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Handhelds GUI Software X Hardware Linux

Full X11-Based Distro For PDAs 155

Posted by timothy from the mostly-work-safe dept.
omin0us writes "over at http://cacko.zaurususergroup.com, we are working on a Full X11 based Linux distro for the Sharp Zaurus SL-c7x0/860 series of PDAs. The screen has a usable full VGA resolution of 640x480 and the distro uses Openbox/ROX Desktop as its Native WM. But others such as Fluxbox, Afterstep, and XFCE have been compiled for it and run nicely. You will also find a WIDE variety of compiled apps in the Feed on the Cacko website such as a native GCC Compiler, XMMS, Mplayer, prboom, Gimp, Gkrellm, Abiword and numerous others. Many different screenshots of it in action may be found here. This is truly bringing desktop linux to the PDA. Also, another project that has branched from Cacko Linux is Gentoo for Zaurus. This project, at the moment is based on the Cacko X11 environment, but will eventually become a full Gentoo environment. "It can emerge packages, sync, or create Gentoo packages using the -B switch in emerge." This should be an interesting project to watch."
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Full X11-Based Distro For PDAs More

Full X11-Based Distro For PDAs

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  • You will also find a WIDE variety of compiled apps in the Feed on the Cacko website such as a native GCC Compiler

    Maybe it's me, but I find it downright hilarious that they include a compiler with a PDA. Like that's some kind of huge geek selling point for it.

    Geek 1: Yeah, I got Quake running on my PDA. Take that!
    Geek 2: That's nothing! I compiled it on my PDA and *then* played it.

    All the other geeks gather around Geek #2. One of the geek chicks who was with Geek #1 pulls away from him and goes over to Geek #2.

    Yeah... I guess it's that important. Just like that nifty new 64-bit CPU that makes my penis feel bigger than it actually is. Yippie.

    • Well, there's a complete development environment to be run on the Zaurus itself, and it was before we (cacko.biz) actually created our environment.
    • What good reason is there to leave out gcc, if it's simple to make a package of it and there is plenty of disk space?
    • I work at a bank, and own a Zaurus SL-C700. I work full-time in a tech support call center (noon to 11 PM), and am a full-time student. This means when it's late at night, I have plenty of time to work on homework.

      For the past two semesters, all of my programming assignments have been written, built, and debugged on the SL-C700. I'd say it takes me perhaps twice as long to type in code, and GCC runs rather slowly. But the hours would otherwise be wasted. I'm not allowed to put Linux or GCC on Bank computers.

      Portable GCC is indeed useful.
      • Sounds like the perfect use for a LiveCD of Linux and a USB device to save to when done. There are ways to get dev tools on a Live CD. In Morphix, you just make your own custom CD, say of LightGUI, and add the devel minimod. Then you have gcc, make and everything else you need. Save to a memory stick when done and bingo, the PC looks like it was never touched.

        I would unplug from the network though or you might leave a fingerprint on the DHCP server.
        • Man, gentoo on the Zaurus is going to be great when I get done compiling.

          (6 weeks later)
          Hey, I've got a command line now. Time to compile X11.
          (6 months later)
          Hey, I got X compiled, but it doesn't work and I still need a Window Manager.
          (6 months later)
          I got X fixed, I got KDE installed, but damn it's slow. I'm going to compile a smaller WM, like Fluxbox.
          (2 months later)
          Nirvana.
          (6 months later)
          User dead of stress from waiting on compiler.
      • Two words: Lap-Top

        Seriously though, they might frown upon you bringing a laptop to work too. Someone else mentioned using a linux live CD, but you probably only have one computer while at work and can't afford to be rebooting it between taking calls and programing. One other thing you could consider is installing virtualPC/VMWare and running linux in a window. But, I'm sure you've thought of all this and using your PDA is probably the mose effective way.
      • Ever hear of a laptop? WTF? Get yourself an iBook.
    • Yeah, and what's the point in dual-booting to Linux, I can do everything in Windows I can do in Linux and more! While we're at it, what's the point in having an mp3 player? I can just listen on my stereo! DVD's, why should I buy them if I can just *imagine things happening*?!?

