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Sharp Officially Producing Linux PDA
Jar writes "CNET is reporting
that Sharp will be out with a Linux based PDA by October. They seem to be bracketing the PDAs into similar categories as those available from Palm/Visor - a no-multimedia PDA, one with mulitmedia capabilities and one with wireless connectivity. The wireless connectivity version is said to have phone features too." On the downside,
Maxtor has ditched BSD for W2k in its network hard drive box.
my ex-boyfriend interned for the Sharp last summer in Tokyo (yes, he's Japanese *g*), and they have been doing some very impressive stuff that will probably be rolled back soon into the handhelds.org project. The wireless model is what's really amazing. My ex-boyfriend got a prototype unit as a souvenir, and he has been able to stream his mp3s and videos from his webserver whereever he goes, simply using his GSM card. This unit is sure to leech off marketshare from Palm and PocketPC when it comes out.
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"For one, outside of the geek community..."
For second, outside of the geek community people need to get their work done. A lot of people outside of the community still have this believe that GNU/Linux is hard to learn, and unpratical in use. Why would they try GNU/Linux on their PDA then ? Which is meant to be fast and *simple*.
Let alone the diffuculties they could get with syncronizing their M$ Outlook Email and Agenda stuff ?
I don't see how they would get a lot of market share on with GNU/Linux on these people...And I don't believe this PDA is purely marketed for "geeks" which is still a relativly small market.
--sn0w
I wonder how many applications these embedded Linux devices will be compatible with? I guess, since there is such a volume of open source software available on the platform, people can easily port existing applications over. However, it would probably be difficult to find commercial applications produced specifically for embedded Linux (at least, while it is still in the process of gaining market share), than it will be to find PALM applications.
At this stage in the game, I really don't see the benefit that Linux offers over PALM OS. PALM OS is remarkably stable and efficient; in addition, there are enormous amounts of software (much of it free) produced specifically for the platform. These Linux handhelds will have the same problem gaining widespread acceptance that Windows CE devices did. There is less application support, and many people are already satisfied with their PALMs.
Lenny
ByteMyCode.com: A Web 2.0 code sharing community.
Customization. If I have no interest in using multimedia software, why should I have software which fills that niche taking up space on my PDA? If I don't plan to exchange data with IR, why should I have IR support taking up space? If I want to use the unit in a way that the hardware can support but which is absent from the initial install, I can add it myself.
You're right that not everything has to be Linux. It doesn't even have to be a BSD. What I demand is freedom -- in part for ideological reasons but mostly because free (open source) software lets me fit the machine to myself and not the other way 'round.
Also, let's not conflate the OS and the apps that run on it the way some large software companies do. I look at something like the PalmOS and I think about how difficult it was to program sophisticated software for. The OS is perfect for note-taking, expense accounts, address books, etc. I wouldn't want to run a MySQL client on it, though. The machines are getting more powerful by the day -- my iPaq has more horsepower than the PC I bought maybe 7 years ago (486/50, 8MB RAM...c'mon!) and while it's true that the primary use of a handheld today is to be an address book, why should that still be the case tomorrow? These little dudes are _computers_, man! Push 'em!
Learn to spell: nickel, missile, lose, solely, amendment, speech, kernel, probably, ridiculous, deity, hierarchy, versus
As users, we should be pleased that MS is moving to meet the market needs. If you are an evangelist for OSS, this should light a fire under your ass. Time to live up to the promise of "open is better" and get those features added.
Curmudgeon Gamer: Not happy
Maxtor must have beat M$ into submission for the volumn pricing since they already are doing the server for "free". This is another stimulus/response from M$ that we are observing and can only help BSD/Linux/WinXX/free market/customers/etc. Competition is certainly at the very heart of the American dream and we are seeing it live! Right now! Another company (IBM/Fujitsu/etc) will be able to come out with a different version of a server using open source software and be able to beat Maxtor, or force Maxtor to revert back to FreeBSD. The bottom line is that Maxtor has the freedom to choose, and it gives the open source movement a message that it still must perform up to the current standards or it will be left behind.
Religion and science are both 90% crap..but that doesn't negate the other 10%.
The dubious wisdom of going to MS's ActiveDirectory aside ...
