Testdrive A Linux iPAQ

Russ Nelson writes "If you weren't lucky enough to be at OSCon to see Jim Gettys' unobtainium, or my Linux iPAQ playing MP3's off Chris DiBona's gigabyte Microdrive (I downloaded madplay from the Familiar unstable feed with my 802.11 card, removed that, and inserted Chris's microdrive and it all Just Worked®), then at least you can test drive a Linux iPAQ via Compaq's Test Drive program. They have a webcam pointing at the screen." Having seen the device in real life - this thing rocks. Compaq: Please bring it into production, say, next week? *grin*

Comments

This thing rox!

[Anonymous Coward]

But the Gameboy Advanced is still more useful at business meetings.

Re:Did you hear that?

[garcia]

I think that the /. effect sounds something like the Langoliers...

snap, crackle, pop.

Re:Looking for Info on Current iPaq's Running Linu

[iguana]

I installed Familiar and QPE on my iPaq a couple of weeks ago. The installation was pretty easy; it took me a weekend but I was being *very* careful and eventually had to upgrade my Linksys 802.11 access point (didn't like Familiar's DHCP I guess).

I love QPE. It's very snappy and looks a whole lot better than WinCE. I must admit the lack of an email and browser app hobbles me a bit, but I'm getting the development tools online. The handwriting isn't as nice as Palm's Graffiti but is a hell of a lot better than WinCE's (IMHO).

I never was able to get my Xircom or 3Com pccard network cards to work; the Lucent Orinoco worked just fine though (after I upgraded my Linksys).

Re:shameless market research

[iguana]

> Does it suspend when I push the power button?
Yes.
> does it come back again flawlessly?
So far, yes.
> does it sync with linux?
Unfortunately, no. Doesn't sync with anything.
That's something I'm looking into.

The power usage isn't great. If I switch it "off" and leave it off, I still have to plug it in. I think this is a problem with the iPaq; I had the same problems with WinCE. I'd not use it for a couple of days and discover the battery had been run down.

I find the text input pretty nasty, but I thought the same thing on the Palm. QPE needs a lot of polish until it's consumer ready, but it's a good starting point. Familiar+QPE is a good starting point.

Of course, to get VC, I need to find if there's a market or not. :-)

Re:shameless market research

[Lumpy]

Yes but....

Does it suspend when I push the power button?
does it come back again flawlessly?
does it sync with linux?

I hafta ask, last time when I look at linux on the ipaq it was a load and never turn off or you'll crash the whole thing endeavor.

it is 100% like a palm-held device? I can switch it on and off rapidly as I look at things/access notes,etc... and still give me 8-12 hours of on time? (can I use it all day without having to set it on a charger?)

how about sync, will it sync with both KDE and Gnome PIM's? (Ok only a KDE one will suffice, I have both...)

as a user, do you find that it is actually useable?

right-hand bias

[Boli]

If you look closely at the videoconferencing image in that report, you'll notice that the audio jack is on the left side of the BackPAQ. This discriminates against LHPs (left-handed persons) who wish to use the device.
With 15-30% of the population using their left hands, why are product designers so biased to the right? How difficult woud it be to relocate the jack to a more ambidextrous location? Can't we all just get along?

Re:right-hand bias

[RandomCoil]

Actually, if you really look closely at the picture and ponder it a bit, you'll notice the guy's holding the ipaq in his right hand. That probably means the stylus is in his left hand. Looking at the picture, I'd actually guess it's ~more~ comfortable for left handed people than right handed, since 70%-85% of the population would want to put the thumb of their lef hand where that audio jack is.

If you want right-hand conspiracies, try the Sony Clie's jog dial.

RC

Re:right-hand bias

[chthonicphage]

from the site:

"The ability to add rotate and resize extensions to X. Combined with the accelerometer, this allows windows to dynamically maintain their top/bottom orientation as the iPAQ H3600 itself is rotated."

besides sounding extremely cool, wouldn't this help out LHPs? just hold the thing "upside down".

Re:right-hand bias

[jbarnett]

Go to the lefty store you south paw-Ned Flanners, non-right hand using, backwards bastard!

Right == right && Left == evil. Therefore go back to hell you demon baby and live this righteous right hand using world in peace!

Seriously, I am a right handed (and thus right), but I feel sorry for the left paw brothers (even though however evil).

I onced seen a statics that left handed people are 30% more likely to die in an accident (due to the fact that EVERYTHING assumes your a right hand)... Us right handers don't really think about this much.

Than again, should we really care since left handed people don't go to heaven?

Re:right-hand bias

[pokrefke]

With 15-30% of the population using their left hands, why are product designers so biased to the right?

Because 70-85% of the population uses their right?

Re:A lament of great social and political importan

[Soko]

[clap][clap][clap]...

Very nice, very nice indeed.

You'll be pissed off though, after a Compaq marketdriod sees that and it's thier commercial during next years Superbowl - won't you? ;-D

To quote a famous icon: DOH!