      Personally, I like the idea of being able to do development work on the target system. So what was your post, funny? or flamebait? :D

    • if you don't have a compiler on your computer, it is only half a computer.

    • Maybe it's me, but I find it downright hilarious that they include a compiler with a PDA.

      It's hilarious to you, because you misinterpreted something: you're calling it a PDA. It's a tiny PC, not a PDA. PDAs are tools you use to remember appointments, addresses, etc. PCs are tools you use to get work done, play games, etc. The aim of this project is to treat the Zaurus like a PC instead of a PDA.

      And that makes sense, sort of. The Zaurus is hugely overpowered for use as a PDA. Almost anyone who need

      • Re:Portable Compiler While You're on the Plane. (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        It definitely is fast enough. I ran psilinux on my old psion s5mx, which is a full linux OS, with x11 and fluxbox. Ran pretty good on the 36mhz arm 7100 :) The zaurus's are what, 400mhz?

        btw, the old palms use dragonball cpus. dragonball ez,vz, super vz,
    • Just like that nifty new 64-bit CPU that makes my penis feel bigger
      Well, that all depends on what sort of images it puts on the screen.

  • I am the founder of Cacko (Score:3, Informative)

    by mirko ( 198274 ) on Tuesday January 27, 2004 @07:39AM (#8098488) Journal
    Make a whois :)
    Glad but surprised to be Slashdotted :)

  • Interesting project to watch? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ObviousGuy ( 578567 ) <ObviousGuy@hotmail.com> on Tuesday January 27, 2004 @07:41AM (#8098494) Homepage Journal
    Yeah, watching Gentoo emerge packages on a crappy PXA250 is a whole lot of fun, I'm sure.

    Is the Linux desktop really the right metaphor for a palmtop device? Apple knew a desktop was wrong, Microsoft finally figured it out with PPC2002.

    When will the good folks working on these Linux ports figure it out?

    • Re:Interesting project to watch? (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      PXA 255 your highness... Since the SL-C750.
      Considering that Linus originaly written Linux on/for a 386 at around 33MHz and 4MBs of RAM I believe the 400MHz PXA CPU and 64MB of RAM is kind of a heaven.

      Oh yes. I do own an SL-C750 and I love it!
      It's like a small notebook that fits in your pocket.
      If you omit the Konsole app no one can tell that it's running Linux, unless he knows about this feature.

    • Re:Interesting project to watch? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by MS_is_the_best ( 126922 ) on Tuesday January 27, 2004 @07:50AM (#8098533)
      Actually, with a keyboard, as this device has, a terminal with all powerful command line tools (bash, ssh, text editor, IS very usable. Ok, being able to use multiple windows (which don't fit together on 640x480) is not very useful, but the mentioned window managers can do a lot more which can be useful to the geek and on a pda (tabs, proper keybindings etc. etc.)
    • X11 is not the desktop. X11 provides the layer on which the desktop can run. I can prototype my own desktop on my linux box, reconfiguring FVWM or windowmaker to match the PDA metaphor and then run it on the PDA.


      Hell, having a remote PDA desktop is a killer app. Forgot your contact information? No problem, just page your pda to get it out of sleep mode, and then ssh a new xclient to it.

    • Is the Linux desktop really the right metaphor for a palmtop device?

      Probably not, but is that relevant. Do you think people run X on their Palmtop because they think it makes it a better PDA? I rather expect it's because more because Linux has a vast range of other software that they want to run.

      I run Linux on my Psion 5MX - means that I can hack on my personal coding projects on long journeys without having to lug a huge laptop around. I couldn't do that with the Psion's native OS as it just doesn't
    • Microsoft got it right with Pocket PC 2000. PPC 2002 was just a minor upgrade.

      I do agree that just because you have a 640x480 display (with touchscreen in place of a mouse) does not mean that the standard windowing GUI paradigm (Mac, Windows, X, etc) is appropriate.

