Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 Today? 163
TheAdmin writes "A few years ago the first Linux-based Zaurus, the SL-5500, was released for some $600 by Sharp. Today, it only costs $140 in some places online. This article at TuxTops reviews the 5500 from the point of view of trying to figure out how this model fares against today's PDAs and if it's still a good purchase after all these years, especially at this low price. And so I bought one recently because I needed a full-fledged pocket Linux at my workplace where I work as an admin. I just added a $30 Linksys WCF12 WiFi card (works out of the box after upgrading the SL-5500 ROM to version 3.10) which I use with SSH and by utilizing Zaurus' thumb-board. Works great and it's much more portable than a laptop, especially when all you need is some email and SSH on the go."
Remote ssh? (Score:3, Insightful)
SL-5500 sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
No speaker. That sucks. The one guy I found them who sold them took my money and never shipped. (Should have just build my own)
Horrendous battery life.
Want to attach something serial? Bend over for a zcable or don't type.
It would crash every couple of days requiring a reinstall of everything.
The one time I could have used it, (on a cruise with wireless), turns out the ship's internet needed some java crap to set up the ip access. I had called ahead to the company providing service to the ship to see what I'd need and they told me everything would work. Just need an 802 card.
It has a great form factor though.
Better battery life and integrated wifi and it would have been much more handy.
Re:I would like to point out... (Score:2, Insightful)
Wow (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Feels like yesterday (Score:1, Insightful)