Agenda Linux PDA Finally Out

MacauMan writes "Finally, after six months delay, Agenda Computing has just released the Agenda VR3, which, if I'm not mistaken, is now the world's first PDA that ships with a Linux OS. It sports a 66MHz MIPS processor and comes with 8MB RAM and 16MB flash memory. It looks like a nice little box, and at $249 the price is right. I just hope they sorted out all those little problems they had with the developer model..." The folks at Agenda shipped me a review model and I'll try to have a report soon. So far I have mixed feelings: the UI isn't as smooth as a Palm or Wince system, but you can get a terminal, so its the only system where I can use ps and kill.

Comments

Speaking of X displays

[Bill Kendrick]

One of the sweetest things about the Agenda is the ability to do this:

workstation$ export DISPLAY=agenda:0
workstation$ /usr/X11R6/bin/favorite_x_app

and vice-versa!

agenda$ export DISPLAY=workstation:0
agenda$ favorite_app_stored_on_agenda

The screenshots I took of Atari800 running on the Agenda were done by running the program on the Agenda, and displaying it on the Agenda.

Then, I ran "xwd" on the workstation, with the Agenda set as the display. A crosshair cursor popped up on my Agenda's LCD and I tapped the screen. "Beep!" "Beep!" Suddenly a ".xwd" screenshot image file was stored on my workstation!

In other words:

agenda$ xhost + workstation
agenda$ ./atari800 -tiny -basic &
...
workstation$ export DISPLAY=agenda:0
workstation$ xwd > screenshot.xwd

Developing for this PDA is a f**king breeze!

Palm has LOTS of source available

[xtal]

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.