Playing holier-then-thou is childish. The point is that MS's product ties into MS network but BSD & Linux don't. In the market Maxtor is selling to that's a key feature.
Thus Maxtor did a reasonable thing & will presumably make more profit then they would have staying with BSD or Linux.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
If Maxtor uses Samba, they have to put up with all the hard-to-useness. If Maxtor uses Win2K, SMB support is already there. Then all they have to do is write in support for NFS (unless win2k already has an NFS solution) and AppleShare (ditto).
Samba is really coming along nicely, but it's STILL a pain in the ass after all this time. Microsoft's implementation works better with Windows because, well, they just plain old wrote the OS and know how best to interface with various versions of Windows and their SMB features.
Maybe someday Samba will really be "drop-in", but it isn't today, not for me at least. I can fully understand why Maxtor would make a network appliance-type box run off Win2K... it will work with every Windows box they can throw at it, and work the first time.
Unlike with Windows/DOS, the Linux shell is an application program like any other. It can be replaced with a GUI shell with near zero effort.
:-) (cygnus=redhat)) Cygwin has the basic GNU tools, including gcc. Explorer only runs if I want it to. With Perl and Gimp it almost feels like a real operating system.
Actually, both dos and windows (at least through 98) can pretty easily handle an alternative shell. (dos less so)
The shell on my laptop is bash. (Thanks cygnus!
lsmvcprm.com, Tools for geek power
NTFS support in FreeBSD is rw, and has been for a while, only linux is ro.
Using netatalk and freebsd, apple share seems decently fast.
When was the last time filers/NAS's ran the clients file system..? most filers/NAS usually have their own filesystem, and use the sharing protocol as the interface.
seems alive, well, running fast and with more support than I've encountered from linux distrobutions
so before you put a spike in it's heart you might stop kicking it and let it get up.
Freebsd is averaging 125 cvs commits a day. I'd say that's pretty alive and running.
I'm pragmatic, BSD has certain advantages, and the various linux distros have certain advantages. But bsd is most certainly not in the grave, and remains a good alternative to solaris for many organizations critical systems.
Ohh, and popularity is not nessisarly the sole basis of surviveability
for example: NetBSD usage is small, but on many of the bazillion platforms it supports, it's the sole option, as there is no linux or freebsd or alternative ported there. So maybe the user base is small, but the the software is assured to survive as long as the platforms do.
The choice of Linux won't be a disadvantage because "there are more than 100,000 active programmers for the Linux, which is more than double the number of those for Microsoft," said Uno.
You will soon see the benefits Linux offers. Microsoft is dead, long live free software!
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
He did mention it in a passing way. You (I am presuming because you are posting anonymously) got in his face about it. I think you were offended that he mentioned it at all.
War is necrophilia.
"Sharp is now talking to several non-Japanese companies, including a chipmaker, to develop a Linux OS handheld, through which it hopes to attract thousands of application software developers, Uno said. The target is to have 10,000 software programs written in the Java computer language by a year from October, he said." ugh. java. "The choice of Linux won't be a disadvantage because "there are more than 100,000 active programmers for the Linux, which is more than double the number of those for Microsoft," said Uno." But how many of each of those groups of developers will be writing code for this thing?
go install a service pack or something
The most important thing any republican needs to know.
They're a big company & I don't think you can go judging them by one product line. Sure they put Win on this product but they've other product lines. In a world where many businesses have server bays full of Wintel boxes and legions of MS trained staff it seems reaonable to sell a pruduct tuned to that mentality. Plus Maxtor appartently got the tech from MS for next to nothing.
Right now it's still a bit of a black art getting BSD & Linux boxes to be peers with NDS & Active Directory. That this is a problem for some businesses isn't a suprise, particularly for what are essentially plug-in/set-up/forget appliances.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
We've managed to put a recognizable linux on those IPAQs - I'm sure putting it on a machine that was meant to run it from the beginning wouldn't be hard at all. Just hope they open-source their kernel mods.
This space intentionally left blank.
You gotta wonder, just who is buying these servers anyway...
Probably some hill-billy computer warehouse in kentucky or something...
