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.

Comments

Compatibility

[LaNMaN2000]

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