On Thu, 2004-01-15 at 09:15, dave wrote: > Did anyone see the Zaurus SL-5600 at amazon.com for $299? That's a $200 less > that I've seen before. I've been thinking of getting one, but do you think > it's being EOLed? Is there a newer one coming out?
Yeah the 5600 has been end-of-lifed, I believe. Sharp has discontinued it in most parts of Europe already. They do have a replacement in mind, though, but I can't remember what it is. It's been a fun toy, but, to be honest, it was kind of a waste of money for me. I think that for many people who want a pda, the palm is still the best bet. Sharp has done a disappointing job marketing the 5600. Instead of claiming to be a PDA that just works, they sort of morketed it as a linux pda. Then they didn't do any work on the software other than the version of qtopia that it shipped with. Fortunately, the 5600 will be supported for the forseable future by the OpenZaurus project. Another weak spot for me with the 5600 is actually the choice of guis. Qtopia works pretty well, but developers pretty much are stuck with Trolltech's licensing fees. For most of us that won't matter since the GPL is fine. Qtopia also restricts you to C++ development and QT only. You cannot use any other widget library, since it's not X11-based. GPE, being X11-based, seems like a better way to go. X11 scales *very* well to the small screen and the small memory constraints. Michael > > dave > > On Wednesday 14 January 2004 22:24, Michael Torrie wrote: > > On Tue, 2004-01-13 at 18:13, Brent Thomson wrote: > > > Hey, all. I know there are many of you that have a handheld computer, > > > and I assume many of your handheld OSes are Linux-based (even if that's > > > not how the device came). I'd love to hear about your experiences with > > > different Linux-running models. Specifically: > > > > I use (occasionally) a Zaurus, running linux. It used to run Qtopia, > > but now I run OPIE, which is a fork of Qtopia. > > > > > 1. How good is the user interface? > > > > Very good. See http://opie.handhelds.org. I prefer an X11-based > > environment (yes, even for a pda), so I'm going to try gpe > > (http://gpe.handhelds.org) some day. > > > > > 2. Is the source code for the OS easy to obtain? > > > > Yes of course. The complete os source code in the openzaurus linux > > distro is available from http://www.openzaurus.org. > > > > > 3. Have you tried writing your own applications? > > > > Yes a bit. It's as easy as desktop apps, except for the small screen > > that you have to take into account. Designing apps for pdas takes a lot > > of design skill. > > > > Anyway, the developers of opie and gpe do all their developing and > > debuggin on a desktop platform, and then port to the pda using a > > cross-compiler. > > > > > 4. What kind of connectivity to a full-size PC can you use? > > > > I use wireless (802.11b) or tcp/ip over usb link. > > > > > 5. Any other merits or shortcomings you've found. > > > > The zaurus is a bit to big for the pocket. But it has a nice keyboard > > (for your thumbs, anyway), that I've actually used to write code with. > > > > Doing any kind of major inputting with a stylus, using what ever system > > is a pain. > > > > > > Michael > > > > > Thanks, > > > -Brent > > > > > > > > > ____________________ > > > BYU Unix Users Group > > > http://uug.byu.edu/ > > > ___________________________________________________________________ > > > List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list > > > ____________________ > BYU Unix Users Group > http://uug.byu.edu/ > ___________________________________________________________________ > List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list -- Michael L Torrie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ____________________ BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
