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Besides, the iPaq can be a linux PDA too.

How do you know it's not running Linux?

But I run Familiar Linux on my iPaq.

Does it run Opie Linux?

I own a Zaurus SL-5500: the "original" US market unit (as opposed to the original developer's unit, the SL-5000, which was basically the same thing with half the RAM). I'll say this: you can have it... when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

Two reasons it rocks:

• The keyboard. The primary reason this is 10x more efficient than (most) palm devices: I can type very quickly on the build-in "hidden" keyboard. Yes, the Zaurus has something like PalmOS's Graffiti. In fact, the Z's recognizer is more sophisticated and accurate, and can learn any strokes you teach it. I still use the keyboard.
• Linux. No, I do not use my Z as a "hacking tool" or "geek toy" primarily. I've written a test app for it or so, but that's it. (Doing so is incredibly easy, actually, but I haven't had a lot of time to spend on it.) I bought my Zaurus as a PDA, and that's what I use it for. Since I use Linux exclusively on the desktop, having it on the PDA is extremely natural, not to mention making things extremely flexible. I find syncing silly. I prefer ssh, scp, or (with the newer ROM) smbclient (which is like a braindead ftp, but it works). If I needed syncing, I would use rsync. It just fits very naturally into my work environment.

Some people complain about the PIM apps; the quality varies. The Todo List and Address Book aren't great, but I don't use the former and the latter is sufficient. The Text Pad, however, is pretty handy, and Opera (which even renders slashdot well!) and Hancomsheet (a fully-blown spreadsheet!) are killer apps for me.

The only reason I don't upgrade to a CL-760 is the fact I can't justify the cost: my Z works great as-is. With the work on OpenZaurus and Opie, the PIM issues are being solved, and I have little chance of being left with a "dead" platform.

Better get an older iPAQ or a recent 2210 instead. Or a Toshiba e740/e750.

Where do i get a decent handheld running GPE?

I was waiting for it since i saw it the first time

dudes if you look at the pics i sware its running OPIE
the desktop for familiar(mobile linux) sweet this would so rock davidk

dudes if you look at the pics i sware its running OPIE
the desktop for familiar(mobile linux) sweet this would so rock davidk

I suspect that it was the major reason Ms Fiorina and her gang (sp?) hasn't stopped flirting with Linux just yet (the other reason is HP realizing that something has just got to replace HP-UX... )

*EVERY* OS has had/comes with/includes a media player.

Not *EVERY* OS. Gentoo doesn't at least. Neither does Familiar linux. I sure can get a media player for each of them, but it definatly does not come with it. I'm sure there are a lot more than just that.

I'm not going to bite, troll, but I will ask this:

What resources do Slashdot folks know of regarding installation of Linux on top of Pocket PC devices? I found Familiar with a quick google, any others out there?

That's the main reason I use my Palm less and less these days.

Maybe you would be happier if you first installed Opie on your device. They just released a new SDK for that project as well....

I had Opie on my Pocket PC (An Ipaq 3650) for a while. It was running on the Familiar distribution from handhelds.org. It worked surprisingly well, though some of the PIM features were not as polished as those on the Pocket PC 2002 OS. Opie supported all of the hardware on the Ipaq, so I assume the Zaurus would be fully supported as well. As for the question about if it is "experimental", I would liken it to the Testing distribution of Debian. It is stable enough to run fine, but it is not as perfect as the Stable distro.

I've got a T-1000, too, and I like it. It's crashed once, just recently, in the few months I've had it (although, I don't know if it was some software I've installed). It's not like I chose it, I received it as a hand-me-down gift. I was looking to get a laptop for school work, but the tablet works well enough. It is kinda slow, but overall okay. I find that it is good for reading PDFs (in portrait mode).

I did get Linux to work on it using Knoppix. But I couldn't use a USB CD-ROM drive to do it. Instead, I had to setup Knoppix to be a terminal server on another computer. Here are some instructions.

Aside from the included hardware, just add a WiFI card with the Prism II chipset and the homemade antenna of your choice, and you're off to the races. This is the first all-in-one handheld wardriving unit I've heard of.

MultiSync is a free modular program to synchronize calendars, addressbooks and other PIM data between programs on your computer and other computers, mobile devices, PDAs or cell phones. MultiSync works on any Gnome platform, such as Linux.

