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New Linux PDA Announced At CES Today
It looks like the Royal Linux-PDA project has borne fruit. Bill Kendrick writes: "Linux Devices reports that Royal (makers of the DaVinci PDA) have announced yet another Linux-based PDA, called 'Lin@x' (how do you
pronounce that!?). Unlike the DaVinci (and the Agenda VR3 -- Agenda Computing is owned by the same company as Royal), this PDA sports a 206MHz StrongARM, a color screen, and a CompactFlash slot. Planned price is about US$300." According to the PR, it will come bundled with software for Linux desktops as well as for Windows, which would be a nice touch.
According to RMS from a few years back it should probably be LiGNU@X - obviously pronounced "licks nuts."
The design is nice and it definetly has good hardware (for a PDA), but there's always the issue of compatibility. I love Linux. It's my preferred operating system, but while the OS can do everything (and a whole lot more) than Windows OS, it can't run as many things. That's important in the handheld market as well. PDAs are expensive and to be worth that expense they have to serve a greater purpose than as a glorified organizer.
This is a big reason why I'm still so obsessed with PalmOS. The amount of software available for it is staggering and a good portion is free (it's also a good, fairly fast OS). Unfortunetly, the hardware it runs on generally isn't that powerful and most Palm devices aren't quite a step in the "handheld computer" direction. And since Linux doesn't seem to be making its way into the mainstream PDA market I somehow doubt that it'll ever get the amount of programs it deserves...
If you need to interpret my post, then you don't get it.
It is pronounced Lin(ux) Attacks!
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Sometimes you think, marketing departments are useless, then you see something like that...........
What are you talking about? As long as it syncs with windows, peopel will buy it. As long as it has OSS sync software, Linux users will buy it.
BTW, I have an Agenda, and it does everything a Palm does. I barely hook it up to my desktop. Not because it is difficult to do, but because there is a lack of need. Every couple weeks I back it up and rsync it. I worte a quickie script that will backup everything, and I only need to type in one command (which has since been bound to a keystroke in Sawfish).
Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life
I've seen enough about this Linux PDA tripe. Big deal they are running a modified version of Linux. I'd rather see propertiary tight code on a upgradable eeprom than a larger OS designed FOR desktop/tower/laptop computers. :-) No Microsoft, we aren't going to pay a 1000$ for your "WinCE"ing devel kit.
All I would ask is for OPEN STANDARDS to connect the computer to the pda, wether that be mac or pc. USB would probably be the way to go, since it's on the hardware architecure of both platforms.
I wouldnt mind PAYING for a devel kit for this pda if was at a decent price. They gotta make money somehow, and the devel kit isnt a bad idea, but just as long as they don't go the MS way of Wince.. I mean WinCE
Josh Crawley
I have desktop machines at work that are less useful than my palm. A better link between PDA and Desktop could make an average PDA great.
:).
PDA friendly desktop apps, with a linux standard could be a really good thing
bo
This new naming convention so@nds like q@ite a breakthr@
:)
N@thdot
Sure, linux is great. We all love linux. Rah.
But honestly -- both Palm and PocketPC are so far ahead of linux in the palmtop area it's not even funny! I mean, they actually have applications! Ones that work... and well!
So my question is why design and build something that only a few geeks will want... and even then, just because of the "hey, it runs linux" factor?
I guess it's the same reason that GNOME and KDE don't use each other's code -- they don't want to admit that the other might be better in some areas.
Dragging people kicking and screaming into reality since 1996.
there is a serious problem with royal and customer support not to mention their inability to write software. anyone who has purchased a davinci can attest to this. royal's sync program barely worked on windows 95/98 and failed to work on windows nt only giving uses duplicate records on the pda and the sync'd desktop with every docking. and now, they're telling us that this linux pda will work with linux and windows? they couldn't get their own custom pda to work with their custom sync software. and to think there was actually a small cut following.
i'm still waiting for the promised nt support on my davinci. any day now.
As much as I like linux, I am curious what advantages does it have being used in a pda besides the 'moral' ones of being open-source and such. I mean wince and palmOS have been around a while, and at least palmOS seems to do the job right. I know linux on a pda would make porting easier but do people really want straight ports of desktop applications to a pda? Running on a 240 x 320 res screen? Although ports of software such as quake to linux pda's are cool there isn't much point aside from the 'coolness' factor.
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
Bill Kendrik, the submitter, is quite amazing all by himself. If you have an Agenda Vr3 Linux handheld, you are quite familiar with his Aliens game, among others.
He kept on top of the Agenda like glue, and develops amazing apps and games for free. I know I am just pontificating, but its guys like this that make Linux so cool.
If I was Linus Torvalds, I'd be really interested in finding out whether this device sucks or not - because if it does, I wouldn't want a name so similar to Linux(TM) on it.
90% of PDA platforms suck, just like 90% of anything else, so there's a pretty good chance this thing is just going to be another high-profile PDA flop. At least G.Mate (Yopy), VTech (Helio), and Agenda had the decency not to try and use the Linux name to brand their products. If I were Linus, I might encourage Royal to do the same. And I'd royally smack up those LinuxDA fools.
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
lin-at-x => linatix => lunatics!
Nice, but I'm holding out for the 1337 h4x0r 1i|\|@>< model.
It's a sad day when marketing droids are trying to be fashionably 1337.
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something noone has commented on just yet: did you get a look at that keyboard? Judging from the picture (and probably a sentence that i'm not seeing on my second read-through) there is a built in *physical* qwerty keyboard that you can access by expanding the PDA Transformers-style. Can anyone else say bad-ass? This feature single handedly makes this the best PDA hardware on the market.
Now as to software concerns: this is a first-gen product. I know it will be competing with third and fourth gen products from Microsoft and Palm, but we should also remember that immediately after release, the software will undergo *rapid* improvement.
it looks like the standard PDA apps will be working out of the box, and how many part time hackers will be jumping to work on ports? I can't wait for portable nethack. (and yes i know it already exists)
there are potential problems: it sounds like it takes a few seconds to power-up and boot. that's a big no-no, unless there's a very good standby mode. The name is also a mistake. "Linux" is a scary thing to most consumers, and any reference to it in the name is a marketing mistake. The interface should hide the nerdier aspects of the system completely, it worried me to see a terminal window in the review. Not that the technical side of things should be inaccessible, it just shouldn't be required for anything outside of development or hard-core tweaking.
all in all, i want one, and at $300, it will be the cheapest 200mhz, 64mbit PDA out there. Sounds like a winner.
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