…

> What makes people work on projects like this? I would love to dualboot a minimalist OS that is supported on my device (e.g. Galaxy S[6-10]), works for basic things like calls and sms, and doubles my battery life. Then, when I need the full-featured experience, I'd just boot into Android. The reason this won't work is rather the device manufacturers, sadly. I agree with your conclusion that these OSes seem to be doo…

Isn't this incredibly easy to solve with tiny external rechargeable batteries?

Re: MuditaOS: An open-source, e-ink mobile OS

#90

Post by scottlocklin »

Fnoord wrote: post #75
scottlocklin wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what? nobody mentioning Koreader? Light years ahead of whatever Nickel reader comes with the thing.

Link [1] Sorry, I never used any custom firmware on our Kobos. You see, I keep them offline, so I'd care less about security vulnerabilities in them (plus if they go online, its via guest network). Also, I am very content with the software on our Kobo readers (Aura One and Aura Two). I do use Calibre + USB sometimes. What am I missing out on? [1] https://github.com/koreader/koreader

Stuff I use every day: column reflow, djvu/chm/mobi support, cropping and zoom on text size even in scanned images.

Supposedly lots of other features as well , but simply supporting djvu is so huge for me, I can't imagine bothering with nickel.

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