[NTLUG:Discuss] Agenda VR3

[Steve Baker]

severian at pobox.com wrote:

>   I see the Agenda VR3 linux PDA is available for $115 (including 
> charger).  I remember at least one group member demonstrated one a while 
> back.  Does anyone have any longer term experience with them?  Are they 
> useful?  Do they hold up?

They are indeed OpenSource PDA's - and they run Linux.  I thought the company
that made them had gone bust and that you couldn't buy them anymore.

I have one (one of the developer versions actually - they sold them cheap
to people with OpenSource backgrounds in order to get a groundswell of
applications work done on the cheap).  The developer machines have a picture
of Tux on the lid - the mainstream machines have some other kind of logo.

Anyhow - as a PDA, they are a little disappointing.  The speed at which
applications launch is slow compared to a reasonably modern Palm.  Their
battery life is fairly short (even when on standby mode).  Their audio
capabilities are utterly pathetic - a very tiny beeper rather than a
proper speaker.

However, they have some cool features - they speak PPP down either serial
port or IR port - so when you want to sync up with your Linux PC, you
just hook up their serial ports (or aim the IR) and transfer files using
rcp.  You can even telnet into the Agenda from the PC or vice-versa!
Some maniacs even got NFS working on the Agenda.

The available Flash ROM space is split between the system disk and the
user file area - it's possible to reprogram the system disk in order
to get new system software onto the beast - but it's a pretty tricky
process.

I have to say that the coolest thing about the Agenda is that
it runs Linux at all.  Fellow geeks are blown away by the ability to
run Xterm and a command-line shell!

The machine has a MIPS CPU - but no floating point hardware.  Programs
that only need integer math run reasonably well - but don't try to use
it for running heavy floating point math type applications!

The handwriting recognition mechanism is a little different from PalmOS,
so if you are intensively familiar with Palms, you'll find adapting to
the Agenda's handwriting method a little tricky.   If you don't know
Palm's system, it's probably no harder to learn the Agenda's method
than the Palm's.

I never learned either - the Agenda has a pop-up 'keyboard' tool that
covers the bottom quarter of the screen and lets you tap in text using
the stylus.

It comes with the usual set of PDA applications - but they aren't
terrifically sophisticated.  The calculator is just Xcalc for example.

>   I want a PDA to initially run a custom database app that I'll write to 
> keep track of employees, phone numbers, and skills. There are probably 
> better Linux PDAs like the Zaurus 5500 and 5600.  But I think I could 
> get my company to buy me something at around $100.
> Looking forward to feedback,

I've written apps for the Agenda - it runs X and you can write programs
and cross-compile using GCC on any Linux box.  The recommended GUI
toolkit is FLTK - which works quite well on the Agenda.

I wrote a couple of programs for it (one makes up 'wordsearch' puzzles
and lets you solve them interactively for example).

There was once a thriving Agenda community with lots of Linux programs
being ported to it (and adapted to the somewhat restricted screen size).
However, when the Agenda company died, the community fizzled out.

Regrettably, I've now forgotten everything technical I ever learned
about it - so if you plan to use it, I'm not going to be much help. :-(

Where do you still see them on sale?

---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
HomeEmail: <sjbaker1 at airmail.net>    WorkEmail: <sjbaker at link.com>
HomePage : http://www.sjbaker.org
Projects : http://plib.sf.net    http://tuxaqfh.sf.net
            http://tuxkart.sf.net http://prettypoly.sf.net
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