Well, I'm hardly the FreeBSD expert but a) I know it supports >2gb files, and b) I'm pretty sure daemons are either available or easily portable from linux to speak the Appletalk (assuming you use that flaming piece of crap network protocol for your macs instead of tcp/ip, I had to support macs in a heterogenous netowrk in two jobs and trust me, tcp/ip is the way to go) and Novell network filesystem protocols. WRT to the backup software stuff, please, there must be a $MAX_INT backup solutions providers that use or interface with UNIX (if it's good enough for NASA it's good enough for your salescritters).
I can only think that the decision process was influenced by M$ somehow (we'll take away support for you if you don't cooperate, we'l cut you a deal if you cooperate, we'll make a donation to the Maxtor Employee's Benevolents Fund it you cooperate, etc.), because I really don't think there is any technical validity to their decision...
--
News for geeks in Austin: www.geekaustin.org
News for Geeks in Austin, TX
I just wanted to point out that handheld doesn't necessarily imply that the device has no keyboard and CERTAINLY doesn't imply that it follows the palm form factor. There's no denying that palm hit it right on the nose with what you need in a handheld computer - I've had one since the Pro was introduced (Mmmm, backlight), and I'm still using my Pro today - and actively programming.
The current versions of the PalmOS API are limited though in terms of the multimedia features they can handle, but this will be changing in versions 4 and 5 of the OS to reflect improvements in the hardware side of the equation (e.g. 200Mhz chips that can run on AAA's..)
What they're aiming for, I hope, and I bet, is a handheld along the size of the HP Jornadas that are the traditional clamshell design. The first company that makes an ultra-subnote running linux, as light as possible with a nice screen - they're going to get my money, because I want something that can run for a day, edit and compile C++ code - prefreably GCC, but that's secondary. I'd like a real machine to store email on, and I'd like there to be the option of NO HD to break. Maybe run a browser. I don't need much else, but I need bigger size. I'd like it in the 1-1.5lb range.
That's the market that I think they're going after; Palm and WinCE are both way to limited (although for completely different reasons) to ever really succeed here. I used to have a Hewlett Packard 100LX that did this role nicely.. I want something smaller than my vaio, damnit, that doesn't suck up a battery in 45 minutes!
Someone, please port linux to the Jornada.. or I'll wait for one of these.. arrgh.
If any marketdroids are reading this .. PLEASE make a device with the following, and I and likely hordes of other geeks will run to you:
Please?
..don't panic
So Sharp decides to go with Linux instead of something else, and Maxtor decides to go with W2K instead of something else. The comments for this article are probably going to have to be vague, because as I see it, the whole thead is about subsituting one operating system for another.
That being said, I'll throw in my real comment: I think PC makers should start shipping PCs with Linux instead of Window(s|z)! Uh... yeah, that's the ticket!
Actually, running an HTTP daemon would be amazingly useful on a PDA. With wireless networks getting better by the minute, a static IP and a webserver would be an amazing way to transfer files between PDA's without having to be within infa-red range. The more robustly these babies are built now, the better off we will be in the future.
as a user of various server appliances, i can say that back-up was an issue not addressed, and where available, it is rather expensive in a small business setting.
RTFA --
Microsoft adjusted its licensing terms for the Maxtor system, Williams noted. Unlike general-purpose servers, a Maxtor machine doesn't require that customers pay for client access licenses--the fees often required for computers that use the server.
"That's the first time Microsoft has done this," Williams said.
Let alone the diffuculties they could get with syncronizing their M$ Outlook Email and Agenda stuff ?
It wouldn't be any more difficult than with Palm OS and they seem to be doing pretty well, so what's your point?
This Wiki Feeds You TV and Anime - vidwiki.org
GNU/Linux is mostly CLI based? That's not really true. Nowadays, if you grab a copy of KDE 2.1 and/or get a really well packaged/user-friendly distribution such as Mandrake, you won't EVER have to see a command line! (Unless you want to, which is the cool thing, you can still fine-tune stuff by the CLI).
Have you seend rpmdrake, mandrake updater, and DrakConf? I think they do a serious job of kicking the ass of or at least holding their own against comparable features in windows.
I goofed. the correct link for the forum is here.
As for PalmOS, I don't know what the pros and cons are. I'm just pointing out that Linux is not as insane a choice as you paint it.
Lot's of people are prejudiced about homosexuals. It was still a very tiny percentage of people who read the post and decided to be offended by the remark.
War is necrophilia.