Soko

A lament of great social and political importance

[warpeightbot]

Oh, Lord, wontcha buy me, a Linux iPAQ
My little Palm Pilot, I have not time to hack
An Open Source system, my PDA lacks...
Oh, Lord, wontcha buy me, a Linux iPAQ

(OK, let's see what kind of sense of humor these guys have... ;)

Re:Looking for Info on Current iPaq's Running Linu

[irix]

I am looking at doing the same install (Familiar + QPE) to my iPaq.

The install docs seemed to indicate that you could do network access using PPP over the serial link to your PC. Did you try this? I don't have the sleeve and an 802.11b card for my iPaq yet.

More than Linux

[sparx]

I've been looking at these beauties for a while now, not only because you can put linux on 'em, but there's a Java OS you can put on as well, from Savaje. I haven't had any experience with either yet, but as soon as I can get my hands on a chunk of cash....

Re:Slashdot Effect?

[pthisis]

My ipaq can serve 800 requests/second of the dynamic content server I work on (an 800mhz PIII can do 10000/sec), which is an awful lot of traffic (more than /. does for sure). It's the bandwidth that'd get you, but you can put 100 mbps ethernet on these things which should be more than enough.

Sumner

News (un)Flash

[n8willis]

Seeing as the posting of this information-free lead seems to have brought down the site it is supposed to be pointing us to, would anyone (i.e., the submitter...) like to describe, just in brief, what Compaq's Test Drive program is ?!?!!?!??

I remember when article leads used to tell you something....

Re:News (un)Flash

[_vapor]

What you said is true, however I was able to see the ipaq "test drive" for 3 seconds before it was slashdotted, and in this case it appears to be more like a "ride in the passenger seat." It was just a webcam pointed to an ipaq that someone else was running (incidentally, they were playing Doom).

Re:News (un)Flash

[camusflage]

I haven't looked lately, but it allows you to sign up for an ID to play with various compaq systems in different OS configurations. AFAIK, it's shell access only, no X or anything nifty like that. I believe they've also got some clusters of different hardware as well.

Re:News (un)Flash

[Cheeko]

Compaq's testdrive is a free service offered to developers who want to test their code on different systems. It is composed of like 2 dozen OS/hardware configurations including Linux, several flavors of Unix, and NT. Users can get an account, FTP over their code and try it out. It was originally created for porting test, but also makes a good place to just develop for different evironments.

Re:News (un)Flash

[pjgunst]

Googles cached page http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=cach e%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.testdrive.compaq.com&btnG=Goo gle+Search for those who like goats but still have doubts about their orientation.
Thank you Google

Re:Why i?

[barneyfoo]

"Fudge Packer" is a funny and innovate name for a queer person. It is highly suggestive, and should be used with care. Also, its humorous value should not be diluted with over use.

Be Careful What You Send Over that 802.11

[Greyfox]

According to a Recent Risks Digest it's pretty damn easy to break even a 2048 bit WEP key.

Re:Palm Replacement

[Lizard_King]

Now I want to replace my palm. I wonder what my wife will think?

I highly doubt that you have a wife if you have to replace your palm... That or she needs to pay some more attention to your (ahem) needs.

Looking for Info on Current iPaq's Running Linux

[ras_b]

I have been very seriously considering buying one of the current iPaq's loaded with windows. I would much rather run linux on it, but the thing sells with windows- and i'm sure it runs very nicely with that OS. I am torn because of the whole 'best tool for the job' issue. Why should i load linux on it when every option for the iPaq runs smoothly with windows? I know compaq has mentioned that they might actually release iPaq's with linux instead of windows. hell, they even have an entire site dedicated to running linux on it. but i'm not sure i want to wait for that.

i guess what i'm looking for is comments from people who have loaded linux on their iPaq. Any problems? I read the latest stable release of Familiar doesn't support the 2 card expansion pack- which i would definitely want.

Intimate apt-get and SNES GAMES!

[Raster Burn]

Check out the Intimate project. The thought of a fully functional Debian-based distro for the iPAQ makes me want to shell out the big bucks for one of these babies. Also, the ability to emulate SNES games on this thing is enough to make me fork a couple hundred over to Compaq.

Re:Intimate apt-get and SNES GAMES!

[Spy Hunter]

Emulating SNES games on the iPAQ would be too slow. I've got a NES emulator on mine and it rocks, but it just barely keeps up (get too many sprites on-screen and it slows down below real-time speed). That doesn't stop me from playing it though :-) I'm finally going to beat Super Mario Bros. 3 (currently on World 7)

Debian on my iPAQ would be great! Thanks for the link! I see it requires an IBM 1GB Microdrive, though. Those things are expensive (as expensive as the iPAQ itself)!

The other problem with Linux on the iPAQ is that you can't install it without either getting a serial sync-cradle or modifying the hardware of your USB one. Then when you look at the install instructions they are covered with warnings like "If you see the message 'foo' while installing the bootloader, DO NOT continue. Leave your iPAQ on and slowly back away. Doing otherwise may cause your iPAQ to become unbootable or spontaneously explode." I think I'll wait until the install instructions are more foolproof before I risk my $500 investment.

Re:Why i?

[Fatal0E]

even though you provide some great examples, just be glad there's no ePaq. The better thing is that if it hasn't happened already it prob wont. E-anything drives me apeshit!

Re:Why i?

[kbeast]

how about fudgepack? :)