info needed for Plasma Active Two release announcements

[Carl Symons]

Hello Martin,

Is the information you sent documented somewhere accessible by
potential users and interested bystanders? If not, we--the team--need
to put structures in place so that information is shared easily and
widely.

Of course I'm interested in technical details as a kiddie mad
scientist (I don't code, but I delight in demoing Plasma, especially
PA on the ExoPC). But my main interest is in getting visibility for
Mer, Plasma Active, KDE, basysKom, open-slx, all developers, FOSS,
community, goodness & light. People's hard work and good software need
exposure to realize more potential.

In addition to developing the technology, there's also a need also to
pay attention outside of technical boundaries. And this requires
planning too. This is almost a User Experience challenge at the level
of the whole product...not just how Contour works, but how all the
pieces fit together that are associated with FOSS-on-mobile-devices.

The work that y'all are doing is amazing. I can hardly wait for PA2
and for somebody to present at the local LUG, demonstrating replacing
Ice Cream Sandwich on their Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Mer and Plasma.

Carl

On Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 8:45 AM, martin brook
<martin.brook100 at googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Carl, good to see so much interest.
>
> I've been working on porting Plasm Active to Advent Vega (Tegra2), Nokia
> N950, trimslice and lately G9 with an unlocked device from Archos in my
> spare time.
>
> There are instructions and images for N950 and Trimslice at
>
> http://images.formeego.org/trimslice/
> http://images.formeego.org/n950/plasma-active/
>
> Instructions and images for Advent Vega and point of view Tegra 2 tablet at
>
> http://share.basyskom.com/contour/Deployment/latest-basyskom-plasma-active-tegra2-mer.html
> http://share.basyskom.com/contour/Deployment/mer_arm_install_archive/point_of_view_nvidia_tegra2/readme.txt
> http://share.basyskom.com/contour/Deployment/mer_arm_install_archive/point_of_view_nvidia_tegra2/
>
> G9 Images and kernel can be found here, although you will need an onlocked
> bootloader which I understand will ba avaiable in the next few days.
>
> http://share.basyskom.com/contour/Deployment/mer_arm_install_archive/archos-generation-9/
> https://www.gitorious.org/archos-gen9-mer-adaptation-kernel
>
> There has been a number of large changes in the architecture of some of
> these pieces the biggest for me is the move away from MeeGo as the core to
> Mer.  http://www.merproject.org/   These changes have meant that keeping up
> with the latest baseline on these pieces of hardware is a large task.
>
> These ports are very young and are not production quality so any help is
> welcome.
>
> You can find me and the guys on #Mer and #active on Freenode IRC and more
> information on the Mer community
> wikipages, http://wiki.merproject.com/wiki/Community_Workspace
>
> I suggest that once PA2 hits a stable RC point (please let me know) that we
> make images for each of the devices listed above and if you have a device
> spare let me know I'm always on the lookout for potential Mer/Plasma Active
> targets.
>
> BR
>
> vgrade (mad scientist)
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 3:49 PM, Carl Symons <carlsymons at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 3:13 AM, Aaron J. Seigo <aseigo at kde.org> wrote:
>> > hi...
>> >
>> > we are tentatively going with the following three messages for the
>> > release
>> > announcement around PA2:
>> >
>> > * Improved usability
>> >        * enhanced touch functionality in contour
>> >        * improvements to web browsing
>> >        * settings app
>> >        * consistent interface for adding things to activities
>> >        * bug fixing (bugzilla says 92 issues closed so far, with 48
>> > open)
>> >
>> > * Performance improvements
>> >        * improvements in keyboard
>> >        * faster listings of applications
>> >
>> > * Recommendations
>> >
>> > it will wrap up with an overview of availability, which will highlight
>> > the
>> > working partnership with Mer and the availability of Plasma Active on
>> > the
>> > various devices that it has been brought up on (archos, tegra2, etc..).
>> > the
>> > expansion of availability between PA1 and PA2 will be highlighted.
>> >
>> > final para will be an invitation for participation and a hint that PA3
>> > will be
>> > a more feature-focused release.
>> >
>> >
>> > so .. what i need from all of you is this:
>> >
>> > lists and details of changes in PA2 that fit in the above 3 topics. e.g.
>> > "what
>> > has changed, exactly, in the web browser?", "what are the most
>> > significant
>> > fixes?", "what kind of numbers do we have for the faster, model-based
>> > listings?"
>> >
>> > also please feel free to add new subtopics. i only listed two items
>> > under
>> > performance improvements, though i know there are more than that ;)
>> >
>> > bullet point lists are good enough. i don't need full
>> > sentences/paragraphs
>> > (though those are also welcome ;) as i'll be putting this together into
>> > a
>> > coherent text next week.
>> >
>> > which means i need this info by next week ;) ... tuesday at the latest
>> > please!
>> >
>> > --
>> > Aaron J. Seigo
>>
>> I have gotten several requests from people wanting to install Plasma
>> Active on their tablets. There are two camps:
>> * devices currently running PA. I got a message today from someone who
>> wants PA on their ARCHOS G9 tablet (publicized a day or two ago).
>> People are hungry for notiOS and notAndroid. Plus they want real open
>> source and experimental cool stuff without having to start from zero.
>>
>> * devices that resemble working installations...ARM
>>
>> It would be useful to building traffic and awareness to have
>> information to support both. Acknowledging the possibility of
>> problems, including bricking...there can be warnings, fallback
>> strategies, whatever else is necessary to support the mad scientists.
>> Perhaps the more outlandish installation possibilities could be
>> treated through a more informal website/wiki.
>>
>> This will take knowledgeable developer input, as well as purposeful
>> coordination between the various installation suggestions, wikis and
>> forums. It could (will) be messy, but the outcomes are
>> valuable...potential new developers, more people, devices, traffic,
>> publicity, applications.
>>
>> This all fits with "invitation for participation", and serves to lower
>> the technical bar for involvement.
>>
>> Carl
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>
>