Currently MultiSync has plugins for

• Ximian Evolution synchronization, supporting calendar, ToDos and contacts.
• IrMC Mobile Client synchronization (supported by e.g. SonyEricsson T68i/T610/Z600, Siemens S55 phones etc.) via Bluetooth or IR on Linux, or cable connection.
• Windows CE / Pocket PC synchronization. This plugin is part of the SynCE project, and can be downloaded there.
• Opie and Zaurus synchronization.
• SyncML support (supported by e.g. SonyEricsson P800/P900 and many other phones and devices, for example the SyncML server Sync4j). SyncML also allows you to do remote connection of two MultiSync programs via an encrypted connection over the net.
• Palm synchronization.
• LDAP synchronization.
• Backup of your PIM data.

More detail about Multisync supported devices

In addition, HP's CRL runs The Open Handhelds Project.

Dr. Hicks totally rocks.

I have an IPAQ (by Compaq) and the best dirsto I found is familiar.

When I first installed Linux I posted some screen shots, running the web server from the IPAQ directly connected to the Internet and firewalled with iptables. I have a dual PCMCIA sleeve, and with 2 nics it can be used as a router/firewall with NAT. The foldable keyboard works great and is very sleek. I have a 5G PCMCIA hard drive so I can watch movies on the bus. You can also use Sprint as a wireless ISP as there's now a Linux driver for the Sprint wireless modem.

There are camera and phone attachments but I don't know how they work with Linux.

This "familiar" distro has a good mailing list, moderated and mailed daily.

The software for handhelds and all new electronic devices should be open sourced because, although competition is good (Windows vs Palm, etc.), there are too many diverging standards at the moment. Open sourcing will force development around practical functionality rather than marketing strategies.

Indeed.

It's Opie-based PIMs will support synchronization with Lycoris's Desktop operating systems...

Some of us have been working on that [1] [2] for a while. I'm hoping they plan on using that and contributng back.

I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt - nothing wrong with providing "customizations" on top of Opie, but they need to provide code back. I haven't seen anything yet to say whether this will occur or not.

QTopia is QT for embedded devices. It contains all of qt, but can be run in cut-down profiles. The main difference between QTopia and "regular" QT is that it bypasses X and writes directly to framebuffer devices.

Well then somebody clear this up for me, because I just don't understand. My impression was that the software stack was this:

• Qtopia - analagous to a window manger, apps, user-level graphical stuff.
• Qt/Embedded - approximately analagous to the X Window system with QT built in.
• Embedix - the Linux kernel and (maybe?) non-gui user apps.

  It just seems to me that if Qtopia was the widget set, Opie wouldn't exist, because (AFAICT) Opie is about open PIM apps and synchronization, not replacing QT widgets.

  I'd love to be pointed in the correct direction, because I'd love to be able to get GNUton in a useable state.

I don't see why everyone is so excited about this Lycoris Linux distribution. I mean, Linux has been avaiable for iPaqs and Zauruses for years. The Familiar Linux Distribution for iPaqs is in version 0.7.2, and is in my opinion very stable already. And for Zauruses, not only does it run Linux out of the box, but the OpenZaurus project has provided an alternative for users. Both of these projects already have Opie, a Qtopia look-a-like as an option for desktop environments, but you can also use GPE as well.

I don't see why everyone is so excited about this Lycoris Linux distribution. I mean, Linux has been avaiable for iPaqs and Zauruses for years. The Familiar Linux Distribution for iPaqs is in version 0.7.2, and is in my opinion very stable already. And for Zauruses, not only does it run Linux out of the box, but the OpenZaurus project has provided an alternative for users. Both of these projects already have Opie, a Qtopia look-a-like as an option for desktop environments, but you can also use GPE as well.

I don't see why everyone is so excited about this Lycoris Linux distribution. I mean, Linux has been avaiable for iPaqs and Zauruses for years. The Familiar Linux Distribution for iPaqs is in version 0.7.2, and is in my opinion very stable already. And for Zauruses, not only does it run Linux out of the box, but the OpenZaurus project has provided an alternative for users. Both of these projects already have Opie, a Qtopia look-a-like as an option for desktop environments, but you can also use GPE as well.

and we know that arm-linux-gcc-3.2 doesn't mean it's gcc.

I've been running Familiar, which uses X11, on my iPaq for over two years. It's fun to push windows to it over 802.11b ethernet.

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

OPIE

Familiar

OpenZaurus

PocketWorkstation - based on Debian/GNU Linux

There is a survey of Linux on PDAs at TuxMobil.

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

OPIE

Familiar

OpenZaurus

PocketWorkstation - based on Debian/GNU Linux

There is a survey of Linux on PDAs at TuxMobil.