      Further, unless widgets and the like can be scaled up (ie 2x) then it would be next to impossible to even tap on them. Imagine a toolbar with 8 buttons in a row, each 2mm in width. I don't think even a perfectly aligned touchscreen can reso
      • Not a Linux user, I take it?

        Window managers are extremely customizable, and by comparison to other operating systems, are even easy to create. There's no need for a tool bar that runs along the bottom of the screen, and no limit to icon sizes. Further, while the standard windowing GUI paradigm may not be appropriate, doesn't mean that SOME Windowing paradigm shouldn't be applied.

        Lumping X with Mac and Windows is a little unfair, considering it's flexibility and their lack of it. It's like saying that t

  • Well... maybe (Score:2, Funny)

    by OctaneZ ( 73357 )
    "This should be an interesting project to watch."

    Well, yes, everything but the three-week bootstrap!

  • Damn,, (Score:5, Funny)

    by vpscolo ( 737900 ) on Tuesday January 27, 2004 @07:48AM (#8098521) Homepage
    after seeing those screenhosts my first 2 geek reactions are

    1) Must by gadget to run Linux on
    2) Must get a copy of Lemming and run on GnuBoy

    Damn you slashdot for spending my money and filling my time.

    Rus
    • Great, been deciding all week the Best [dynamism.com] Price [shirtpocket.co.uk] to buy [rakuten.co.jp] a Zaurus [ebay.co.uk] or even import [rakuten.co.jp] one to the UK, now that pound has a good rate against the YEN [xe.com] and Dollar [xe.com].

      Typical every geek in the UK will now be ordering one and VAT man will be getting his share, once the volumes of direct imports go up.

    • There is a copy of lemmings for Palm available from ardiri.com [ardiri.com]. I have no connection to them except that I have wasted, I mean enjoyed many hours of playing this game.
  • Mmmm. Definitely the right combination, although on my desktops I prefer to just have rox-filer running rather than the rox desktop. It's great when the n00bs ask where the start menu is ,-}
    There are a couple of openbox/rox-filer desktop screenshots on my site if anyone cares to look - url above.

    I gotta get me one of those zaurus thingees..
  • Disclaimer: I'm a happy Gentoo user myself ;p

    Wonder how long it takes to compile X on a PDA ;)

    Although it would work fine with an existing distcc cluster. Now, imagine a beowulf cluster of PDAs compiling Gentoo!
    • You don't need to compile X on your PDA, you compile it onyour Desktop machine with a cross-compiler (p.e. using distcc - while the PDA controls only, but doesn't compile) and then install it on the PDA.

  • Opie should be mentioned (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 27, 2004 @07:54AM (#8098544)
    I know it's a different project, but people who find cacko interesting might find opie interesting as well.

    http://opie.handhelds.org/

    • I have had OPIE (screenshots [131.152.105.154]) running on my iPAQ, and while it looks nice, IMHO it's less UN*Xish than GPE (screenshots [handhelds.org]).

      IMHO, OPIE tries to be like PocketPC (the native Windows OS on these devices), while GPE rather tries to bring the GNU-experience to handhelds.

      • Opie != PocketPC (Score:2, Informative)

        by ofels ( 255261 )
        We are in no way trying to imitate PocketPC.
        In fact we concentrate on usability and ease of use which Microsoft does not.

        The only thing similar is that we also use a colorful and comprehensive display and similar applications (today, addressbook, calendar, etc.) but besides this the whole concept is different.

        Oliver
        team Opie
    • I've had Opie on my IPaq 3950 for six months, and it is great. I tried it in desperation, when PPC2002 refused to reliably sync, and then relieved me of two months of vital information.

      It is not an X-based system, but is Linux through and through. Intuitive. Comprehensive. I question the relevance and efficiency of X anyway, these days.

      Opie shows what a fine bit of hardware the 3950 actually is.

