Linux PDA Part Deux

PolarCow writes: "Everyone's favorite Linux powered PDA retailer is back. Empower Technologies/LinuxDA are releasing a new variant of Linux-powered PDA. The new one is called the PowerPlay V. Its hardware is comparable to that of the Palm Vx. Thin, rechargable and with an enhanced display. I'm salivating already."

Comments

maybe the best server OS is not the best PDA OS

[Frothy Walrus]

why does the Slashdot crowd get so excited when some random gadget runs Linux? do people think it has the same features as the i386 version?

an i386 OS (like Windows or Linux) needs to be crippled all over the place before it will run on a PDA or some similarly tiny device. why do people assume that the best OS for the server/desktop is the best OS for the PDA?

i'd rather have a ground-up PDA OS, myself. it's not like you can usefully share code between PDA Linux and regular Linux anyway.

Re:maybe the best server OS is not the best PDA OS

[aardvaark]

Reality check: The source code for modern linux probably doesn't share but a couple lines of code from the 386 designed days. Nowadays Linux is designed for running on many, many different platforms, and definitely not for a 386s. Its designed to be flexible and scalable.

Second: If you "start from scratch" you are destined to repeat many mistakes. It is smart to leverage existing source code if it can be adapted to your uses. Due to Linux's design (see first paragraph), it can be used in PDAs, and is therefore a viable and attractive solution. Other larger copmpanies use Linux in PDAs (such as Sharp and Compaq), do you think they are stupid too?

As far as usability, that doesn't have a damn thing to do with the kernel, that has to do with the applications in the user space. Each PDA company would have to write most of their own anyway (beside using Opera for instance, which is better than IE for PDAs actually), so you can make them plenty usable.