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Here is the list of hardware supported by OpenEmbedded. It looks like N800 is the closest thing to a tablet on that list.

My company also has an XScale board which interacts with an FPGA for data collection. When the project first started it ran 2.4 (along with GCC 2.95) and generally sounds very similar to what you're doing.

Things have come a long way in the embedded Linux world since that time. Besides the TONS of additional features present in the the 2.6 kernel, I'm fairly certain you'll find that the vast majority of device vendors are only going to be writing drivers for the 2.6 tree. If you're upgrading to a new board I doubt you have a choice. Be comforted though, 2.6 is great (even for embedded XScale processors).

Your comment "This implies that I'll need to re-create a Linux RAM disk from scratch along with the tool chain" seems reminiscent of the old days where building cross compiling toolchains was a marathon. I highly recommend checking out Crosstool-Next Generation and OpenEmbedded if you're looking for the current state of the art in embedded Linux.

Best regards
Knut Yrvin
Community Manager Trolltech ASA

Well, there are lots of examples there, if you have time and patients you can follow it through.

OE uses tasks (similar in concept to debian tasks) to group packages.

e.g.
http://www.openembedded.org/repo/org.openembedded. dev/packages/tasks/task-openmoko.bb

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.'

I've seen some posts on Neuros forums about the (bad) state of the development environment.
It would probably be easier to hack your products if it was based on a platform that has package management. I'm thinking in particular to OpenEmbedded.

A very good generic embedded SDK/compiler suite/distro generator is provided by the OpenEmbedded project:
http://www.openembedded.org/

OE is used to produce various embedded GNU/Linux variants like:
- OpenZaurus (Sharp Zaurus PDAs)
- Familiar (various WinCE PDAs)
- OpenDreambox (Dreambox PVRs)
- OpenSlug, DebianSlug, UcSlugC (LinkSys NSLU2 router platform)

If using GNU/Linux is not a strict requirement, you could always give OpenBSD or NetBSD a try. Especially NetBSD runs on many platforms, the latest release supports 57 different ones.

There are at least some linux powered smartphones:

Montavista powered Smartphones.

Most of them are available in Asia only. But at least the A780 is coming to Europe soon. Hooray.

But Motorola only encourages to develop in Java, not C. It would be possible to port over all the apps from openembedded, cause it uses the same CPU and a comparable environment (qt/embedded ontop of a Linux kernel) like the Zaurus. But without support fomr Motorola this is diffcult at least. You even need a hack to access the phone via ssh ...

Bye egghat.

Latest Familiar 0.8.1 is based on OpenEmbedded. No more need for Debian/Arm.

You could just use OpenEmbedded. It was designed with cross-compiling in mind. It's also been around a lot longer (being based on OpenZaurus). They already support many archs and machines.

If you are running OpenZaurus >= 3.5.1, it is.

Just download and configure the Openembedded build environment and compiling OPIE / GPE apps is as easy as it can get.

Even for non-developers.

PS: openembedded.org / handhelds.org is currently down for maintenance

In fact Familiar is partly based on Debian, using ipkg rather than apt / dpkg and command like:

ipkg update
ipkg upgrade

will do exactly what you expect them to, coming from a Debian environment. It's true that there aren't as many packages though - around 800-odd in the current unstable feed I think, which includes gpe, opie, and a fair amount of other stuff.

I'm very impressed with the OpenEmbedded build system too - it seems to be a very well-thought-out environment for cross-compiling to a customised image.

It may also be possible to go from a Familiar installation to a Debian one with a dchroot. I recently did that to convert from i386/woody to sarge/pure64 on an Opteron box, and it worked well.

... is to build their own Distro, brand it with the Microsoft logo, and get it into distribution channels as far and as wide as possible.

It makes no sense for Microsoft to 'resist' Linux at all. Microsoft are just as capable of doing a kernel.tar.gz and stage1.tar.gz style release as anyone else. Why don't they just do it?

If there were a "Microsoft Linux", then Novell wouldn't stand a chance. Any existing MS-only shop looking to upgrade to Linux would definitely consider an "MS Linux" package over any other option, at least at first.

Seems to me, this article, and a few of the other ones recently from Microsoft on the subject of "Linux", is all a big prep-job to open the doors for a Microsoft-sourced Linux distro.

It could happen. I'd like to see it happen, personally. It'd be good to give people like these guys, and heck, even these guys a bit of competition from Microsoft ...

Whatever you do, before you buy an iPaq, check out the Sharp Zaurus first. You might find a C860 or so, in the U.S., pretty cheap ... and there is nothing quite so cool as running something like Pocket Workstation or Open Embedded, or any of the other various distro's for Zaurus that are available...

iPaq is nice. But with the Zaurus you have a lot more hacking potential, and a wider range of distro styles to choose from ... so at least check the Zaurus before you go iPaq...

I hope that OpenZaurus/OpenEmbedded get their act together soon and release a new version that supports the SL-5600/SL-6000. The current version of OpenZaurus is unstable on my SL-5600 and the Sharp ROM is crap. I am thinking about trying Gentoo for Zaurus.

Are there any other free Zaurus distros out there?

the zaurus is the under-the-radar linux product of the last 2 years. it freakin' rocks in so many ways, i can't even handle it.

a complete unix workstation, in your pocket. whatever you can do in linux, you can now do on the sl5500/c860's. its a 64-meg ram workstation with storage (get a nuvo 4gig CF disk, for example), and you've got yourself a computer you won't feel the need to 'upgrade' for at least a few more years. rip dvd's to your CF disk, watch them in landscape mode, set up a private subnet, web server and bittorrent feed over WLAN at your next 2600 meeting, whatever you like.

pocketized, portable, a complete linux.

what is it now, 8 different distro's for the zaurus, including pocketworkstation and gentoo, and its still going strong? oh, and hey, don't forget the openembedded distro-builder kit for pda's ...

zaurus freakin' rocks. cult linux item.

OpenEmbedded is the consolidation process of the different Linux PDA & Embedded solutions.
Linux PDA projects like OpenZaurus, and the Open Palmtop Integrated Environment (OPIE) will lead to more flexible and widely supported Linux platforms. Just have a peek at the long list of Linux supported platforms: HP iPaqs, Dell Axim's, Sharp Zaurus, Samsung's Yopy, Siemens SIMpad's, etc...