    • Right, there are many more *free* Linux PDAs distributions. At least

      OPIE [handhelds.org]

      Familiar [handhelds.org]

      OpenZaurus [openzaurus.org]

      PocketWorkstation - based on Debian/GNU Linux [pocketworkstation.org]

      There is a survey of Linux on PDAs [tuxmobil.org] at TuxMobil.

  • Integrated WiFi (Score:4, Insightful)

    by AsnFkr ( 545033 ) on Tuesday January 27, 2004 @07:55AM (#8098552) Homepage Journal
    If it had WiFi built in I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I know I can add it, but at the cost of one memory slot. Thats a heafty price to pay. Very cool stuff though.
  • There is a very important point which is glossed over in the article...what type of packaging system will be used in the Zaurus X11 distro? Yes I know that it's based on Gentoo and you can emerge software, but it's not a true package management system, like, say, apt-get.

    emerge apt-get!

    • Re:What packaging system? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      this is omin0us who submitted the article, i don't have a login yet, but i'll answer the question. We just use "ipkg install". This is pretty standard for most of the linux based PDA's. There is an ipkg.conf file which directs it to a URL of the feed, and it will download the package, and all dependencies for that packaged. Its actually very very similar to debians package management. Even down to how the ipks are structured. As for Gentoo for Zaurus, i don't know exactly, as they are a different project ju
    • Yes I know that it's based on Gentoo and you can emerge software, but it's not a true package management system, like, say, apt-get.

      Excuse me, but what makes you think that apt-get is a true package management system, while Portage is not?

      Please, prove your troll with comparing Portage vs apt-get side-by-side or appologize for your troll right here.

      • Well for one, apt-get will reliably and always install the package optimised for the 386, whereas Gentoo will be pesky and optimise it for whatever you're running. Blasted thing. :-)
        • You are talking about something that you don't know *and* you don't understand it *and* you don't even try to know or understand it.

          For the rest of people who read this thread and don't know Gentoo Portage too, but want to know it:

          Portage is the a way of fine-grained control over your system and over installation process on your system. It can optimize compiled sources to the system you have (which is actually a good thing!) or (it's your choice) it can get binaries of that package already optimized to

  • The site isn't responding so I haven't seen anything explaining the derivation of the name but it seems like an odd choice [reference.com]

  • If it had a hard drive... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by bcg ( 322392 ) on Tuesday January 27, 2004 @08:01AM (#8098577)
    Wouldn't a 4Gb hard disk just like whats in the mini ipod go down a treat in one of these things?

    Combine that with wifi (as mentioned by another poster) and at least laptop battery life expectancy and i would instantly order one.

    I don't ask much :)
    • go look at a fujitsu p1100
      http://webshop.fujitsupc.com/fpc/Ecommerce / buildseriesbean.do?series=P1

      LifeBook P1120
      FPCM20101 for $1199
      9 hours possible on one battery

      800 MHz Crusoe(TM) TM5800 processor with LongRun(TM) Power Management
      Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Home Edition
      8.9" wide-format XGA TFT with touch screen
      256 MB memory
      30 GB hard drive
      External USB 3.5" floppy drive
      Built-in multinational4 56K5 V.90 modem
      Integrated 802.11b wireless LAN
      Built-in 10/100 Ethernet
      Quick Point pointin

  • Why not KDE? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    What is wrong with KDE? I have used KDE in 640x480 and it can fit quite well in it. KDE has been designed to scale quite well across a variety of machines, and 640x480 is plenty for it.
    • Well, i'd give you a RTFA, but it seems that the webserver wouldn't let you anyway. Their screenshot collection did show KDE, but with the comment that it ran very slowly. No huge surprise - KDE is very full featured for a PDA.

      JT

    • Re:Why not KDE? (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Because some people don't like KDE, which is their right, and you won't force them to port it if they don't want to.

      Besides, you've got all sorts of KDE apps (Konqueror and all) that already run beautifully on Opie [handhelds.org], so why would it be bad that people help non-KDE apps catch-up?
    • Heh. The dock/taskbar/whatever the hell it's called takes up at least 50 pixels of screen real estate in it's default configuration, the Keramik title bars take up another 30 each.. that doesn't leave a lot for the apps.

