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It really looks like a Flybook subnotebook, which is about the same size and has the same 1024x600 resolution. I own two of them. The good thing about Flybook is that it can connect to the Internet through cellular networks supporting GPRS (53 kbps), UMTS (384 kbps), and HSDPA (1.8 to 3.6 mbps) and that it runs on a x86 processor (Transmeta or Pentium M). The bad thing is that its standard battery has just 1-2 hour autonomy depending how you use it (but the extended battery has much more, from 3 to 4 hours depending on use) and it lacks an integrated DVD drive. I would like to point out that Flybook is designed to be usable while you walk, as the pointing device is located at the top right position (unfortunately there is no left-hand version!). I notice that this Palm Foleo machine has its pointing device on the centre, which would make it difficult to use it while walking. Palm's claimed battery life is 5 hours, which is too low for an ARM-based machine (my HTC Universal with the extended battery has 22 hours autonomy, and I'm able to connect to the Internet through cellular GPRS and UMTS networks from it, connect to my servers via SSH, code in Python, and browse Slashdot at 640x480 thanks to OzVGA. Actually I would say that HTC Universal would be completely perfect if it had more memory, wasn't based on Winblows, and could connect via HSDPA just like Nokia's E90 does). I also notice that the Palm Foleo's keyboard seems very well designed, while I can't say the same about Flybook's keyboard (try coding in C or another language with lots of brackets, or use any application requiring heavy use of PgUp and PgDown keys on a Flybook keyboard while standing up and you'll understand). There are many interesting mobile devices out there (see HTC's new toy or Sharp's Zaurus) and only time will tell whether Palm's new machine will be a hit in the mobile warriors's market. It's interesting to note that as x86 subnotebooks become smaller and ARM machines larger there are less and less differences between them, to the point where we may have difficulty distinguishing them at first glance.

I had hoped it might be like a VR3 with updated hardware, but no... Darn.
Please, please can somebody build a VR3 with a GB of Flash, 256 MB RAM and a faster ARM? The concept was fantastic, it just needed a little more performance.

Doesn't matter to me though, Xenomai wins in every way and it is not encumbered by any existing patents.

--jeffk++

Why would anyone want this? Well, a router that combines firewall, nat, vpn, etc. is fine for home use, but what about the coffee shop? For a mobile computer having a on-computer firewall is a must. As far as why anybody would choose to use this over any software firewall... I can only assume it's for people who don't want yet another piece of software hogging their cpu. Most software firewalls aren't that intensive, but if you're looking to free up that 3-5% of your resources, hardware is the way to do it. Of course, without a benchmark showing a difference, the actual performance increase is lost in the market speak.

<fanboi mode on>

When you use the word "platform" I'm assuming we're talking about the OS itself, i.e. excluding the applications. I'm not very familiar with MS Windows but I think Linux is doing excellent qua performance and stability, witness that it can be used for embedded applications (thanks a lot to FSF's gcc and binutils, methinks), can be used for real-time (with modifications, but I thought they are going to be folded into the mainline kernel), is quite secure (selinux) and most of all is usable for serious computing: how many of the top-500 supercomputers run a kind of Linux (on at least some of the nodes)? At first glance I'd say about 70%. How many run *any* special edition of MS Windows, or other non-unix-like OS? At first glance I'd say 0%. Can you imagine what a boost this is for e.g. HIV and cancer research (paragraph 3 on the page)? Now imagine the real-life effects on society, if research centers were forced to use Microsoft software. To how many CPUs does that scale? Let's not even get started on "Windows for Warships" (for brits and maybe argentinos: listen to their sci-fi radio show -- but I digress).

<fanboi mode off/>

Of course that doesn't imply Linux is also a good desktop platform but I can't at the moment think of any OS feature that is specific for desktop use and that Linux can't provide. I may be a fanboi but yes, I'd say "Linux is better than MS Windows" (njaa njaa njaa etc.; penile length etc.).

Now how this translates to "has the best applications" is a completely different matter, for which technical excellence is much less important than inertia, portability of existing software, existing market share, and marketing (Microsoft marketing budget for Windows XP was $ 1 000 000 000 BTW; I'd say that compensates a lot).

The Cowon A2 runs Linux and you can even get the source code for it's O/S.