Well, for the PDA market this might work out very well. I'm actually quite excited about the new interest companies are showing for Linux based PDAs. (Compaq, Samsung, Sharp to name a few).
Palm made it easy to develop software for its OS and the number of available Palm applications made it a success. Linux enthusiasts will likely replicate (and maybe even exceed) this number for a Linux PDA.
The interesting thing about this perspective is that Linux won't come over the server onto John Smith's desktop, but maybe over PDAs. It will be the first time that 'normal' people (the majority of computer users) will see Linux doing the job.
But then again, they won't really care. :)
Well I can agree that NetBSD would be just as useful in this role as the Linux kernel would be. I'm not suggesting that they deploy a full GNU setup on the thing, just a kernel. My point was that with investors, often times, Linux == cool and NetBSD == what is that?
See my point now?
OS of last resort. It's not good for marketing, maybe, but it's netBSD's single biggest selling point.
/Brian
It did its job, as far as grabbing my eyeballs, it was so big and ugly, an distracting. Kinda of like the new Pontiac Azteks, but I'll save that rant for another day.
Big banners suck big time. . . I am glad I'm running 1600x1280.
C|NET has a spot reserved on my shit list, that seems tobe growing longer every day.
-ms2k
as a developer for an environment using network appliances, backup was accomplished with a 52 line perl script and a breece hill q 2.15. The same script was ported to a less expensive setup using a dlt4000 drive in about 5 minutes.
The most important thing any republican needs to know.
Uh, Ryan... I hate to break it to you, but Slashdot is not generally known as a hotbed of homophobic rednecks. You may have made an innocent (dare I say Freudian?) error in grammar, but it looks an awful lot like you are flaunting your sexual preference.
.02 - spend it wisely
If you are, fine. I'll bet virtually everyone reading your post could care less if you are gay, straight, or a connisseur of goatse.cx
What is more likely (from the look of your E-mail address) is that you are a young, college-age gay man, who has recently discovered his "sexual identity." Good for you. You may be tempted to revel in this new-found discovery, to the annoyance of others; I would advise you to resist that temptation.
I'm quite certain you are a well-educated young man, and have enough insight/foresight to see the potential problems that this type of "advertising" can bring. Much the same way that a rude, sexist, leering, flagrantly heterosexual guy can annoy even his male coworkers, and get his ass in a sling for sexual harassment, a flagrantly gay man is at least as unwelcome.
Don't make an issue of your sexuality, and then get all huffy when people tell you to keep it to yourself. There are better venues to advertise, and frankly, most people could really care less.
just
Perhaps he meant that as flamebait.
Not that there's anything wrong with that!
"And like that
Exactly, it's a wonderful OS for people who have real work to do instead of jacking off to pr0n videos the size of a postage stamp.
I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature.
I know many Palm devices have an optional keyboard available, but the primary input is a touch-screen.
I'm thinking some modified version of X (or something similar) to be used in a similar fashion? And if so, can it also be ported to touch screen monitors?
William
When you're not looking, this sig is in Latin.
Maxtor's various reasons for ditching BSD were that it can't handle large file sizes, and that it has little backup software support.
In switching to Win2k (a stripped down version) they proceed to lampoon open source as incapable of meeting their needs. As if the entirety of open source is represented by the merits/demerits of a single operating system.
As far as I know, linux 2.4 could have handled maxtor's needs, but either 2.4.x wasn't tried and true enough for them, or Microsoft gave Maxtor win2k for little to nothing.
I lead the charge at a very large ISP I used to work for and helped replace 32 windows PDC's with freebsd boxes running samba. We wiped NT off of them and installed freebsd. I was pleased with the 40 percent increase in performance over NT, and not getting woken up at 3am in the morning anymore to reboot a locked up NT machine. I find it amusing that some outside developers do microsofts protocol with more speed. As far as netapps, I had an instructor during my netapp admin training let me know that the kernel they use is based on sunos. Netapps are wonderful things. They helped us achieve 99.9 percent uptime by writing scripts that automatically changed routes and remounted customer data within seconds if a machine died for any reason. They are damn expensive though.
The most important thing any republican needs to know.
My ex boyfriend told me that cell phones, once a boon to mankind, shall be our downfall. I fear that this will be surpassed by the dangers of PDA's.