  • Coming soon to /. (Score:5, Funny)

    by m00nun1t ( 588082 ) on Tuesday January 27, 2004 @08:11AM (#8098630) Homepage
    Updates on the only items that HAVEN'T run linux so far:

    - Porting linux to a kitchen blender
    - Porting linux to a carrot
    - Porting linux to the wart on my grandmothers knee

  • It used to be a joke... (Score:3, Funny)

    by alispguru ( 72689 ) <`bob.bane' `at' `me.com'> on Tuesday January 27, 2004 @08:14AM (#8098646) Journal
    I remember someone's old sig line:

    I run X windows on my wristwatch.

  • Link to ROX (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Would have been nice to include a link to the ROX Desktop [sf.net]...

  • zaurus-debian (Score:2, Interesting)

    by damohasi ( 538874 )
    One should mention that there exists a project for porting debian to zaurus already:

    http://pocketworkstation.org/

    Development seems to have stopped in August 2003 but maybe its worth a try - it even claims to enable running evolution just by apt-getting it...

    • Re:zaurus-debian (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      http://zaurus.spy.org/screenshots/scottyelich/

      Yes, it works... that's qtopia on the left, and zdebian on the right ... both accessed via vnc from a freebsd (at that time, 5.1) box. One of the screenshots at the right also shows vnc inside of the zdebian accessing the qtopia (outside) of the zdebian.

      Yes, I used apt-get... it was nice.

      I believe cacko x11 is going to be better -- especially with gentoo and/or compat with familiar (ipkg find).

      c700/c760/5600 ... love'm.
    • The reason for the lack of progress on pocketworkstation.org has been the usual total lack of time, but I'm still running it on my SL-C750, and have a couple of things on the back burner.

      I'm planning to get an updated release together; this had been complicated a bit by some changes to the Debian "testing" archive which had doubled the size of the base distribution.

      On the whole, a motivational problem had been that it works for me, with new software installable using apt-get, so there wasn't any pressing

  • I went with a Handera 330 instead (Score:3, Informative)

    by Dr. Manhattan ( 29720 ) <<moc.liamg> <ta> <171rorecros>> on Tuesday January 27, 2004 @08:45AM (#8098828) Homepage
    I got some cash for xmas, and tried to decide what to get to replace my Palm IIIxe. I know someone with a Zaurus SL-5000 (the original developer model, 32MB RAM) and was seriously tempted to find a real Zaurus off eBay. There were just a couple of problems.

    The first is the battery life. I could go weeks on two AAA batteries in the IIIxe, while all these multi-hundred MHz machines have battery lives measured in hours. On an international flight, or when vacationing on the side of a mountain in rural Italy, that makes a difference.

    The second is simple efficiency. On the Palm, apps execute in place; there's no need to copy from "storage" to "executable RAM" or anything like that. This frees up a remarkable amount of memory in practice. Linux's support for XIP is still highly experimental, though it seems some progress is being made.

    The other part of efficiency is the apps. The Palm apps are really well-designed, and really work for a small-screen, stylus device. A lot of Linux apps don't translate so well to a dinky screen and pen-based operation, and even the specific PIM apps have some rough spots (though I admit I haven't seen the very latest environments).

    I finally decided I didn't really need to run a webserver off my PDA (however much I wanted to, yeah I'm a geek), or Quake. I got a Handera 330 [pencomputing.com] off eBay (not easy, some guy had bought the last 11 of them; wtf?). CF and SD slots, 240x320 screen (but grayscale, so battery life doesn't suffer), built-in voice recorder, etc.

    • I bought a Handera 330 and loved it... as a PDA.
      However, once I had gotten to the point of fully using its PDA capabilities, I started wanting to add some simple things to it... but the only time I had that I could work on those things was when I only had my PDA available. (No PC or notebook on hand.)
      So I wanted something I could use python and pyqt on. Well, the Zaurus will do that, and do it pretty well.

