GPE (a

recursive acronym A recursive acronym is an acronym that refers to itself, and appears most frequently in computer programming. The term was first used in print in 1979 in Douglas Hofstadter's book '' Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid'', in which Hofs ...

for GPE Palmtop Environment) is a

graphical user interface The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, ins ...

environment for handheld computers, such as palmtops and

personal digital assistant A personal digital assistant (PDA), also known as a handheld PC, is a variety mobile device which functions as a personal information manager. PDAs have been mostly displaced by the widespread adoption of highly capable smartphones, in part ...

s (PDAs), running some

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ...

-based operating system. GPE is a complete environment of software components and applications which makes it possible to use a Linux handheld for tasks such as

personal information management Personal information management (PIM) is the study of the activities people perform in order to acquire or create, store, organize, maintain, retrieve, and use information items such as documents (paper-based and digital), web pages, and email mes ...

(PIM), audio playback, email, and web browsing. GPE is

free and open-source software Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...

, subject to the terms of the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general ...

(GPL) or the

GNU Lesser General Public License The GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) is a free-software license published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The license allows developers and companies to use and integrate a software component released under the LGPL into their own ...

(LGPL).

Supported devices

GPE is bundled with embedded

Linux distribution A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading one ...

s targeting the following platforms: *

Sharp Zaurus The Sharp Zaurus is the name of a series of personal digital assistants (PDAs) made by Sharp Corporation. The Zaurus was the most popular PDA during the 1990s in Japan and was based on a proprietary operating system. The first Sharp PDA to use ...

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

iPAQ The iPAQ is a discontinued Pocket PC and personal digital assistant which was first unveiled by Compaq in April 2000. HP's line-up of iPAQ devices included PDA-devices, smartphones and GPS-navigators. A substantial number of devices were ...

* Hewlett-Packard Jornada 72x *

Siemens AG Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', ''E ...

SIMpad The SIMpad is a portable computer developed by the company Keith & Koep by order of Siemens AG, with an 8.4" TFT touchscreen. Commonly used with wireless network cards, it was marketed as a device to browse the World Wide Web. Initially announced ...

SL4 In addition, GPE maintainers and the open source community are developing ports for additional devices: *

GamePark Holdings GPH, formerly known as GamePark Holdings, was a South Korean company responsible for creating the GP2X that was founded by former employees of the game maker GamePark in 2005. History Several years after the release of the GP32, its maker GamePar ...

GP2x * Nokia 770 *

Nokia N800 The Nokia N800 Internet tablet is a wireless Internet appliance from Nokia, originally announced at the Las Vegas CES 2007 Summit in January 2007. N800 allows the user to browse the Internet and communicate using Wi-Fi networks or with mobi ...

Palm TX The Palm TX (written as "Palm T, X" in official documentation) was a personal digital assistant which was produced by Palm, Inc. Palm, Inc. was an American company that specialized in manufacturing personal digital assistants (PDAs) and vari ...

Palm Treo 650 The Palm Treo 650 is a Palm OS-based smartphone, the successor to Palm's Treo 600. It began shipping in November 2004, and was discontinued in 2008. Specifications Carriers The following GSM and CDMA2000 mobile phone operators currently or p ...

HTC Universal The HTC Universal is a Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC PDA manufactured by High Tech Computer Corporation. It was the first 3G/UMTS-enabled Pocket PC PDA with a telecommunications function, and also the first to come with Windows Mobile 5.0 pr ...

HTC Typhoon The HTC Typhoon is a smartphone that runs the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system. The phone is manufactured by Taiwanese HTC Corporation (HTC). At the time when the Typhoon was made, HTC was not in the business of selling devices to end- ...

HTC Tornado The HTC Tornado is a smartphone model designed by High Tech Computer Corporation and powered by the Windows Mobile 5 operating system. It has QVGA display resolution. The Tornado is rebranded as at least 9 different models: the Dopod 586W, Qt ...

HTC Wizard The HTC Wizard (also known as the HTC Prodigy and the HTC P4300) is an Internet-enabled Windows Mobile Pocket PC smartphone designed by High Tech Computer Corporation of Taiwan. It has a touchscreen with a left-side slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The ...