With the popularity of Linux ever on the upswing, this will surely put these devillish devices into the hands of hundreds of thousands. The price benefits of Linux will allow Sharp to produce an incredibly inexpensive PDA - its sales will clearly exceed those of either Palm, Handspring, HP's Jordana, or the iPaq. I fear such a terrible event as the reprecussions on society will be vast and permanent.
Impatiently awaiting the Arrival of a new Lover!
D'oh! This thread is probably about the handheld devices, not the Maxtor. Please excuse my previous post as the aimless ramblings of an overworked cubicle dweller....
a no-multimedia PDA, one with mulitmedia
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Je t'aime Stéphanie
Actually, it can be a black art getting ADS to work at all - even under Windows - and when it is switched on, it tends to throw other DNS services into the bushes and jump in after them. Many Win2000 [note: it's already obselete] saturated sites disable it. So if Maxtor ship their little black boxes with ADS enabled, they may shoot themselves in the foot rather seriously.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Does anyone know if the OS is visible/usable on this device? If the device is wrapped in its own UI and applications, it really doesn't matter a bit what is underlying it.. but if its something that we can develop for, thats another story.
As a major BSD bigot, I am inclined to agree with you. BSD was (once again) given a bad slant by Good Ol' Ziff-Davis. ZD has not produced a non-MS slanted issue since the mid 90's, when Dvorak was all the rage. Too bad, I still have the first PC Magazine I bought, back in 80 something. Has the first IBM AT on it, I seem to recall.
BTW, is there a good source for MESA support for FreeBSD? Right now I use Debian for most of my MESA stuff. (Sorry to hop off topic)
-WSAn operating system should be like a light switch... simple, effective, easy to use, and designed for everyone.
On the downside, Maxtor has ditched BSD for W2k in its network hard drive box.
Do you need to purchase a client license for each client that accesses this box?? This is rediculous! You'll end up paying more for access to your hard drive box than you paid for the box!
As for the CLI-GUI argument, that's really a dead horse. No one is going to produce a PDA that boots up into bash for a mass market! Linux doesn't have a "default shell". You can get rid of all the CLI stuff and replace it with a GUI login/shell quite easily. Most of the people that buy these things won't even know they're running Linux.
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Nothing to see here. Mooooove along...
Oh please, I support that kiddie OS all day long. It's a huge pain in the ass laden with bugs and misfeatures. Go astroturf somewhere else.
I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature.
In that case I think you mean the IP-Protocol,
and the FTP protocol would be useful. HTTP is hardly useful for transfering files, I think FTP would be a much more suited way.
--sn0w
palm devices run on such a crappy little cpu, they cant really have "multimedia" capabilities, which is fine if all you want is a calander program and a calculator (i might as well run my ti-83 with its z80)...
the ipaq runs on a 200 some odd mghz chip, which is what you need to do things like decode mp3's etc... unfortunately its $500 and you cant find it anywhere... oh well...
hope this thing is a little more reasonably priced and has some decent oomph behind it...
"we demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!" --Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Lost the text of my rejected post, but the gist was that Sharp is endorsing Java and will have a Virtual Machine and SDK for spring release to jumpstart development.
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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
thats funny i didnt see a thing. then again i have squid+sleezeball. it's a happy world.
use LaTeX? want an online reference manager that
-- john
You probably have to enter a 5-word, 25-character Product Key just to get the damned thing running!
"Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
For one, outside of the geek community who the hell knows what NetBSD is. There is a bit of appeal for companies to be associated with Linux, especially from the viewpoint of their shareholders. They will think, "hey, I've heard of this Linux thing, must be they're on the cutting edge of things." So they go out and buy another 1000 shares of the companies stock.
Besides that point, recent Linux development have been targetted towards making Linux more friendly on embedded hardware.
Personally, I rather like the fact that people are using Linux and will be giving(even if it is forced giving) their changes back to the community and increasing the general knowledge of different commputing platforms(source code is often excellent documentation on a new platform)
So, I imagine they will be modifying the kernel in places. I don't see any mention of plans to publish. (Not that the lack of mention here implies they won't) But I was glad to see TiVo's code published, and it would be good to see mention of plans for that from them.
1) FreeBSD has No support for large files:
....)