->...you have to compile specifically for it, so it doesn't run legacy linux applications.
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6279947776.html
"In Lina's case, the VM is essentially a Linux environment that supports standard C/C++ applications, or even perl and python, if their respective interpreters are installed. CTO Nile Geisinger explained, "You have to compile binaries specifically for Lina, but it's fairly trivial, no different than compiling binaries for SuSE or Red Hat."
-> how is this better than cygwin/mingw???

Even worse:
"Open source developers will be able to use Lina for free, while commercial developers will pay an as-yet undecided licensing fee, the idea goes."
->so, better recompile for free for the three systems.

->wine is the other way round, but at least it doesn't need you to recompile or require you to pay to use it.

->no comments:
"Geisinger hinted that Lina's library set is fairly extensive, after four years of development by a team that has ranged from two to five developers. "There's a lot of code there," he said.
However, a few biggies are missing. GTK+ support is in the works, but not finished yet. There's no support initially for USB peripherals and possibly for other hardware interfaces. And, there's no slick installer to put non-Linux users at ease."
->compare with the resources put e.g. behind java or even cygwin

Yes, that is why they invented the "Voluntary Milking System." Yes, it runs on Linux!

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS4275702675.html

The deal is apparently for a few hundred million dollars:

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3470257929.html

To put that in context, Microsoft, each month, has more than a billion dollars in profits. Microsoft sees the deal as a cheap hedge, and probably doesn't mind that it stirs the waters a bit.

I wonder how long before AMD makes a PC-on-a-chip, like VIA did.
Now with ATI they should have all the required components for that (good graphics controller etc).

I am thinking ultra ultra portable =)

C'mon what are we talking about here, a few minutes? AFAIK, better power savings comes through a good acpi config, which I don't see a whole lot of discussion on.

"The tickless kernel feature (CONFIG_NO_HZ) enables 'on-demand' timer interrupts: if there is no timer to be expired for say 1.5 seconds when the system goes idle, then the system will stay totally idle for 1.5 seconds. This should bring cooler CPUs and power savings: on our (x86) testboxes we have measured the effective IRQ rate to go from HZ to 1-2 timer interrupts per second.

"This feature is implemented by driving 'low res timer wheel' processing via special per-CPU high-res timers, which timers are reprogrammed to the next-low-res-timer-expires interval. This tickless-kernel design is SMP-safe in a natural way and has been developed on SMP systems from the beginning."

http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT9423084269. html

Because some people still depend on it. I've got a handful of inventory tracking devices built in the late 1990's that depend upon WEP if you want any sort of security at all. What needs to become that standard is VPN. Put all your wifi devices onto a separate lan, and only allow access to your "real" network via VPN. With companies like AML producing hand held inventory tracking devices build on debian, doing this with openvpn could actually become a reality. I recently demoed the model linked to above and the thing is really slick. Telnet access to it (with SSH available), a full shell available, and a generally rock solid device. The only reason we are still stuck with the late 1990's models is that the industry standard for inventory tracking devices has become an imager for a bar code reader, which isn't very well suited to scanning VIN barcodes through windshields (i work in the automotive industry).

If you consider how many non desktop devices run on 'Open Source' than you can still consider it hasn't reached its full potential. TiVo Inc, Sky+, and the BBC all sell a DVR although I'm not sure what's under the hood. The question is why Dell , Compaq and the rest haven't moved into this lucrative embedded market.

http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT4612631999. html
http://www.dream-multimedia-tv.de/Bereiche/Produkt e/DM7020.php
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS7385804211.html
http://freevo.sourceforge.net/about.html

If you consider how many non desktop devices run on 'Open Source' than you can still consider it hasn't reached its full potential. TiVo Inc, Sky+, and the BBC all sell a DVR although I'm not sure what's under the hood. The question is why Dell , Compaq and the rest haven't moved into this lucrative embedded market.

http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT4612631999. html
http://www.dream-multimedia-tv.de/Bereiche/Produkt e/DM7020.php
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS7385804211.html
http://freevo.sourceforge.net/about.html

Here are a few more links:
http://userful.com/
http://cambuca.ldhs.cetuc.puc-rio.br/multiuser/
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS4818008579.html

Personally, I will be purchasing the Neo-1973 mobile device that is currently in development. It will be built on the new OpenMoko open-source platform and is scheduled to hit the market in September this year.

at linux devices

I'd call your attention to the transition chart in the center.

