New Linux PDA Announced At CES Today

It looks like the Royal Linux-PDA project has borne fruit. Bill Kendrick writes: "Linux Devices reports that Royal (makers of the DaVinci PDA) have announced yet another Linux-based PDA, called 'Lin@x' (how do you pronounce that!?). Unlike the DaVinci (and the Agenda VR3 -- Agenda Computing is owned by the same company as Royal), this PDA sports a 206MHz StrongARM, a color screen, and a CompactFlash slot. Planned price is about US$300." According to the PR, it will come bundled with software for Linux desktops as well as for Windows, which would be a nice touch.

Hmm...

[Paradoxish]

The design is nice and it definetly has good hardware (for a PDA), but there's always the issue of compatibility. I love Linux. It's my preferred operating system, but while the OS can do everything (and a whole lot more) than Windows OS, it can't run as many things. That's important in the handheld market as well. PDAs are expensive and to be worth that expense they have to serve a greater purpose than as a glorified organizer.

This is a big reason why I'm still so obsessed with PalmOS. The amount of software available for it is staggering and a good portion is free (it's also a good, fairly fast OS). Unfortunetly, the hardware it runs on generally isn't that powerful and most Palm devices aren't quite a step in the "handheld computer" direction. And since Linux doesn't seem to be making its way into the mainstream PDA market I somehow doubt that it'll ever get the amount of programs it deserves...

And the point is.....

[josh crawley]

I've seen enough about this Linux PDA tripe. Big deal they are running a modified version of Linux. I'd rather see propertiary tight code on a upgradable eeprom than a larger OS designed FOR desktop/tower/laptop computers.
All I would ask is for OPEN STANDARDS to connect the computer to the pda, wether that be mac or pc. USB would probably be the way to go, since it's on the hardware architecure of both platforms.
I wouldnt mind PAYING for a devel kit for this pda if was at a decent price. They gotta make money somehow, and the devel kit isnt a bad idea, but just as long as they don't go the MS way of Wince.. I mean WinCE :-) No Microsoft, we aren't going to pay a 1000$ for your "WinCE"ing devel kit.

Josh Crawley

Re:Okay, what's the goal for Linux use?

[Paradoxish]

You make a valid point, but there's a reason Linux is loved by (most) people who use it. It's a fast, stable operating system with generally low requirements. That makes it perfect for the PDA market. Remember: Linux purists are going to love seeing it on a PDA, but the average consumer won't what it runs as long as it meets his needs. This is a lot different from the desktop computer market, where Joe consumer expects to see a Windows-like environment.

PDA's and other devices really are a great use for Linux. As long as the lack-of-software hurdle can be overcome I think that this is a great way for Linux to break into the mainstream.

Point missed

[CodingFiend]

MS WinCE dev kit is free.

http://www.microsoft.com/mobile/downloads/emvt30 .a sp

You may be talking about the platform builder, which lets you custom design a version of CE for your specific hardware.

What's the point?

[Burgundy Advocate]

Sure, linux is great. We all love linux. Rah.

But honestly -- both Palm and PocketPC are so far ahead of linux in the palmtop area it's not even funny! I mean, they actually have applications! Ones that work... and well!

So my question is why design and build something that only a few geeks will want... and even then, just because of the "hey, it runs linux" factor?

I guess it's the same reason that GNOME and KDE don't use each other's code -- they don't want to admit that the other might be better in some areas.

Does it suck? What about the Linux trademark?

[isaac]

If I was Linus Torvalds, I'd be really interested in finding out whether this device sucks or not - because if it does, I wouldn't want a name so similar to Linux(TM) on it.

90% of PDA platforms suck, just like 90% of anything else, so there's a pretty good chance this thing is just going to be another high-profile PDA flop. At least G.Mate (Yopy), VTech (Helio), and Agenda had the decency not to try and use the Linux name to brand their products. If I were Linus, I might encourage Royal to do the same. And I'd royally smack up those LinuxDA fools.

-Isaac

Re:Hmm...

[pi_rules]

Any Linux PDA, though, has the entire OpenSource/GPL universe to draw applications from if the device itself is capable of running them hardware-wise. While the PalmOS does have many purpous built applications for it - I woulden't want to program that thing with it's 64K barriers and non POSIX 'operating system.' As applications for PDA's mature, then Linux becomes a great choice, not for the 'address book/organiser' of tomorrow but for the database connected point of sale sytem that can only be now dreamed about.

I don't see how the majority of X11 applications would ever run on one of these things to tell you the truth. Ever tried X in 640x480 with most applications? They're built by developers for developers. Developers that run in 1280x1024 mode all day long. Even at 1024x768 on my laptop I frequently find applications spilling over the edges of my screen. As far as console applications go I wouldn't see them as -ever- being useful on such a thing. I just can't fathom a useful console application on a handheld device -- too cumbersome.

The PalmOS limit of 64k data chunks (which can be worked around) really isn't all that bad if you ask me. I've written a bit of PalmOS code now and to tell you the truth I really like it. I'm only moderately annoyoned that things like sprintf() are renamed to StrPrintF() and such but there's a good reason for them doing this -- a standard C library is just a bit overkill for such a little device with applications that are intended to be small.

I couldn't care less about POSIX compliance on one of these things either. The majority of things defined in POSIX would be entirely non-existent on such a device IMHO.

I, and I would assume most developers, have very little qualms with an embedded device such as a PDA requireing you to re-learn some very basic things. All in all it takes less than an hour.

Besides that, most applications (well, the rinky-dink ones) are only ever tested on the x86 platform. Simply switching to a new architecuture and re-compiling is quite likely going to break things as some developers aren't always aware of little-endian vs bid-ending or that 'int' might not always be the size they expected.