HTC Apache The HTC Apache is a Windows Mobile 5.0 device, sold as the PPC-6700 by Sprint, and the XV6700 by Verizon Wireless and other US carriers. The device was one of the first CDMA Windows Mobile 5.0 devices on the market, and the first to be released ...

On February 5, 2007, The GPE project announce
GPE Phone Edition
a new variant of GPE developed for mobile phones.

Software components

GPE does not have any of the

GNOME Core Applications GNOME Core Applications is a software suite of approximately 30 application software that are packaged as part of the standard free and open-source GNOME desktop environment. GNOME Core Applications have the look and feel of the GNOME desktop, an ...

, but instead software was written from scratch, tailored to the embedded environment. GPE is based on

GTK+ GTK (formerly GIMP ToolKit and GTK+) is a free and open-source cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs). It is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License, allowing both free and prop ...

, and because GTK+ did not gain support for Wayland until versions 3.10, GPE uses

X11 The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems. X provides the basic framework for a GUI environment: drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting wi ...

as its

windowing system In computing, a windowing system (or window system) is software that manages separately different parts of display screens. It is a type of graphical user interface (GUI) which implements the WIMP ( windows, icons, menus, pointer) paradigm f ...

, e.g. with the combination X.Org Server/

Matchbox Phillumeny (also known as phillumenism) is the hobby of collecting different match-related items: matchboxes, matchbox labels, matchbooks, matchcovers, matchsafes, etc. Matchbox A matchbox is a box made of cardboard or thin wood and designe ...

. The project provides an infrastructure for easy and powerful application development by providing core software such as

shared libraries In computer science, a library is a collection of non-volatile resources used by computer programs, often for software development. These may include configuration data, documentation, help data, message templates, pre-written code and ...

, database schemata, and building on available technology including

SQLite SQLite (, ) is a database engine written in the C programming language. It is not a standalone app; rather, it is a library that software developers embed in their apps. As such, it belongs to the family of embedded databases. It is the mo ...

D-BUS In computing, D-Bus (short for "Desktop Bus") is a message-oriented middleware mechanism that allows communication between multiple processes running concurrently on the same machine. D-Bus was developed as part of the freedesktop.org project ...

GStreamer GStreamer is a pipeline-based multimedia framework that links together a wide variety of media processing systems to complete complex workflows. For instance, GStreamer can be used to build a system that reads files in one format, processes the ...

and several of the more common standards defined by freedesktop.org. One of the major goals of the GPE project is to encourage people to work on

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, n ...

for mobile devices and to experiment with writing a GUI for embedded devices. Some of the applications already developed for GPE include: * ''GPE-Contacts'' - A contacts manager * ''GPE-Calendar'' - The calendar application * ''GPE-Edit'' - A simple text editor * ''GPE-Filemanager'' - A file manager with

MIME type A media type (also known as a MIME type) is a two-part identifier for file formats and format contents transmitted on the Internet. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is the official authority for the standardization and publication o ...

and remote access support * ''GPE-Gallery'' - Small and easy to use image viewer * ''GPE-Games'' - A small collection of tiny games * ''GPE-Mini-Browser'' - A

CSS Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG, MathML or XHTML). CSS is a cornerstone technolo ...

and

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...

compatible compact web browser * ''GPE-Sketchbook'' - Create notes and sketches * ''GPE-Soundbite'' - A voice memo tool * ''GPE-ToDo'' - A task list manager * ''GPE-Timesheet'' - Track time spend on tasks * ''Starling'' - A GStreamer based audio player GPE's PIM applications (GPE-Contacts, GPE-Calendar, GPE-ToDo) can be synchronized with their desktop and web counterparts (such as

Novell Evolution GNOME Evolution (formerly Novell Evolution and Ximian Evolution, prior to Novell's 2003 acquisition of Ximian) is the official personal information manager for GNOME. It has been an official part of GNOME since Evolution 2.0 was included with ...

Mozilla Sunbird Mozilla Sunbird is a discontinued free and open-source, cross-platform calendar application that was developed by the Mozilla Foundation, Sun Microsystems and many volunteers.

and

Google Calendar Google Calendar is a time-management and scheduling calendar service developed by Google. It became available in beta release April 13, 2006, and in general release in July 2009, on the web and as mobile apps for the Android and iOS platforms. ...