Does this really make sense to anybody? Has the business market shown any real preference for the Windows Mobile platform over, say, RIM's BlackBerry?

There are two things that drive MS OS hegemony in IT departments: (1) management complexity and (2) the idea that they will develop and maintain apps internally. However, once you introduce mobile devices into the mix, it really doesn't matter what OS they run from a management perspective. The dominant question is how complex is to integrate the device into corporate infrastructures, a game at which RIM excels and Palm fails. Also, successful mobile apps developed in house by IT departments are rare. There are too many complexities and idiosyncracies. Working in the field, it's a lot like developing web applications would be if there weren't a massive industry trying to train us and sell us tools to make the job easier.

I doubt the Windows Mobile platform is really intended to play the market role outlined there. They have some other reason to have it in the lineup.

Access, the company now stifling innovation with the dormant BeOS code, is also the Japanese mobile phone corporate giant that bought out PalmOS, lying about offering a smartphone running Linux with a PalmOS GUI/compatibility layer.

Obviously you are very mistaken.

For example $70 gets you http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS2837651365.html . For less than $20 you can put together a board using an Atmel ARM micro or NXP ARM micro packed to the eyebrows with ADCs etc.

The OLPC missed their chance to get money from me. About one year ago I was offering to pay up front for one priced at three times the cost, to be delivered when they were finally made. Now I wouldn't buy one from a starving ethiopian, not even for $50, not even if it would feed his entire village for a year.

The reason is that other similar stuff has come out and is on the market. I now own a flash-disk-based, no-moving-parts, 200 MHz computer, and it only cost me $150.00 (it is even cheaper now). I am thinking of buying a similar 800 MHz computer, that will also have the ability to use a laptop harddrive (moving parts though!), to use as a low power consumption web server and printer server; that would be under $200. I may find an excuse for purchasing a similar Atmel-based system for only $70 (the fact that the Atmel based system is not x86 based is kind of a turn off though).

All of these systems are powered by DC. That means that if I wanted to bolt it all into a shiny aluminum breifcase, add some of those gel-cell lead-acid batteries for RC racers or a bank of NiMh cells, and make a laptop if I wanted. I could take apart one of those crank-based LED flashlights they now sell so cheaply and add that, and be famous for a day on hackaday.com.

I could do that all without having to wade through a bunch of self-righteous self-promoting by MIT Media Lab (a well spring of self promotion, if you are not familar with them) salesmen. So why buy an OLPC now ? For that matter, if you were the government of, oh, say THAILAND, which is where the Norhtec company I purchased my flash-based computer is located, why wouldn't you just buy the cheaper locally made product ? While the OLPC does integrate a lot, it's not as if rural people aren't familar, or can't find someone who is familar, with the concept of a car battery, old truck generator, and a bicycle. The OLPC has some integrated software, but even a third world mired in poverty country has one national university with a handful of students who know what linux and the internet are, you can hand out a MINISCULE amount of money to them to get a setup everyone can use to run these small computers on. It will just be Puppy Linux or Slax with the local language settings already done.

The OLPC is a concept whose time has come, and gone, and it's promoters should do what the Media Lab has always done -- claim victory and insist it was all just a "proof of concept" and charge on to the next big hype with which to milk their sponsors.

Two other machines vying for the low-end space include:

Intel Classmate PC

Data Evolution Holdings' Personal Internet Communicator

Two other machines vying for the low-end space include:

Intel Classmate PC

Data Evolution Holdings' Personal Internet Communicator

The ipod is low on features, but high on style. That just shows that features are not what make this kind of product. The ipod is iconic - you really struggle to find any way to dislodge that.

MS has always been high on features/low on style (eg. Office).

MP3 players are not technical products. They are fashion statements. What sane kid will walk around with a Brown Zune Turd in their pocket?

If MS has any sense they'll can Zune. If they make Zune2 then they'd better come up with something far better. Perhaps something based on http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS7994750806.html

Here is the smaller unit I was thinking about, although I seem to recall a Japanese outfit building something similar. IMHO, this is stretching the limits of a useable UI. Probably not suitable for surfing the web.

