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Home / Other I-Appliances / Gateway/AOL Connected Touch Pad Recommendation on OS/Plan of attack

Recommendation on OS/Plan of attack (modified 0 times) Glutious Profile I've ordered one of the GCT, but I'm fighting with the F#$& salesman to get ethernet instead of HPNA on it. Anyways, I thought I'd ask all the experts on their opinions about my situation... I wish to use the GCT as a controller for WinAmp on a W2k box connected to the house stereo. IIS/PHP will receive XML requests over HTTP, parse XML/commands, submit to WinAmp through windows messaging & ActiveX, get any response, respond back with XML. This isn't a problem so far, but I'm trying to decide what to put on the client side - the GCT. I was hoping to have the client be browser based (Mozilla/IE5.5), so that I could run it on other boxes in the house as well (my programming experience isn't so hot in anything other then web technologies as well... So it'd take me more effort then I want to right now in building a custom app...). But the concern I have is I'd like to have the client be as thin as possible - all I want or need on it is a browser with XML, HTML, and JS. I'd prefer to be able to us the CF on GCT in the interest of power costs (I live in CA), noise, cost (a laptop power supply isn't much, but it still costs money...). I've read that people have been successful in getting windoze on larger CF, but I question the lifespan of a CF that's being written to alot. I'd prefer some kind of embedded OS that would run out of memory (WinCE, QNX, possibly a flavor of linux...) So what would you über hackers out there do? WinCE w/ custom app? QNX w/ custom app?? Midori w/ Mozilla??? Thanks, Glutious 06-04-2001 12:10:45

RE:Recommendation on OS/Plan of attack (modified 0 times) BigDog Profile | Email Myself, I try to relax a little when I get home, playing a cdrom on the home stereo does it for me! 06-04-2001 13:23:45

RE:Recommendation on OS/Plan of attack (modified 0 times) BubbaDog56 Profile To address two of your questions/issues: Noise: There isn't any to speak of, adding a laptop hard drive internally doesn't require a fan and is very quiet in operation. Power: A laptop HD doesn't need an external power source, it pulls power through the ribbon cable from the mobo. Additional electric draw is pretty nil, you won't even notice. Pix of an internal HD mod at http://photos.yahoo.com/bubbadog56 B'Dog 06-04-2001 16:06:23

RE:Recommendation on OS/Plan of attack (modified 0 times) Ricko73 Profile | Email Well since this thing comes with a Linux based distro (midori Linux), that would be my first choice. Should give you just about all you need to do what you are talking about. May need a bit of work to get the JS going, but I'm not sure. It might be in there. They package it up with Netscrape, but I am looking into what resources are required to have a gnome based system and run Galeon (fast, up-to-date web browser based on Mozilla code). I'm still working out how I want to have the rest of my network setup and then will mess around with the GCTP. Do you have any experience with Linux? It is really a kick butt stable system to do most anything on. Good luck which ever route you go. Ricko 06-04-2001 19:11:56

RE:Recommendation on OS/Plan of attack (modified 0 times) Glutious Profile I wouldn't call myself very proficient in Linux, but I know enough about it to make it work, eventually... I've run Linux for about 3 years (RedHat 5.1), but that's more from running the system, not programming it. I'm not a X-Windows programmer by any means. My main desire right now is to find the "easy" solution. I'm sure if I spent enough time I could get linux/other embedded OS running with a custom app and achieve my goal. My main concern is that I've already got 20 irons in the fire (and just like me, I see a good deal on a piece of hardware, and I put in an order... :-p) and would prefer to put off any complex/time-consuming tasks until a later date when I can dedicate more time to it. The attraction of my current idea/solution is that by using XML between the client/server, I can upgrade either end to a different solution at a later date without starting over. With Kylix running $199 till Aug 15th, I could easily learn Delphi/Pascal programming for QT, and then buy the $99 Delphia 6 and compile for both X-Windows and Windoze. But if I can build a client side app that passes XML to the server very simply right now (like Mozilla - Win and Linux), I can push off the Kylix/Delphia solution for awhile... As for power concerns of running a laptop hard drive, it's more the convenience of running an embedded app. If it's running off the CF, then I could press the power button and have control over WinAmp within 30 secs at max. if I had to boot Win98/whatever, it wouldn't be as much an "instant" remote control... The reason I'd consider leaving it turned off most of the time is that each of my computers that use Energy Star/APM stuff heavily (turn off monitor after 5 mins, HD after 10 mins, etc...) cost me an extra $5-15 per month each... I'd prefer to have the "instant on/off" of an embedded solution; but I know I'm asking alot for an easy solution... Glutious 06-04-2001 22:36:34

RE:Recommendation on OS/Plan of attack (modified 0 times) vagitizer Profile | Email Is that why my electric bill is so high :P 06-04-2001 22:57:58

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