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Sharp Ships New PDA Running Linux 2.4
cbowland writes: "Sharp is now shipping the SL-5000D Zaurus PDA with a Linux 2.4 kernel, embedded PalmTop, Personal Java, and QT. Priced at $399 for developers only. Their plan is to get some apps created before marketing it to the public. Check it out" I wonder if the USB port on the docking station would let these work with the Happy Hacker keyboard ...
Two things instantly come to mind...
1) The newest VM is probably the way to go for an embedded user responsive system. Comparisons posted here on slashdot show the newest 2.4 VM to whip the 2.2 VM
2) Not totally sure about this, but wouldn't the 2.4 kernel do a better job os supporting USB devices?
There's probably more too... As long as the OS is flashable (I'd be astonished if the developer editions had the OS ROM burned in...), then 2.4 is most likely a really good decision...
Greg
Well, yes 2.4 _is_ a good idea. Infact the familiar distribution for the ipaq has 2.4 for as long as I can remember!
2.4 has several features like enhanced USB etc. that make it better suited. Besides, most of the work for the strongarm processor is now neing done on 2.4... no point playing around with anything older!
Don't Panic
I would say this is a way to tell people that there are not that many applications comming with it, so you should be prepared to create whatever you need. I don't think they would reject anyone wishing to buy it.
There arises from a bad and unapt formation of words a wonderful obstruction to the mind. (Francis Bacon)
I would imagine that for most developers, personal (shareware) or commercial houses, they go where the user base is. I can understand being interested in developing a new handheld, but I think that most developers are interested in marketing to where there are the most users: either PalmOS or WinCE. I would imagine that is where 95% of PDA users reside, so I can't imagine anyone devoting -THAT- much time/effort/resources to a PDA that has no user base.
I certainly wouldn't put my time into developing for a non-existant userbase. Who knows if this will even make it to market?
Just my thoughts.
Short question :
Can a Registered Developper Port something else than Linux to it ?
The PDA actually looks sexy on the hardware side, not on the software side (A friend of mine bought a Linux-iPaq from Lisa and it appears to be quite slow, lacks responsiveness and also burns its batteries in about one hour).
I think some special projects like RiscOS would be more adequate.
Trolling using another account since 2005.
The concern isn't (just) with the license, it is with the lack of compatibility and interoperability. If you run Qt/Embedded, you can't share the screen with applications written in other toolkits or in raw X11.
Does that matter? I think it does. It places the Sharp outside the family of other Linux-based PDAs and embedded systems, meaning that code for other PDAs can't easily be ported to the Sharp. It also means that workstation applications are much harder to port--even if you change the UI to accomodate a smaller screen, much of the display logic can be shared between desktop and handheld applications.
A cheap Qt/Embedded developer's license just won't help. Sharp needs to provide X11. They can still run their applications using Qt/X11 on it.
It's a developer edition - perhaps they want folk to develop apps that run comfortably in 32MB, then when they release a production version with 64MB or even 128MB multiple tasks from multiple developers should be able to run side by side without memory problems. Just my 2p worth.
It places the Sharp outside the family of other Linux-based PDAs and embedded systems, meaning that code for other PDAs can't easily be ported to the Sharp.
What other PDAs? Really, Linux handhelds are mostly vaporware. There are not tons and tons of small-screen Linux apps to be ported to the Sharp. One of the biggest problems normal users have with X11 are all the differing toolkits. If Sharp wants to target normal users then it is going to need a consistent interface. This is an excellent time to establish a precedent for Linux PDA applications.
Really, well why is it that we can't go a day without every developer at my company cursing Microsoft? Microsoft has successfully marketed to everybody who makes purchasing decisions, not people who actually deal with these decisions. An in turn, software companies support them because that's where the most potential customers are.
In response to the original question, Linux is not hard to use - Unix-like systems are unfamiliar to most people, and granted, were not designed with an end user in mind. But, Linux provides a stable platform to build applications on. It's up to Sharp to provide a good UI - the user shouldn't have to care if it runs Linux or PocketPC underneath. (kind of like what apple did with OS X, if you don't care to look, you'll never know it's Unix-based).
iPaqs have been running Linux for several years and are quite popular.
There are not tons and tons of small-screen Linux apps to be ported to the Sharp.
There are tons of X11 apps with X11 display logic that can be usefully ported to X11 handhelds with only small modifications to the UI.
One of the biggest problems normal users have with X11 are all the differing toolkits.
I have never seen any evidence for that, and repeating that claim endlessly doesn't make it true. In fact, I suspect most people couldn't tell a well-written Qt application from a well-written Gtk+ application. Furthermore, even on Windows or MacOS, developers use many different toolkits, yet users don't seem to notice.