IIRC, there was a prototype wristwatch-sized (albeit a bulky watch) device built by a Japanese company that ran Linux a few years ago. It was never developed commercially due to the UI limitations of its size.

So Netcraft shows 45M*60% = 30 million web sites running Apache. Lets, for argument sake, say all of these are on Linux boxes. Some of these websites (Google etc) are very busy and will be running multiple servers. Some (probably more than 80% of websites) will be running on hosted systems (ie. 1 server == 10 websites or more). That probably means the there are approx 5 million web servers running Linux.

In comparison, Motorola alone shipped a million Linux-based phones in one quarter http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS2325312567.html... and there are many more companies selling Linux cell phones and there are many companies embedding Linux into TVs and all kinds of thing.

They said they made a mistake with the wording, and re-released the license with better wording.
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS4872069549.html

Slashdot just simply needs to be shut down. I've had it. We are not retarded. We know that any Linux distro can be rebuilt into any other Linux distro simply by uninstalling some packages and reinstalling others. There are tons of companies already selling Linux pre-installed. http://www.linuxdevices.com/ is but one site on which you can find several, even running inside cases shaped like Tux!

Selling Linux pre-installed on a PC isn't impossible, as shown by the stats in India and China. India alone is a 20% Linux market, and even Dell has been selling Linux pre-installed there for years with no problem at all. All this bullshit is stale bullshit we've been hearing for twenty fucking years. Next you'll be hearing the "Linux still has a command line" bullshit. followed by a Microsoft "get-the-facts" bullshit-a-thon about the supposed TCO, when specialized training is actually required for Windows, not Linux, as Linux, based on Unix, is something most computer science graduates learn before they get their paper.

Again: the stupidity that it takes to even print this headline is ample reason enough to shut Slashdot down, fire the retards in charge, and hire replacements who actually have the First Clue.

What, are we sheep? If this is Web 2.0, then let us break down the final barrier between webmaster and audience and take one, JUST ONE, website back from being a Microsoft shill factory to an actual tech news site.

You are asking what you would 'DO' with Linux. Great question. The best answer, if you are looking at POS (Point Of Sale) applications is to go to the majors. Just so you know, EVERY Home Depot till runs on Linux Article . I have not been that deep in the accounting world for some time. I can recommend SDC who have an ORACLE-base, web-enabled high-end system that will probably provide you with everything you need. Furthermore, they are great at developing custom aspects to their applications. Also, because it's ORACLE, it can run on the same instance and use the same licensing as any other major database applications you might have. Of course, it goes without saying that ORACLE runs on Linux. Who knows, you might even get Dell to ship the hardware! If all that is not enough for you, then stick to your virus and malware-prone, costly, antiquated way of doing things. Be forewarned, however, your Linux-based competitors will soon be eating their competition for lunch!

Ok so they are behind a bit, Their page says that they are shipping this month. Unlikely, but I'll buy one of these before I'd ever buy an iPhone. If they do all the things they say they will do this phone will kick Apple's ass. The phone is called "Neo 1973" what that means I don't know.

This presentation isn't as flashy as Steve Jobs' but is has me way more interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRvtAAXTIlg

Linux Devices has a good writeup.
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS2986976174.html

The Company Web Site
http://www.openmoko.com/

We need more phones that you can buy unlocked that give you features that the cell phone companies normally would block (Skype / WiFi integration, MP3 ringtones, bluetooth image transfers, etc).

Maybe a Linux phone will get us there?

One of my laptops is still a P166, and while maybe generating initial keys took a small amount of time, I never experienced any noticeable delays SSHing into it, and I'd never dream of doing something so stupid.

Now maybe if he was connecting to something like this.
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS8199781438.html

http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS2319525658.html

I also think candybar-style phones (my preferred style) would benefit from having the mic and earpiece on the *back* of the phone, so the screen and keypad don't get all greasy.