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 ) and OpenZaurus distributions (openzaurus.org), but it's not a distribution by itself, so please stop treating it as such.

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, so why would it be bad that people help non-KDE apps catch-up?

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.

You try adding a third button to a laptop trackpad.

What, your trackpad doesn't have buttons next to it? My Sony Vaio SRX77 has two regular buttons, plus the "jog dial" is clickable as a third, and it even has a "back" button next to that that could be a fourth button.

On inferior hardware :-) with only two buttons, clicking both usually emulates the middle button.

(Touchscreens are trickier. Even there, some have played with gestures to replace the missing buttons in Familiar.)

As far as TV, I don't think you can do better than 10' HDTV, with front-projection. Dazzling.

For a portable player, how about an IPaq running Opie? Run almost any Linux software, including GPS, contact management, SIM phone, movie player, etc in a pocket-sized computer. Yeah, it is HP, but I think the 3970 is the finest device I've ever owned. (once I tore out Winduhs and put in Opie)

I read this CES review, because it's by /. and that's what I wanted to read. I have the option of reading other reviews, but I choose this one, OK?

Thanks for that - I still think they can't do that, but you're right, corporations won't want to challenge it.

Yet another reason for Free Software people to keep away from TrollTech - they spread FUD. Interestingly they have employed a developer - Lorn Potter - to poison the opie-devel mailing list with propaganda. I don't like them.

Thanks for that - I still think they can't do that, but you're right, corporations won't want to challenge it.

Yet another reason for Free Software people to keep away from TrollTech - they spread FUD. Interestingly they have employed a developer - Lorn Potter - to poison the opie-devel mailing list with propaganda. I don't like them.

Read the explanation on the freedesktop site. There they mention the fact that people developed X on really old VAX machines. I even ran X myself on an old VAXStation II which had several times less memory than your average palmtop computer, hardware which happens to run X as well.

Although it's currently in B, the Opie Player 2 does this on OpenZaurus with a minimum of problems... But a caveat: there are search problems. It is, however, worth giving a whirl for any Zaurus user.

Opie Player 2 (op)

The new Opie mediaplayer. Does, mp3, shoutcast, ogg/vorbis, ogg streaming, mpg1, mpg2, divx3, divx4, divx5,XviD, mpeg4, wav. More to come. Still consumes a lot of memory. Make sure you have libopie and the codecs also installed. Since the 2.4.6 on zaurus also has some memory problems in the kernel, you might want to reboot the zaurus if you see problems with playback. New version, improved playback in nonfullscreen video mode. Also the ipk for the retail rom are now installable, but use the command line ipkg. The gui frontend does not find the ipk. Note: You also need zlib, both that and libopie_0.9.1 can be downloaded from - here !

Source

So does an older iPAQ (3600-3900, although I think audio playback is working on the 5500 now too) if you put Linux on it. On the other hand, that's a lot less space for music (in my case, approximately the size of a MMC and a CF card) than a music player with a spinning disk.

Matchbox is the obvious one to go for because it's been designed especially for "computers with little screen real estate, limited input mechanisms and low cpu/storage resources".

Alternatively, there's WindowLab which might work well since it reuses the top of the screen for both a taskbar and app launcher. This one's probably a bit of an aquired taste.

Matchbox is specifically designed for low resolutions.

Well, I bought a PocketPC (an ancient iPaq 3650), running WinCE. It running somewhat nice (well, it never crashed, but made some minor mis-interpretations of my actions - like opening Word when trying to open a txt file instead of the notepad). Then Compaq offered a free upgrade to PocketPC 2002. Since it was free, I took it. It was the worst thing I ever did in my whole life. After the update, the iPaq locked four times in two days (and I had to press the 'reset' button in the bottom of it to make it work again), and I was not doing anything special with it - simply writing some text in Word or Excel. Then I switched to Familiar Linux Distro, installed GPE, and it never bothered me again.

Well, I bought a PocketPC (an ancient iPaq 3650), running WinCE. It running somewhat nice (well, it never crashed, but made some minor mis-interpretations of my actions - like opening Word when trying to open a txt file instead of the notepad). Then Compaq offered a free upgrade to PocketPC 2002. Since it was free, I took it. It was the worst thing I ever did in my whole life. After the update, the iPaq locked four times in two days (and I had to press the 'reset' button in the bottom of it to make it work again), and I was not doing anything special with it - simply writing some text in Word or Excel. Then I switched to Familiar Linux Distro, installed GPE, and it never bothered me again.

If it's as hackable as the iPaq I'd get one. I'd love to install Familiar Linux on my car.

