Why not linux?

**tdb30_** · 10-09-2006, 11:47 PM

Do you use OBDII to get the stats? Or does it use some other type of interface?

I'm looking for the following things from an interface. Navigation, Media, Diagnostics if anyone is writing a front end

**rod555** · 10-10-2006, 07:29 AM

Originally Posted by TheLlama

But why is Windows so popular here? I will tell you why

Take a look around the forums. Especially the ones with fewer than 5-6 responses. You will quickly get an idea of the general level of expertise on this forum. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of very talented individuals who frequent this forum, but the bulk of the users, in general, want a CarPC and don't know anything beyond that. Even the more savvy users don't have any/much Linux experience.

Problem is that when youre developing, doesnt mather how better linux is, the client will ask you for a windows platform product. That leaves you no choice.
Learning perl for win32 now.

**shotgunefx** · 10-10-2006, 08:25 AM

My preference is for linux, I'm running Debian. Nav is a bit of a pain, but everything else has been relatively easy. Though googleearth will help with that once I get my net connection going.

Definitely was a lot of digging to configure some aspects though (wireless, dual heads, etc).

Originally Posted by rod555

Problem is that when youre developing, doesnt mather how better linux is, the client will ask you for a windows platform product. That leaves you no choice.
Learning perl for win32 now.

My front end is Perl using the SDL libraries. There are also OpenGL bindings too which once I get some time, I'll probably take advantage of. I've got a nice 3d-model of my car.

It's still in progress, but here are some older pics

and the dashboard

I really just want music and everything else is fairly specific to my setup so rolling my own was the only option that made sense. (Eventually the dash will be on a seperate screen where the gauges are now).

There's more (vids too) on my blog.

**jpuype** · 10-10-2006, 09:11 AM

At home I almost exclusively use Linux as well (Fedora Core 5, for those interested), while I'm stuck at work with XP Pro.
In my spare time (like I have that) I'm taking a course VB .Net and I actually make my assignments (basic stuff) on my Linux box, on thing called Mono, an implementation of the .Net framework on Linux by Novell.

Now I believe that a lot of the software that is being developped here: Frontends, GPS applications and alike are being written in
VB (either 6 or .Net) which make me wonder if it would be feasable to recompile those applications under Linux and fill some of the needs these (us) Linux-philes have ?

Anyone has 2 cents to add to this?

Jurgen

**shotgunefx** · 10-10-2006, 09:17 AM

Originally Posted by jpuype

At home I almost exclusively use Linux as well (Fedora Core 5, for those interested), while I'm stuck at work with XP Pro.
In my spare time (like I have that) I'm taking a course VB .Net and I actually make my assignments (basic stuff) on my Linux box, on thing called Mono, an implementation of the .Net framework on Linux by Novell.

Now I believe that a lot of the software that is being developped here: Frontends, GPS applications and alike are being written in
VB (either 6 or .Net) which make me wonder if it would be feasable to recompile those applications under Linux and fill some of the needs these (us) Linux-philes have ?

Anyone has 2 cents to add to this?

Jurgen

I've very out of date on win development, but isn't MONO supposed to let you run .NET on linux?

**jpuype** · 10-10-2006, 09:26 AM

I won't retype everything there is to know about Mono :-)
The Faq can be found at :
http://www.mono-project.com/FAQ:_General !
But in short it is a reimplementation of the .Net technology to allow Unix/Linux developers to develop cross-platform .Net applications.

Jurgen

**strandtc** · 10-10-2006, 10:39 AM

I would assume it wouldn't work. I think you would run into too many dependancy issues.. like needing iGuidence, Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, etc.

shotgunefx, I Like the interface. Who designed your layout?

-Chris

**shotgunefx** · 10-10-2006, 11:55 AM

Originally Posted by strandtc

I would assume it wouldn't work. I think you would run into too many dependancy issues.. like needing iGuidence, Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, etc.

shotgunefx, I Like the interface. Who designed your layout?

-Chris

Thanks. I did. It's been cleaned up since and expanded. Outside of text, all the other graphics are just regular bitmaps, with blinkers, states, etc encoded as animated gifs for convienence. The skin is html.

**TheLlama** · 10-10-2006, 12:34 PM

Originally Posted by strandtc

I would assume it wouldn't work. I think you would run into too many dependancy issues.. like needing iGuidence, Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, etc.

shotgunefx, I Like the interface. Who designed your layout?

-Chris

Yeah, but one can rewrite those areas of code. Use xinelib and maybe fmod for sound/video instead, use gecko engine for internet, and whatever nav is for Linux. Really, nav would be the only issue. The benefit is that frontend's dialogs, user interface logic, library code, etc.. are already working.