is anyone running linux on their pocket pc? how do you like it? was it worth the change? screenshots? 
whats the config?
whats the config?
Linux on PDA
- Thread starter SinNisTeR
- Start date
A friend of mine had a zaurus for a while. He liked it, but eventually got a Dell Axim(?). I'd consider getting one, but the nice ones are too expensive, since they haven't been released in the US.
Originally posted by: SinNisTeR
link? i havent heard of the 'nice' ones. lol. i thought my axim x30 624mhz was nice
I meant the nice zauruses. Oops.
Just woke up. I was thinking about getting one of these in lue of a laptop.
640x480 display, 400mhz xscale Intel proccessor (very nice and powerful for the mhz), 64megs of RAM, 64meg flash drive. USB port, CF I and II ports, etc. Better quality display then the c860.
(oh, y: AND wireless. Not to mention cell phone possiblities)
The only gotcha is that thumb keyboard, which looks abhorant. But the USB port allows some interesting posibilities.
The screen can be rotated to sit on it's side, so you could get one of those mechanical fold-up keyboards or those ones that are just the membrane and you can wrap up and be able to do real typing.
Along with that and have a USB enclosure for a laptop drive (have one of each) and the cpu should be powerfull enough to watch mpeg4 videos on it.
Stick all that in a backpack along with a cheapo nimh battery pack. (you can get a 9000mah one built for a 125 bucks or so online) along with a home-made power conditioner so that you don't overload the DC input on the Zaurus with fully powered batteries or drain the batteries to low and damage them.
I'd bet that I'd be able to get like 12 hours of usefull battery time on that thing, no problem.
Then I'd have a fully functional wearable computer running linux and be the alpha-geek.
But with decent laptops getting under 1000 bucks (under 4.5 pounds and NOT having a 2.8ghz celeron) it's a hard sell.
640x480 display, 400mhz xscale Intel proccessor (very nice and powerful for the mhz), 64megs of RAM, 64meg flash drive. USB port, CF I and II ports, etc. Better quality display then the c860.
(oh, y: AND wireless. Not to mention cell phone possiblities)
The only gotcha is that thumb keyboard, which looks abhorant. But the USB port allows some interesting posibilities.
The screen can be rotated to sit on it's side, so you could get one of those mechanical fold-up keyboards or those ones that are just the membrane and you can wrap up and be able to do real typing.
Along with that and have a USB enclosure for a laptop drive (have one of each) and the cpu should be powerfull enough to watch mpeg4 videos on it.
Stick all that in a backpack along with a cheapo nimh battery pack. (you can get a 9000mah one built for a 125 bucks or so online) along with a home-made power conditioner so that you don't overload the DC input on the Zaurus with fully powered batteries or drain the batteries to low and damage them.
I'd bet that I'd be able to get like 12 hours of usefull battery time on that thing, no problem.
Then I'd have a fully functional wearable computer running linux and be the alpha-geek.
But with decent laptops getting under 1000 bucks (under 4.5 pounds and NOT having a 2.8ghz celeron) it's a hard sell.
a Ipaq Linux page
a Axim Linux page
Although the Zaurus is linux all the way, comes from the OEM with Linux.
Mother of all Linux PDA pages. Links to many. Tuxmobile..
OMG your a genius.
Do you think it'll support a external drive?? (not including powering it of course.)
(edit
Holy crap! It has a IR port. It'll be the perfect remote for my MythTV box!!!
ah...
I used to have an iPaq, and I threw Linux on it. I believe the distro was named Familiar and it ran a GUI called Opie. Pretty decent setup, had everything a PDA can do with the advantages of linux. I could run it remotely with VNC as long as I had it in the cradle (serial connection->usb).
Hell no.
I'd love to have it, for so cheap too!
I guess using it for such stupid things as to make it so that I can use a PVR box to watch cable from my box is kinda perverting the idea as the simputer as the "common man's computer" for citizens of the poorer nations. But I am a American, so I am used to it.
I am realy going to look into getting this thing.
Originally posted by: XietyCOM
Wow, the Sharp Zaruus is nice. I'm going to take 5 finance classes, 2 management classes and will be interning this fall. I should get one, might make my life easier
Yes, it is definately very nice. It seems to have a tough time competing with the PalmPC + Windows CE stuff, but for me I am a linux geek and I'd be able to make that thing sing and dance for me. Definately something fun to play around with and has very good community support for what it is.
I can't see that it would be a mistake to buy it.
That Simputer doesn't seem aviable in the USA. Sucks. Lots of stuff from India is like that. Hell they have Laptops that sell for less then 500 dollars, but we are not going to see any of that here. Not unless you have a relative, a business relation, or something with somebody there.
They have this weird dual liscence stuff, 25,000 dollars to make it if your from a poor country and 250,000 to liscence the design if your from a rich country. Which is stupid if you considure that their goal is to make it cheap as possible for poor rural areas, Americans/Japanese/Korea/Taiwan would be able to construct it cheaper and at higher quantity then any other place it seems to me.
Oh well.
[This Yopy thing seems fun and it's Linux. Slightly cheaper then the Zaurus. Less resolution, less CPU power (The 206mhz Strongarm is a RISC CPU and is fairly close to the Xscale's performance. Xscale wins because of the faster CPU, but not by much compared to budget PDA's.), but more RAM and a cooler name]http://www.yopy.com/english/shop/shop_shopping_view.html?id=2[/L]
Plus it has a flip top and a bigger/but weirder keyboard. Looks like a original Star Treck communicator.
*flip*
(computerized chiming noises)
Hey, Butthead beam me up. *scricht*
He, heh. You said up. *sricht*
Oh ya, heh heh eh heh. over. *scritch*
You don't say "over", this is Star Treck, not Smokey and the Bandit. Ass munch. Don't make me go down there and kick your ass.
Yes I knew that. But it's still pretty close, it looks like that Intel did it's thing to speed up the mhz at expense of efficiency in some cases. 400mhz Xscale is definately better though.
Unfortunately the Yopy seems rather dead community-wise.
Yeah I found some benchmarks between two Xscale 400mhz processors (PA-225 and 250 maybe?), and the strongarm 206. The 400s weren't bad.
here is a developer veiw of the yopy. doesn't seem as bad as it looked
I wouldn't mind getting a ipaq, and they have good linux support. But it comes with Windows CE by default and the Yopy is Linux from the factory. I think that a 206mhz would be enough for what I want anyways..
I wouldn't mind getting a ipaq, and they have good linux support. But it comes with Windows CE by default and the Yopy is Linux from the factory. I think that a 206mhz would be enough for what I want anyways..
The simputer can be shipped to other countries of the world.
Link
Note that ob this page they mention the crap about import duties, etc...atleast they should tke the efforts to find out abt it and post the info for their (potential) customers' sake.
p.s: I AM going to buy one when I go to India next year.
Link
Note that ob this page they mention the crap about import duties, etc...atleast they should tke the efforts to find out abt it and post the info for their (potential) customers' sake.
p.s: I AM going to buy one when I go to India next year.
Ask someone who has owned an Ipaq and tried linux on it, it sucks.
The yopy is nice and if you know anything about CPU's you know that the 206mhz isn't all that bad for a StrongARM CPU.
Somewhere around 250-260 it catches up with the Xscale on some things, in other cases you'd have to downgrade to have the same performance.
It is a fine processor, especially with a *nix combination.
The comparison is somewhat similar to the PIII and the P4 The P4 NEEDS the higher megaherz to excel while the PIII will outperform at lower speeds.
I wouldn't worry too much about it, but i wouldn't buy either without trying it out first.
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