Slashdot Mirror

Look around. Palm and Symbian applications can be downloaded from many websites. Here's a website with more than 500 open source Palm apps:

      http://www.palmopensource.com/

Microsoft works with a number of stores like Handango.

If the sandbox is good enough-- and it's not that hard to build a good one-- then any software should be downloadable.

I call bullshit. The so-called "sad dearth" of free software on the Pocket PC includes a vast amount of free software than will never run on the iPhone. And there's an enormous market of commercial software for the Pocket PC. The iPhone doesn't even have a GPS, so it's useless for running apps like TomTom Navigator (which is the reason I got my iPAQ phone), even if it was theoretically possible for TomTom to support Apple's closed platform.

-Don

Some free software on the PocketPC: apache, vim, X11 server, kaffe, gcc, openssh http://www.wince-devel.org/ http://ppc.palmopensource.com/ http://www.freewareppc.com/ http://lifehacker.com/software/pocket-pc/11-killer-freebies-for-your-pocket-pc-209413.php http://www.tuxtops.com/?q=node/188

I call bullshit. The so-called "sad dearth" of free software on the Pocket PC includes a vast amount of free software than will never run on the iPhone. And there's an enormous market of commercial software for the Pocket PC. The iPhone doesn't even have a GPS, so it's useless for running apps like TomTom Navigator (which is the reason I got my iPAQ phone), even if it was theoretically possible for TomTom to support Apple's closed platform.

-Don

Some free software on the PocketPC: apache, vim, X11 server, kaffe, gcc, openssh http://www.wince-devel.org/ http://ppc.palmopensource.com/ http://www.freewareppc.com/ http://lifehacker.com/software/pocket-pc/11-killer-freebies-for-your-pocket-pc-209413.php http://www.tuxtops.com/?q=node/188

Had Apple released a proprietary "mobile-Cocoa," would you be happier as a FOSS developer?

Yes.

Would your iPhone apps run at something closer to "full speed"?

Yes.

Would you even write apps for a proprietary mobile platform if you called yourself a FOSS developer?

FOSS developers write apps for proprietary non-mobile platforms (c.f. Windows and Macintosh). Why should they not write them for proprietary mobile platforms -- especially one that is so amenable to having existing OSX programs recompiled for it? Hell, ever head of TCPMP? Yes, clearly no one writes open-source software for mobile devices.

Can you say "GNU toolset?" i.e. Fink / MacPorts and all of the stuff that comes with OSX. How about just "Terminal?" Or "SSH?" Maybe even "NetHack?" VNC, VLC, any other media players, any games that take advantage of the iPhone's graphics hardware -- all of these things are now impossible on the iPhone barring some kind of miraculous hack (miraculous because there is no available compiler/linker/UI toolkit/ANYTHING).

Given that PDAs are falling behind in the face of smart phones, going to Linux might just entice the linux haXX0r community to produce some fun applications that help Palm in the marketplace.

Actually, there's been plenty of developer attention paid to Palms already. Thanks to the head start, I think it still has more apps available for it than Windows handhelds. This despite the fact that developing for PalmOS is at best quirky and at worst painful.

But Palm is pretty much in the smartphone business already. All their development these days has been going into the Treo line. This move will be to bring Linux to their smartphone line. And that's going to make developing for Palms much easier, and make a large number of Linux apps available for Palms. Sweet...

It's worth noting that there are a number of open source software products that run on top of PalmOS. See my Suggestions for PalmOS PDA Users, freshmeat.net's list for the PalmOS Operating System category, and http://www.palmopensource.com.

Alex.

> And most important feature of a Palm : I can use it with my desktop linux box !!!
And you have lots of open source software at www.palmopensource.com , and an onboard c compiler (OnboardC under GPL) !

I'm not sure what you mean by "program."

However, you may wish to go PocketPC's Open Source Portal. There you can get gcc (which includes g++ I suspect) or vim.

I don't know what you are talking about, but even the most simple Palm can do email and webbrowsing.
It wasn't included in the "normal" Zire, but you could easily download an open source mail app from palmopensource.com.

People have mentioned previously that they have no use for the Palm PDA. The best use for the Palm is as an encrypted passphrase locker. If this $99 palm came with that preinstalled, it would help lots of people keep their passphrases secure. Ever count how many different PINS, passwords, passphrases you need to have for all your accounts? It is staggering. I'll bet a lot of people use the same one over and over - a tremendous security risk. With an encrypted passphrase locker, (perhaps such as ccrypt or others ) it makes it easy to create a new one for each account. And it also allows you to make passphrases that aren't so easy to remember, such as "IH3ART/.OK?" What some folks don't realize is that their passphrases into web sites are completely readable by the admin. If they use the same one over and over, they are asking for trouble.

Don't forget palmopensource.com and freewarepalm.com which enable a significant time savings (i.e. anyone who looks for games there can automatically skip the "find cracked warez version" step that seems to be dear to the piratical hearts of much of the more vocal /. readership. To whom I say, good grief, get a haircut and a job and cough up the dough already.)

You can find more information on:

www.palmopensource.com

You can find more information on:

www.palmopensource.com

Size matters ? But code too: www.palmopensource.com

So when they say "Join the Linux revolution" and "free software movement", does this mean that all of the software on the machine is GPL or something similar, so that unlike Palm OS, when I want to change a built-in app I can (provided I have skillz)? I'm not finding a lot on their site that indicates one way or the other.

IIRC, Palm has the source to all of the on-board applications (and a lot of the games) included as part of the development kit, so you can indeed change the application to do whatever you want. Some of them have, as I believe there are several very nice calendar replacements available based on the 'stock' code. You can even get the source code to the OS as a liscenced developer - is it free? No, but the code is available.

Palm has actively supported the free tools; They could be nicer about the USB specs, but I don't know enough to comment on that.

You might want to check out Palm Open Source for more goodies. There a nice little market doing custom development for palms, now, too.

NOBODY has come out and offered what I really want - linux on a PDA with a nice keyboard, a la the Jornada! GCC to go, with a real keyboard. I could toss the vaio then.

And PalmOS is the most open OS for palm sized devices: you can find the source of built-in apps and some parts of the OS too.

And for more open source palmos apps, visit, www.palmopensource.com

And the number of GPL/Open Source applications is still growing: Take a look at:

http://www.palmopensource.com (the PalmOS open source portal).

While not all of the apps follow a consistent license, I've found palmopensource.com to have quite a few useful links. I ran across it a while back when searching palmos sites.