The current list of packages for AwaOS borrows heavily from LXDE and Lubuntu, the primary difference being that these are installed independently over a base Ubuntu 10.04 mini.iso CLI install one package at a time without using LXDE/Lubuntu configurations or meta packages for a build up approach versus a tear down approach. Eventually I hope to build metapackages similar to those on which Lubuntu is based.
- Window manager: Openbox
App priority: core
Reason: lightweight and highly customizable, currently one of the more widely used lightweight window managers.
Weakness: window decoration size cannot be adjusted which is unacceptable from an accessibility standpoint. Older users have trouble clicking the tiny window close button. - Login manager: SLiM
App priority: core
Reason: lightweight, skinable. Minimalist interface, allows auto login. Weakness: username must be typed, cannot choose from a menu as in GDM or on other operating systems.
Alternative: LXDM
Reason not used: do not need/want to show a session menu etc. to beginner users, it will confuse them. May consider if menu can be hidden through theming. - Panel, task tray, system tray: lxpanel
App priority: core
Reason: supports “show desktop” plugin, GTK+ preferences, relatively light weight.
Weakness: could be lighter, Japanese font size not optimal, not anti-aliased (need to fix that).
Alternative: tint2 (advantages: visually more attractive, lighter. reason not used: currently no way to “show desktop”.) - App launcher: lxlauncher
App priority: core
Reason: least bad from among a very few options. Advantage: written in C, uses external freedesktop.org settings.
Weakness: background color is hard coded. I have patched the code and made it available on my PPA.
Alternative: ADeskLauncher.
Reason not used: resource heavy (written in Python), otherwise functionality is better. Not packaged. - Web browser: Epiphany
App priority: essential
Reason: least bad from among the options, lower memory footprint than Chromium or Firefox (and derivatives), elegant beginner friendly GUI, use of webkit engine provides strong web compatibility.
Weakness: heavily Gnome based, pulls in otherwise unwanted Gnome dependencies.
Alternative: Midori Browser. Reason not used: GUI is not oriented towards beginners, still unstable, web support not yet comprehensive - Email client: Sylpheed
App priority: high – web mail also a possibility
Reason: very strong built in Japanese support, lightweight
Weakness: does not use GTK+ icon set within the application so does not match overall look and feel, but does follow GTK+ theme otherwise. Does not support display of HTML mail.
Alternative: Claws Mail or web based email
Reason not used: app name and icon too “geeky” for Japanese general public. May consider forking to rebrand it if Japanese support is in line with Sylpheed (of which it is a fork). - Chat client: Pidgin
App priority: non essential
Reason: wide support for chat protocols including Yahoo! Japan, fewer Gnome dependencies then Empathy
Weakness: still has a few Gnome dependencies - Twitter client: Twitux
App priority: non essential
Reason: lightest functioning twitter client.
Weakness: app icon not intuitive, i.e. does not bear any visual relationship to the app’s role. Absolute barest minimum Twitter API support. - Word processor: Abiword
App priority: essential
Reason: simple GUI, MS Office compatability, would rather avoid the bloat of Open Office - Spreadsheet: Gnumeric
App priority: high
Reason: simple GUI, MS Office compatibility, would rather avoid the bloat of Open Office - Graphic editor: Gimp
App priority: non essential
Reason: strangely, Photoshop is the editor of choice in Japan even among PC novices (due to strong marketing in the past, a sort of “Kleenex” effect). Thus anything other than Gimp will not provide expected features.
Weakness: lack of single window mode in current version. 2.8 slated to have a single window mode.
Alternative: none considered until I see a real requirement for a basic “paint” program among the users. - Video player: Gnome Mplayer
App priority: medium – mainly for DVD playback
Reason: simple single window interface, few dependencies
Alternative: mplayer-gui
Reason not used: video and controls in separate windows. - Audio player: Guayadeque
App priority: medium
Reason: only fully featured music player that meets the AwaOS app guidelines
Previous choice: lxmusic
Reason replaced: lxmusic is too feature limited. - File manager: PCManFM
App priority: core
Reason: simple, straight forward, lightweight, few dependencies
Weakness: not recently updated, but a major by revision by PCMan is in the works.
Alternative: thunar
Reason not used: uses slightly more resources, more dependencies
- PIM: Osmo
App priority: non essential – PC based schedule management not yet the norm
Reason: elegant calendar (even shows moon phases).
Weakness: no practical integration with the system or external services yet implemented. Task list/notes interface less than ideal. App wants to stay in memory (and uses quite a chunk of RAM) though it can be configured not to.
Alternative: still looking.
Other tools include leafpad (text editor, core), gtkam (digital camera management, high priority), galculator (calculator, medium priority), xarchive (maybe similar function built into PCManFM?), gpicview (picture viewer, essential), lxterminal (terminal, core), hardinfo (system info, core), xfce4-clipman (clipboard, core), hal (hardware abstraction layer removed in Ubuntu 10.04, needed without the Gnome desktop, core), halevt (hal event daemon, for automounting, core) , xfce4-taskmanager (core), lxappearance (configure GTK+ theme, core), redshift (daemon to adjust monitor color temp automatically at night, priority high), lxrandr (change monitor resolution, priority high), splashy (display splash screen and hide Linux boot text, core), policykit (allows halevt to run system wide, core), etc.
This list is constantly subject to change.