      So once you out-grow your HE330, look at the Z again. :)
      • So I wanted something I could use python and pyqt on.... So once you out-grow your HE330, look at the Z again.

        What about Palm Python [c2.com]? Okay, limited, no QT, I know.

        For my programming needs, the H330 is plenty. There's OnboardC [sourceforge.net], LispMe [lispme.de], and Dragon Forth [freshmeat.net]. This lets me do the kind of programming I like to do. I recognize that this doesn't fit everyone's needs, but I don't think I'll outgrow my H330 for quite a while. :->

  • It "just works" (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I've been using the cacko X11 Rom within a few days of its appearance and it works great - so well that I donated shortly after. In fact, it (by no small measure) works better than the original sharp ROM. If you own one of the newer zaurus models and haven't tried it, i strongly encourage you to do so. The install is painless, and you get a fully functional linux desktop in your pocket.

  • That's one giant leap backwards... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dublin ( 31215 ) on Tuesday January 27, 2004 @08:56AM (#8098932) Homepage
    X is all wrong for devices like this. Qtopia, on the other hand, which is what Sharp was smart enoug to put in them to start with, is a very good fit. This is simply a hacking tour-de-force. Sure, you can do it, and run X on an X-scale PDA, but it's *stupid* to do so. Especially since Qtopia lets you port Qt applications with minimal fuss. I suppose this gives the rabid QT haters somethign to do with their spare time, though, so it's not all bad...
    • Rubbish. X is just fine on a platform like this, if you do it properly. Not to mention, with this box running X, I can access countless fleets of Unix machines which are quite happily configured to allow my X session to work.

      "Qtopia", being new and exciting, is of course a nice lib to namedrop, but in fact 'porting Qt applications' isn't necessarily a factor when you've already got a standard, open, fully working window system implemented. you can port anything to X.

      X works. and ... its not as bad as
      • I agree with the parent. I've used an earlier version of this ROM on my SL-C700. I guarantee X is indeed right at home on this device. It's lighter and faster.

        On the Embedded Konsole app for Qtopia, when the screen is full of text (79x29) and I press enter, it takes anywhere between a half second and a full second to scroll the text down one line. ls -alR goes in skips and starts, giving you a good chance to read one particular screen and then skipping many pages ahead on the next refresh.

        On the Cacko
    • X isn't wrong for this device. It's wrong for you maybe, but definately not the device. I don't own a PDA type device because they don't do enough yet and I'm waiting for the next generation. The next generation device will basically be a full fledge computer the size of a PDA. I'll have a keyboard, mouse, and monitor wearever I go, and I'll just plug in my "PDA" wherever I am, and poof, I'll have all my stuff with me. Think PDA merged with 40GB iPod for storage. I'd only use the PDA functions to acce

  • Title is misleading (Score:3, Informative)

    by Erwos ( 553607 ) on Tuesday January 27, 2004 @08:58AM (#8098950)
    The title, and even the body of the submitted news are somewhat misleading, in that they imply this is the first time X has been put on a PDA. At handhelds.org, GPE has been running on X for a good long time, and IIRC, even Opie has an X port.

    To be fair, though, this is the first time I've ever seen full-out KDE running on a PDA, so this is something new. Definitely, it's an interesting accomplishment that the author should be proud of.

    -Erwos

  • Who on earth came up with the name? (Score:3, Informative)

    by adrianbaugh ( 696007 ) on Tuesday January 27, 2004 @09:17AM (#8099111) Homepage Journal
    Don't they realise that cack is a euphemism for "shit" or "godawful"? While naming libcaca was quite appropriate in a self-deprecating ironic way, cacko is not a good name for a distribution you want to be taken seriously.

  • Remote X? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Mister Furious ( 413397 ) <.ben. .at. .someguysserver.com.> on Tuesday January 27, 2004 @09:31AM (#8099262) Homepage
    Could this be used as a remote X terminal? I haven't looked into the prices of these things, so it'd probably be cost-prohibitive (or at least cost-a-lot), but it could be really useful to have access to my main machine's desktop as I walk around the office.

