Slashdot Mirror
Will Linux Ever be Ported to the Palm?
Derek Cunningham asks: "I've had a Palm Vx for a couple months now. All of the nerds I know continually ask me 'are you running Linux on that yet?' and all I can say is 'no'. I've continually read over the uCLinux page, as well as the OSK page... but cannot find details on exactly how to get Linux on my Palm. It seems that uCLinux has a downloadable version, but no docs, and OSK just doesn't have a whole lot of information other than some graphics and screenshots, and even those are almost a year old (same age as the slashdot story). The only thing they seem to document is getting their images to work with XCoPilot."
I think they quesiton might be better as "Should Linux ever be ported to the Palm?"
Ok, that's a bit harsh. Certainly it would be a neat hack, and I like a neat hack as much as the next being. But is linux right for the palm?
Say you install linux on your palm, and want to use, for example, bash. Unless you're amazingly good at graffiti, it will be a lot slower than on your desktop. You could, conceivably, use a keyboard (all hail the PPK!), first writing a driver for it, but you can't do that on a regular basis (as in jotting down a number on the subway). Yah, you could write a GUI for it, or adapt X, or soemthing, but....why? Does linux have to run on everything and its duck?
I'm not a linux expert, but it seems to me that PalmOS is on the right track with they're handheld OS: simple, streamlined, totally GUI oriented.
Just some things to think about. And I still WinCE when I think about Microsoft's attempt to squeeze their desktop OS onto a handheld....
-J
Karma: T-rexcellent.
first let me say that i think today's linux is a terrible operating system for handheld computers.
</asbestos>
like another poster said, what the hell would you do with it? i type pretty darn fast, and i love the power that communicating with the computer verbally gives me. but the you just can't do that kind of thing within the palmtop form factor. at least not until we see some real software for that arena.
the palm os (as great as the interface is) is a tragedy from an operating system design point of view. no protected memory, no real multitasking, nothing you would ever tolerate on a desktop system.
rumor has it that the nextgen palms will run on be 200 to 400mHz ARM chips. if i were on the palm (handspring) board of directors, i'd be pushing to develop the next palm interface on linux.
imaging handspring-developed hardware, powered by arm, held together with linux, supporting a palm interface. stunning.
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