[NTLUG:Discuss] Linux on the PDA

[Justin M. Forbes]

On Mon, Jan 24, 2005 at 10:14:16AM -0600, Andrew Brown wrote:
> I have been reading on PDA's with Linux OS namely the Sharp Zaurus and
> several other models. I also did some looking into the iPaq loaded with
> Linux. Has anyone had experience with Linux on the PDA? How does it
> compare to Palm OS on the Linux desktop?
> 
While I think the zaurus is a neat toy, it is just that... A toy.  I have
one, but generally use my treo 600 for day to day stuff.  Problems with the
zaurus line include:

- Using their latest firmwares, you cannot sync with Linux, they changed 
  the backend database format from the standard QTopia, so the Trolltech
  supported client does not work.

- While there are several alternatives out there, none of them seemed quite
  as clean as the one Sharp supports on the zaurus.

- Their are far fewer apps available... While hacking on a PDA is fun, I
  have plenty of projects to hack on, I need my PDA to work.

- Battery life could be *much* better.

I have been fairly happy with my treo though, and while it's version of
Palm OS does not run on top of Linux, the recent announcement from Palm
Source was that future versions of PalmOS would be linux based.  It syncs
perfectly with Evolution, and several other utilities, and I have no
shortage of app availability.  Of course being a cell phone too, the fact
that I have IRC and ssh clients on it is an aded bonus.

> In seeing the screen shots, it looks very cool! 
> 
They are cool, just not quite as useful...

Justin M. Forbes

Kernel Engineer
Specifix Inc.
http://wiki.specifix.com