Here's another example that I saw some days ago:

http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS2319525658.html

In addition to the other phones cited here, this was also a feature of the Wildseed (also briefly known as "GitWit") phone, that had a number of other interesting features beside the fact that the keypad was on top.

http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT5512478189. html

I doubt that Anthony Harrison's patent can hold up, since there is plenty of "prior art" available.

http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS7002110505.html

How about some much cheaper Linux smartphones! http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT9423084269. html

True, but the typical CF-M34 isn't (commonly) available in anything more powerful than a P3-700M - and I only have a P3-400M. However, for a slight increase in computational power, say, on the order of a 1Ghz PIII, I should save on battery life. Additionally, I would get a graphical kick in the pants - I'm not looking to play Quake 4, but having *no* 3D acceleration is a pain. Finally, and I haven't seen anyone post about this, but as a result of the Intel/VIA patents settlement, this board can support an Intel Pentium M, which opens interesting possibilities (at the cost of greater battery use than a C7).

have you RTFA'd

http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT5152980814. html
See this for a good explination of why the rt preemption patch is needed.
Note: this test was done with 2.4 kernel and most of the rt patch from Ingo Molnar
has already been merged with the mainline (not totaly for all arches though) as of 2.6.18.

IMHO this distro of ubuntu could also be used as a great base robuntu (any one have a better name?)
predictable real time responses in the 10's of microseconds is a good thing for robots and audio/video.

It's GSM Quad Band. http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS2986976174.html

A browser does not require a PC with an OS, but only a display terminal, i.e., one with an X server (software that delivers the display and input components of remote applications to you) and network link to applications (in this case browsers) already running somewhere else. Then you can do banking and enjoy the world wide web without a PC or local storage. Chatting is available via any of several plug-ins for the Firefox browser.

Here's a $69 printer that lets you edit and print your photos without a PC. http://www.pcmall.com/pcmall/shop/detail~dpno~6048 11~name~Photosmart+8050+Photo+Inkjet+Printer~mfg~Q 6351A%23ABA.asp

Here's a live CD that turns your Windows computer into an X terminal.
http://xlivecd.indiana.edu/

Here's the howto that turns any PC into a network display terminal, and X server. When this is running no use will be made of the hard drive. It will also work if there is no hard drive in the system. It will also work if there is no operating system installed on the computer.

    Here, look at this... http://linuxdevices.com/articles/AT7499590573.html

Neo1973 and OpenMoko. It may not have all the features of the iPhone, but it costs half as much, is (almost) totally open source, you'll be able to write, install any software you'd like, and you are not locked into a single service provider.

Check out FIC's Neo1973 as an open alternative to iShackles. Coming to the US in February 2007! It runs the 99.99% open source Linux OpenMoko platform based on OpenEmbedded. A good hardware comparison between the iPhone and Neo1973 is linked here.

Following the mailing lists on the OpenMoko site, it looks like the Neo1973 is highly competitive with the iPhone. The Neo has a much better screen and a better processor. Plus it's completely open sourced except for a couple of device drivers (cellular and bluetooth?). You can write your own programs in whatever language and load them on your own phone yourself. Python, Ruby, Perl, C/C++, and so on. There's even a current effort to get J2ME working. And there will be a community site sponsored by FIC where people can share or sell applications and others can download them.

Personally, with nearly the same hardware abilities and the ability to write your own software, I see no reason to get a locked down iPhone. Sure, the iPhone comes with 4-8gb of space, that's the big difference in hardware, but it also costs $150-$250 more on top of a 2-year contract. So it seems that difference is a wash. (A 2gb microSD costs ~$60 USD from NewEgg.)

Say all you want about the software, if I'm going to carry around a something bigger than a Razr it better be a full blown computer. Not a crippleware 'phone.'

First, if it was really OSX, why would they need Google's help to implement Google Maps? It would just run.

Third, it's hard to believe a handheld would have the resources to run OSX.

Finally, if it was really OSX, then any OSX app would run on it (in theory).

And does it have a real GPS in it (not that flaky E911 stuff, but the real thing like you see in some Linux smartphones? If it had a GPS integrated with Google maps and had the navigation/tracking features of a basic Garmin unit, that would justify the price even more.

Your question is asked anytime this product is mentioned. NO! The second it is a cellphone it will be a closed platform, the cell carriers won't accept an open phone on their networks, period full stop.

It's really too bad you don't know what you're talking about.

Your question is asked anytime this product is mentioned. NO! The second it is a cellphone it will be a closed platform, the cell carriers won't accept an open phone on their networks, period full stop.

It's really too bad you don't know what you're talking about.