Just a few notes here:

1. Mozilla is actually quite fast, especially compared to the competition (in essence, Internet Explorer). The monolithic Internet suite approach definitely does introduce some unnecessary overhead, but as Mozilla moves towards a modular model based on Firebird and Thunderbird, you can expect this to be remedied. The only major desktop browser that's left to consider, really, is Safari. Well, as it happens, Safari is based on KHTML, and the advantages of the very lightweight and speedy Safari are all present on Linux with Konqueror (which, incidentally, doesn't have the additional CPU/GPU overhead associated with Apple's Quartz framework).

2. X is not a bad framework. Features like network-transparency and the like are, in fact, VERY important in environments where thin-clients/servers are common. XFree86, in particular, is being forked every which way at the moment which, while at first glance seems like trouble, will probably wind up introducing some very interesting innovations, both in terms of processing and memory-efficiency and eye-candy. In the meantime, XFree86 provides a compatible, stable base that is more than fast enough on modern desktop hardware.

3. KDE and GNOME are not one-size-fits-all desktop environments. They are designed to be flexible and extensible and, as such, they tend to be more complex than, say, XP's Luna or the Mac's Aqua (incidentally, Luna absolutely sucks eggs as far as speed and bloat go, and while Aqua is admirably efficient given all that it does, one still must consider all that it does in terms of rendering iCandy). This flexibility is not necessarily a weekness, as it allows a desktop to be tuned for a particular user's needs, ranging from thin-client type apps to my dual-display K desktop littered with SuperKaramba themes. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that feature-set vs. performance is not a huge issue on modern desktops, and in places where it is (like embedded systems) Linux has very sleek, slim alternatives that still manage to be pretty and functional (like, for example, Opie). There are also desktop alternatives available for the KDE and GNOME-hating, thanks again to the modularity of X keeping the window manager and the display server seperate, ranging from GNUStep to Ratpoison.

4. You've got a point about OpenOffice, I must admit. It's not necessarily a bad system, but then again, it's not really anything more than an Office clone. A free and very portable Office clone, but an Office clone nonetheless. One of the good things about Linux desktop software that I mentioned above is that it doesn't try to recreate Windows or Mac with precision, but rather provide a very flexible framework that can be adapted to the user's needs. OpenOffice definitely doesn't fit in with this philosophy, but I'm sure that there are other projects going on out there working to redefine how we think of Office suites. And if not, somebody ought to get to work on that. ;)

5. Just a side note, Fedora isn't exactly the examplar of Linux's efficiency and performance. Go Gentoo!

What all the above boils down to is this: Does Linux have a way to go before becoming the perfect desktop OS? Certainly, and work is ongoing towards this goal. However, we must also ask another question: Is Linux, at this moment in time, a better choice than Windows or Mac for many users and businesses? Absolutely, and it's looking better every day.

Python has been available in Familiar, and before that in the Compaq Linux for the iPAQ since I packaged it up nearly 3 years ago.

Mailing List Archive Link

Actually, it is easy to sync Opie with Outlook, see the OpieSyncing wiki for details, but basically you just need Sharp's Intellisync, which works great for me.

And to answer "Why?" -- I can use unison to synch a mobile subset of my files with my handheld. I can run Samba on my ipaq to browse through its real filesystem. PocketPC's filesystem is essentially inaccessible without going through ActiveSync, which is horrible.

I thought to get OS upgrades to the IPAQ you needed to have it flashed by a dealer [...] Or am I talking rubbish here and it is simply a software update?

Updating to Familiar is a fairly simple process, if you visit the Faniliar Install Guide page at handhelds.org you can see that it's all very well documentated.

The installation takes the form of installing a bootstrap program from WinCE, this is documented as something really scary, but it isn't. You just need to read the instructions and follow them carefully. It's true that it could break your handheld, but there are a lot of safety nets built in. As for getting the actual distro on there, you place your iPaq in its cradle, select the install from serial link on the bootloader, you can then connect using minicom, or Hyperterminal if you're a Windows user. You send the required files through the serial link using ymodem (it takes about 20 minutes), the iPaq reboots, you calibrate the touchscreen and you're done. It's really very impressive!

I've got an iPaq 3630 with Buffalo Compact Flash Wireless card, I love it (although I've not used it for a while). The flexibility of having Linux on your handheld means that you can have something that already has the functionality of a laptop, just in smaller means, it's also really useful for wireless testing.

Qt/Embedded is slow and memory hungry; it's less featureful and without open implementations.

You mean open implementations like this?