) through the use of ''GPE-Syncd'' and the OpenSync framework. GPE also contains a number of GUI utilities for configuring 802.11 Wireless LAN,

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

IrDA The Infrared Data Association (IrDA) is an industry-driven interest group that was founded in 1994 by around 50 companies. IrDA provides specifications for a complete set of protocols for wireless infrared communications, and the name "IrDA" also ...

Firewall Firewall may refer to: * Firewall (computing), a technological barrier designed to prevent unauthorized or unwanted communications between computer networks or hosts * Firewall (construction), a barrier inside a building, designed to limit the spre ...

, ALSA,

Package Management A package manager or package-management system is a collection of software tools that automates the process of installing, upgrading, configuring, and removing computer programs for a computer in a consistent manner. A package manager deals w ...

, among others. A mobile

push e-mail Push email is an email system that provides an always-on capability, in which new email is actively transferred ( pushed) as it arrives by the mail delivery agent (MDA) (commonly called mail server) to the mail user agent (MUA), also called the ema ...

client based on the Tinymail framework is in development.

Linux distributions

GPE can be found as a primary environment in the following embedded Linux distributions: * OpenEmbedded (ex OpenZaurus) *

Ångström The angstromEntry "angstrom" in the Oxford online dictionary. Retrieved on 2019-03-02 from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/angstrom.Entry "angstrom" in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. Retrieved on 2019-03-02 from https://www.m ...

Familiar Linux Familiar Linux is a discontinued Linux distribution for iPAQ devices and other personal digital assistants (PDAs), intended as a replacement for Windows CE. It can use OPIE or GPE Palmtop Environment as the graphical user interface. Technical d ...

Though it may not be as highly supported as the distributions listed above, GPE is also available through package management utilities in the following distributions: *

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: '' Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All ...

Debian Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of De ...

Internet Tablet OS Maemo is a software platform originally developed by Nokia, now developed by the community, for smartphones and Internet tablets. The platform comprises both the Maemo operating system and SDK. Maemo played a key role in Nokia's strategy to c ...

Controversy

There are ongoing controversies surrounding the GPE project regarding a change of hosting service, ownership of an

IRC Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called '' channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat an ...

channel, and a trademark dispute.

Web hosting

Serious issues first began developing over a proposed change of hosting service. GPE had been hosted a
Handhelds.org
since April 2002. Some of GPE's developers suggested, and later followed through with, a move t
Linuxtogo.org
by October 2006. Handhelds.org responded by removing the user accounts of the departing developers, and any links or reference to the ne
GPE Linuxtogo.org
location on the origina
GPE Handhelds.org
site.

Trademark

George France, has filed for trademark registration with the

USPTO The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alexa ...

for GPE, in addition to OPIE and

Ipkg ipkg, or the Itsy Package Management System, is a discontinued lightweight package management system designed for embedded devices that resembles Debian's dpkg. It was used in the Unslung operating system for the Linksys NSLU2 ( Optware), in ...

as of March 6, 2007. On June 25, 2007, the USPTO declined to accept a screenshot of the Handhelds.org GPE website as proof of Handhelds.org's ownership, and in addition requested a better specimen for a “GPE product”. Handhelds.org, and OSI board member Russ Nelson, assert that the GPE project was given over to Handhelds.org for public development. The GPE developers working at Linuxtogo.org maintain that they represent the active GPE project, and Handhelds.org was only a hosting provider. Furthermore, they point out that the GPE project existed before it was hosted on Handhelds.org. The USPTO issued a final rejection regarding the GPE trademark on February 27, 2008. George France amended the application (removing references to

GNU GNU () is an extensive collection of free software (383 packages as of January 2022), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operat ...

and Linux). The GPE trademark was officially published for opposition June 3, 2008. Despite George France's impending personal GPE trademark, the core GPE development team at Linuxtogo.org has abandoned much of the Handhelds.org GPE infrastructure. Linuxtogo.org developers have switched GPE to a new bootloader and replaced IPKG with OPKG, and made major changes to the GPE gui applications. The Trademark of GPE was registered to George France on Aug 19, 2008 by the USPTO.

References

External links

GPE web site at LinuxToGo

GPE web site at Handhelds.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gpe Desktop environments based on GTK Embedded Linux Graphical user interfaces X Window System