Are these guys serious? FreeBSD has excelent large file support.
2) FreeBSD has no support for hpfs:
while freebsd cannot mount hpfs filesystems... this is not needed for a filer or NAS. Most if not all NAS units run their own file systerm. IF they want to have appletalk sharing... this is VERY possible. I have a cient with an appletalk file server runnign freebsd and netatalk that has been up for over 350 days...
3) FreeBSd has no Netware Fs support...
I guess mount_nwfs must be a fake....
Either the guys that wrot this article where fed some real good marketing BS and they bought it, or they are idiots ( am incline to believe they are both )
reasons why maxtor ditched FreeBSD in favor of w2k is more likely due to special licensing deals than anything else...
(lack of mac os support...heh... somone should tell them about MacOSX being in souce sync with FreeBSD 3.2
(lack of large file support, it's been there for ages)
"FreeBSD did not support large file sizes, Macintosh and newer Novell file systems..." Is this true? It's sounds kind of hokey, especially considering they just picked M$ which until relatively recently couldn't handle partitions over two gigabytes. Are they refering to the ability to mount these files types, or the ability to connect with shared ones? I'd appreciate a respond from someone who knows more than me about FreeBSD.
====
Crudely Drawn Games
Touché.
Will work for bandwidth
IMO Micro$oft hasn't moved an inch in order to meet market needs...it saw an opportunity to get some good press by "giving away" a crippled version of W2k to run a device which, by its definition, will only go into a comparative niche market. The big money is still the sheer volume of sales to end users on workstations. If that weren't true, we would have already seen the demise of HP and Sun in the server arena.
Just my two cents' worth...donate the change to your network tech so he can buy a new crimper.
All the world's an analog stage, and digital circuits play only bit parts.
Although Redhat/Debian, etc. are the best known versions of Linux [human], it ranges from PDAs/embeded units [doormouse, bumblebee bat] to IBMs mainframe systems and beowulf clusters [elephants, whales].
A minimal Linux kernel does not necessarily need a bourne shell. Unlike with Windows/DOS, the Linux shell is an application program like any other. It can be replaced with a GUI shell with near zero effort.
So then, what's the advantage of Linux then? You're not limited to any solution, and you have the advantage of a whole base of applications which can be used to back-end your front end programs, a well-built, stable kernel that's extensible to your heart's content, a well documented programming interface, and programming tools out the ying yang.
Oh yeah -- and you can do meaningful development and testing on your desktop machine.
(anybody want to add to the list?)
--
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
Why would we want to run GNU/Linux which is still mostly CLI based on our PDA ? Most of them don't even feature a keypad...
IMHO we need an OS which is most pratical to us on the PDA device, not what is "cool" in the short-run. That's why Palm/OS is still the most popular, not because it features a fancy GUI (like PocketPC/WinCE) but because it is pratical.
I don't see how GNU/Linux could be pratical on a PDA. Do we really want to run a HTTP-Daemon on our PDA, I don't think so. A PDA is still mostly used as a Agenda/Calendar, so I don't care which OS it runs aslong as it is *PRATICAL*.
How come everything always has to be GNU/Linux ?
Please then go run NetBSD instead which runs on more equipement than GNU/Linux.
--Sn0w
--sn0w
Linux as the underlying OS would be cool but only hard core geeks will buy a PDA for that reason alone..
If they've got Palm OS (optionally) on top, and Linux underneath they've drastically expanded the potential user base.
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This along with their new giveaway pricing scheme of windows CE is the greatest accomplishment of linux. Linux prevents MS from charging monopoly prices and everybody benefits when that happens. I hope Linux makes more headways into the desktop and staroffice gain a little market share too. It would mean lower prices for windows and office which would greatly benefit the average person or company.
On the other hand it does undercut the "free things are crappy things" argument MS uses. Next time Ballmer or Allchin makes a comment like that somebody ought to remind them of this.
War is necrophilia.
What's the big deal? How many people on this board mention their girlfirends or wives? How come that doesn't bother you?
War is necrophilia.
A linux pda would kick butt. And of course I would be the first one to pick up the credit card and get one. But will it still be open source. Imagine being able to update and remake the kernel on a PDA. It would make a hardware up grade a snap and any hardware made for it you just rebuild the kernel and your on the way. And imagine the power consumtion, or lack there of rather... Although there is the problem, typing in a make command would take for ever...