    • Re:Remote X? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by gregarican ( 694358 )
      Besides VNC you can even run a Windows Terminal Services client. Think it's called WinZConnect or something. I used both awhile back to remotely administer my Windows-based WAN from my Zaurus PDA. The Linux kernel was built with PPTP support so I could use that or OpenSSH tunneling. It was great. Plugged into my cell phone via a CompactFlash card. Anywhere I was I could remote in and do what I needed to.

      Long term I was looking to deploy the PDA's as remote salesperson units. They could run wireless VoIP cl

  • Does this mean I now have to sell my Zaurus 5600 and buy the 760 to get a decent X11 based distro!!! Doh!
  • Man, you'd think /.'ers could tell the difference betwen a *distribution* and a *desktop environment* Opie is NOT a "distribution" for handhelds, and thus it's NOT comparable to Cacko, Gentoo, or what have you. Opie is JUST a desktop environment; the only thing it's comparable to is QTopia (QT-based), GPE (X11/GTK based), and Pico. Opie is the preferred GUI for the Familiar (iPAQ, familiar.handhelds.org [handhelds.org] ) and OpenZaurus distributions (openzaurus.org [openzaurus.org]), but it's not a distribution by itself, so please stop

  • They still don't get it (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Feint ( 135854 ) on Tuesday January 27, 2004 @10:32AM (#8099918) Homepage
    The point of a PDA is a digital assistant. By porting X/gcc/etc to it, you get a nice demonstration of C/C++ portability, but you also end up with (another) underpowered desktop.

    The reason for PDAs is not to shrink the desktop to fit in your pocket. They exist to provide pinpoint functionality at your fingertips without having to boot ro lug around your laptop/desktop.

    If the same amount of manhours was put into getting a real PDA environment on top of linux (ie. syncs with outlook, has a taskpad, reads word docs etc) instead of repeated ports of X/perl/gcc/emacs to a handheld, the linux would already dominate the handheld market...
    if you want something starting to get close, look at opie.handhelds.org... They aren't there yet but at least its not another "port the kitchen sink to handheld xyz" project.
  • Imagine on of these or something of simular size with a 60 GB HDD, 2 Gig RAM, 300 Mhz Sysclock, 1280 resolution and OpenGL 2 hardware 3D acceleration with 128 RAM of texturespace.
    UT2k3 or T2 on the bus. When you get bored you fire up blender and start building some new mods. Cool.

    Or something like this:
    "X is doing a LAN Party. I think I'll drop by and play a match or two."
    "You have to go home and get your box."
    "No, I got it right here in my jacketpocket" :-)
  • The Zaurus is really nifty hardware, but it has been held back by QPE: the Qt/Embedded based desktop made it very hard to port GUI apps to the Zaurus and it was slow and memory hungry compared to X11. It also really didn't have a very good GUI in my opinion.

    I don't know whether the X11-based GUI will be any more usable as a PDA, but I do know that with a full X11 environment, the Zaurus can carve out a niche for itself for "vertical apps" (applications specific to particular industry sectors) that previou

  • Slash gets it backwards, as usual (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Bitmanhome ( 254112 ) <bitmanNO@SPAMpobox.com> on Tuesday January 27, 2004 @12:55PM (#8101712)
    This is truly bringing desktop linux to the PDA.
    That's not a PDA, that's a micro-laptop. It has a processor, lots of RAM, a display, and a keyboard. Granted, we surpassed those specs 5-10 years ago, but it really is a laptop. So it's natural a full Linux distro would work, as would DOS and Windows.
  • Mozilla and Firebird are incredibly slow on these processors. Dillo doesn't even do Frames, much less SSL and such, plus it's not very pen friendly.

    What browsers can be used with these tiny, slow, pen based systems that won't make you want to gouge your eyeballs out?

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

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