Thread: Help---Operating System

Boredom with an OS means stability.
Stability is good in a vehicle PC.

Ultimately, the OS choice is up to you. WinXP is the OS that has the most software available for it as well as the fewest compatability/stability issues, and would be my recommendation.

I would have to be with DarquePervert on this one.... XP is currently the best thing out there for multiple reasons.

1: Compatibility
2: Availability
3: Speed
4: Familiarity
5: Usability

LINUX - is fast and reliable but you can not get anywhere near the amount of premade software/drivers for linux and does not take you a day to learn or install something simple.

WIN98- Windows 98 is good if you want a basic mp3/video player but even then has its limits. Trying to get a 3rd party USB device to work is a head ache at that with out trying to get USB2 working. Reliable yes, But not worth it

VISTA- Well not point going into this one, Later on vista/windows7 will be worth it but not at this current moment unless you have an overkill system in your car. Plus not backwards compatible as they claim....


---Windows XP---
1: Compatibility
A good 90% of hardware will work with XP with a basic driver and have multiple drivers available with the ease to modify a driver to suit.

2: Availability
Walk into any shop to but a piece of hardware or software and chances are it will run on XP unless you goto a mac/console shop... Even then there are ways

3: Speed
Maybe not the fastest at everything, But has the best average and tweaks available without making the OS unstable

4: Familiarity
Everyone knows the classic startmenu and control panel along with the XP based drivers and so forth..

5: Usability
More or less above, Its simple, Easy and fast. But this is the OS GUI, not the Carputer GUI.

Try a few different cut down versions of windows XP, i have found that a basic install with a few performance mods works fine. Its just a case of knowing how you want it to run and making sure it can.

If your after the right type of software, I suggest getting hold of a compiler and making your own GUI and replacing the explorer.exe with your own

plain old (boring) Windows XP is generally considered the best choice;
1. there is a ton of software for it
2. almost all of the pre-made front ends are for windows
3. tweaked; XP can boot very fast and run on low-end machines with ease (especially after trimming the fat with nLite

XP Media Center (or any other non-standard version of XP) is no better than regular XP for carPC use. most people use front-ends, you rarely see or use the windows desktop.

Vista is a resource hog and the "pretty GUI" offers no benefits over XP when used for a carPC (front-end hides it).

MacOS has some front end software available, but using a mac in the car has the same drawbacks as using a mac at home; proprietary hardware and lack of software (software selection for macs cannot compare to the amount of software available for PCs)

Linux. I use Ubuntu linux on my home PC (typing on it now) and enjoy using it, but I would never suggest it for carPC use. Linux has a nice selection of free software available, but pretty much nothing for carPCs. there is no good GPS software for Linux either. Viking is the best one I've seen, but even that can't compare to carPC GPS apps like iGuidance. I however encourage anyone to laern and use Linux as a windows alternative at home. Ubuntu is a very easy and reliable version of Linux, and it's free

bottom line is stick with the reliable, stable, and easy to use XP. with free front ends like RoadRunner and many nice skins to choose from, you can control almost everything through the front end. since you generally won't use the OS's GUI, there's no need to use anything fancier.

Originally Posted by FusionFanatic

...
Linux. I use Ubuntu linux on my home PC (typing on it now) and enjoy using it, but I would never suggest it for carPC use. Linux has a nice selection of free software available, but pretty much nothing for carPCs. there is no good GPS software for Linux either. Viking is the best one I've seen, but even that can't compare to carPC GPS apps like iGuidance. I however encourage anyone to laern and use Linux as a windows alternative at home. Ubuntu is a very easy and reliable version of Linux, and it's free

I'm going to have to voice in on this one:

CarPC software specific to Linux:
nGhost - frontend, desktop environment.

ICEPanel - dock application that works with nghost and linux window...

Navigation:
http://tangogps.org"]tangogps - Still immature, but promising.
navit - Mature, and getting lots of good dev work done.
roadnav - Probably the most mature, crossplatform.

Also, iGuidance also works in Linux using WINE. Setup is pretty easy, you just need to make sure you use the right GPS unit or WINE version. The Linux forum here has a thread about the whole subject.


And like FusionFanatic said, it's all free (excluding iGuidance of course).

cheers

Originally Posted by kev000

Also, iGuidance also works in Linux using WINE. Setup is pretty easy, you just need to make sure you use the right GPS unit or WINE version. The Linux forum here has a thread about the whole subject

I know people have had success getting old versions of iGuidance to work. but I have iGuidance4.. I read this thread where it appears that a couple members got iGuidance4 to to run under WINE, but nobody was able to successfully get all its features working (important features, such as TTS/sound).