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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.
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.
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
.. er umm I mean this prototype PDA of his.
I dont care if he is your ex-boyfriend.. do you have any pics? And I mean his handheld
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...
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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.