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Re: [school-discuss] Free / Open Source on iPads?



On Thu, Dec 7, 2017 at 9:42 PM, David Bucknell <david.bucknell@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Great idea, Laura. As usual, your research is helpful and you're thinking
> deeply. My current job is with a cool middle school that's married to (in my
> opinion) not so cool proprietary solutions including the ipad. Would love to
> see less commercial, freer options.  I wonder if there's any hope for an
> alternative culture of Android, or, better yet, linux device apps for
> schools to develop.

If you search Google for canonical mobile ubuntu, you'll find
Canonical has given up on the idea of a mobile version of Ubuntu.
Android is probably the best bet at this point.  Android is based on
Linux but scaled for systems that require high efficiency (saving
battery life) and low memory.  Unlike Canonical, mobile Open Source
projects are still active with Android.

>It might be along the KDE community lines (or even
> within it)?

KDE is probably too heavyweight for an average mobile device although
Qt is popular on some embedded systems.  Also, I think you'd need to
redesign the interface to be user friendly for mobile (limited screen
size, no real keyboard) instead of a desktop computer.  Was thinking
some of the programs I run might convert to mobile if screen size
usage is adjusted and ability to tap screen instead of clicking a
mouse or input information with voice recognition instead of keyboard
is added.  I've seen some SDL based applications ported to mobile
devices.

>  I'll steer any potential collaborators your way as
> I'm sure others will also.
>

I'm wondering if the GNU project has a group already looking into this
or would be interested in starting one.  It would be nice to
collaborate if someone is already investigating it.  If not, Marilyn
just set up http://nowthepathforward.us/ and we've added a section
Building FLOSS C/C++ Programs from Source Code.  I also have the
CppDesign mailing list (
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/CppDesign/info ) for discussing
C/C++ related programming and design topics.  Anyone interested in the
possibilities of porting or creating C/C++ FLOSS applications can use
either of these to continue the discussion in more detail.

Sincerely,
Laura
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