I have seen alot in this world, but my god i couldn't believe that monkey!!
The CNET article states:
At home, Sharp has been selling its own Zaurus devices since 1993. Though it introduced a model in the U.S. in 1997 running Microsoft's Windows CE operating system, the product failed to gain popularity amid stiff competition.
That is so much bullshit. First of all, Sharp introduced an anemic PDA with the brand name Zaurus before 1997. It was no more than a Sharp Wizard with a few extra features and a different CPU. If you want to read about the american Zaurus you can at my archives at http://www.davenet.net/archives/. Now as for their attempt at a PDA in 1997 - that was the Mobilon. And it was easily the biggest piece of junk that SharpUSA has ever done. I wrote an article about it here: http://www.davenet.net/archives/mobilon.htm. To sum up.. my Mobilon had a battery compartment meltdown and I had to exchange it. The problem with anything from SharpUSA is simple.. They think the american consumer is a retard and needs to have their products made accordingly. Sharp-Japan-made Zaurus products look like PADD's from Star Trek, have great HWR and are very fast and *very* cool. Don't get me wrong.. Sharp does a good job making a Linux-based PDA I'll be the first to buy it - I just have no faith in them.. All I have to say about Sharp's attempt at PDAs can be summed up as this:
From dull minds come Sharp Products.
Polymorphism -- It's what you make of it.
Why is CmdrTaco assuming that the Maxtor thing is bad news? Why does he automatically assume that open-source was a better choice for the task at hand?
Zealots who claim that only open-source software is worthwhile are just as bad as the ones who claim only closed-source software has a future. Real life is always a mixture of viewpoints. Both open-source and closed-source development efforts have a future in the technology world. Rather than trying to burn bridges, let's build them up and encourage all software makers to follow open standards.
On the bright side, I'm glad to see Microsoft starting to give up on the idea of Client Access Licenses. Those CALs really MUST go, and quickly. They would be much more competitive against open source if they didn't charge for CALs. I think as Linux gains popularity, they will be forced to notice this and change accordingly, thus striking a balance.
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-- russ
"You want people to think logically? ACK! Turn in your UID, you traitor!"
Natural != (nontoxic || beneficial)
LinuxToday has a link to a C|Net article which says the same thing (verbatim).
The discussion in the LinuxToday forum has probably everything that'll be said here.
One item that stuck out was that MS would not be charging for client licenses. As Tim Wasson pointed out, client licenses are a good revenue source, and MS probably cut a deal with Maxtor so that MS could say "Hey, even with Linux/BSD available, major companies are still choosing our software."
Looks like MS has realized (on some level) that they can't get away with their current pricing scheme.
Maxtor was actually working for several months on a network storage appliance that ran Linux to replace their FreeBSD box (which, by the way, they orginally got from a company they acquired). Suddenly Maxtor decided to shelve the BSD -> Linux porting effort (which was very far along at that point) and switch to Win2k. Rumor has it that they got some sweet deal with MS for the Xbox, which could have prompted the jump from Linux to Win2k on the network storage products. But that part is just a rumor.
I wonder if their decision has rendered their product useless for the Unix market. We looked at one stand along file server box a few months back. It was cheap. It was fast enough. It supported NFS.
But it only supported Windows style access controls. We couldn't assign ownership to individual files.
We sent it back.
I've had so many Maxtor drives die. I can look to my right and see two of them on a workbench that will be used for target practice. The lure to purchase them was a common one I think 'lowest price on pricewatch.com'. In a way I'm glad that they aren't dragging BSD's good name down with their crappy products. Using Win2k is more in line with their karma.
The most important thing any republican needs to know.
I wonder if moving to Linux in order to gain "mindshare" is becoming an accepted business strategy.
After all, those of us in the market for a PDA would probably buy it just for the "way-cool" effect and/or because we want to support the OS we already know and love.
And that could be enough to get the PDA ball rolling for Sharp, priming for bigger and bigger market shares.
Plus, once all my friends have one I'll be able to make jokes of the
"Is that a penguin in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?" sort.
Karma: Bored. (Thinking about resurrecting the "Anyone else is an imposter" joke.)