PSION Resurrected By Linux

hmm... by Transient0 · 2002-02-04 01:23 · Score: 2, Funny

the 'attractive aqua theme' looks pretty grey to me...

Re:hmm... by anti-snot · 2002-02-04 01:31 · Score: 1

There isn't much actual blue left around here, the other day I pulled into my parking spot next to the river and watched ducks weaving in and out of the floating garbage chasing eachother.
Re:hmm... by micahjd · 2002-02-04 03:38 · Score: 2

How about here or here? Or for those who enjoy wasting CPU, this?

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-- 2 + 2 = 5, for very large values of 2
Re:hmm... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-02-04 04:15 · Score: 0

It's offtopic, but I just want to mention that one of my servers is called idefix as well. It runs under the gallia domain, next to asterix, obelix and panoramix.
Re:hmm... by ThatComputerGuy · 2002-02-04 14:31 · Score: 1

Yeah, it's known as Carbon.

(I know, I know...)

--
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.

Aqua theme by Lewisham · 2002-02-04 01:24 · Score: 1, Offtopic

*Now* you've gone and done it. I'm sure Apple's lawyers are writing up the cease-and-desist order as we speak on the Aqua theme. D'oh :)

Mmm, looked at this kind of thing a while back by Yarn · 2002-02-04 01:27 · Score: 3, Informative

but I decided I couldn't live without the functions the Symbian Epoc OS provides. Like the agenda, contacts, opera etc.

As I can get ssh (via java) and perl installed *anyway* running Linux on my PDA with it's tiny keyboard gives me no real benefit. Of course, I'll back up and do it some day, probably when I upgrade my PDA.

Besides, the 5MX isn't the smallest linux PDA, the Revo is smaller and also capable of running psion linux.

--
-Yarn - Rio Karma: Excellent

Why? by saqmaster · 2002-02-04 01:27 · Score: 2, Insightful

"which shows the oustandingly attractive aqua theme."

Forgive me for being stupid, but why in all reality would anyone be too fussed about 'themes' on a Psion 5mx? The original EPOC GUI looked alright and had good support.

I had an old Psion 3 few years back running some hacked up debian rom and it worked, could establish serial ppp connections, even ran an eggdrop from it, but it was just a bit of fun (Yeah, don't try and compile _anything_ on a Psion unless you want to wait a long time).

I forget who it was now, but I remember a while back some articles about another PDA manufacturer was going to use/was using a Linux based o/s for it.. Not really seen much come of it yet..

There are lots of things to take into account.. like Synchronisation. What exactly would you sync up between a Linux PDA and desktop machine? It's not like you've got Outlook running or anything, and i've not seen any piece of 'groupware' on a Linux platform that even contemplated supporting PDA integration/sync'ing.. (Not that i've looked too hard)..

I think the scope here is much wider than just having a PDA running Linux, it requires just as much or more effort from the 'desktop' developers or these PDA's will be useless..

--
"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story..."

Re:Why? by Over_and_Done · 2002-02-04 01:34 · Score: 2, Informative

Evolution will sync to a palm. Does anyone know if it will sync to a linux PDA?
Re:Why? by micahjd · 2002-02-04 02:38 · Score: 3, Informative

Well, there is a larger reason behind themes... I explain this some on picogui.org, but the themes in PicoGUI are mostly for defining the look completely separately from the application or the GUI code itself.

As for the synchronization, PIM, etc. to go along with a Linux PDA, that's where there are lots of options. Microwindows, X, Qt/Embedded.. and PicoGUI. To me, the best reason to run Linux on a handheld is to take advantage of cross-platform applications. Especially in a GUI designed for scalability, you should be able to run the same app (with a recompile if it's in a compiled language of course) on a Helio, VR3, Psion, Zaurus, or a laptop.

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-- 2 + 2 = 5, for very large values of 2
Re:Why? by RevAaron · 2002-02-04 04:10 · Score: 2

The answer is a definate maybe. The problem with Linux PDAs is that they all use their own data format, and more often than not, not follow any standard. What a Linux PDA lacks (and something I'm putting into my PDA environment, DynaPad) is a data-store like that of the Newton. On the current generation of Linux PDAs, most syncing seems to be achieved by coping TXT or XML files, or in some cases, having a sync app. However, this sync app doesn't know about new databases and records, other than those it's been explicitly told about- and this is more often than not limited to Contacts and Dates. It's really quite sad.

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Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad

pretty slick by Transient0 · 2002-02-04 01:28 · Score: 3, Insightful

I have to admit, seeing X run on a screen like that warms my heart in a certain way on a cold canadian morning such as this. This is an interesting counterpoint to the previous headline re: PS2-Linux.

BAD: big guy making linux run on his own hardware

GOOD: little guy making linux run on the big guy's hardware.

Disclaimer: I'm not really being cynical here, i understand the concerns of limiting hardware access and draconian copy-protection, it's just interesting.

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lysergically yours

Re:pretty slick by JonasH · 2002-02-04 03:00 · Score: 1

* PicoGUI isn't X, or X compatible. It's a completely new GUI framework. It's design goal is not compatibility with other GUIs, but to explore a unique architecture that especially benefits handheld computers and other embedded systems

So, this isn't really X.

It is Linux though, which is quite nice too.
Re:pretty slick by LoneTech · 2002-02-04 03:06 · Score: 1

Actually, there's at least one screenshot of X on Tader's site. But PicoGUI is not X, although it does run under X (in at least three different ways that I know of).

Re:Why?[OT] by Yarn · 2002-02-04 01:30 · Score: 2

StarOffice 5.2 had palm pilot syncing.

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-Yarn - Rio Karma: Excellent

2 users? by cperciva · 2002-02-04 01:33 · Score: 1

I wonder who the other user was when `uptime` was executed in the Aqua screenshot.

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Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid

Re:2 users? by Komarosu · 2002-02-04 01:41 · Score: 1

2 xterms maybe?

--

"What do you mean you have no ice? Do you expect me to drink this coffee hot?" - Random Customer, Clerks

Psion HC100 by Anonymous Coward · 2002-02-04 01:34 · Score: 0

Now what i would love to see is linux running on my Psion HC100

Re:Psion HC100 by couch · 2002-02-04 03:24 · Score: 0

lol
epoc had enough trouble running on HC110s, so I dont want to think about older machines, and other OSs.

Imagine having to compile the kernel in TopSpeed.

Shafted by Psion, but probably not there fault... by rixster · 2002-02-04 01:36 · Score: 5, Informative

My personal experience with Psion is that had a great history of leading edge technology PDA's that worked, but when I jumped on the bandwagon with a netbook (or notbook - see later), I was less than impressed with their promises of continued development
The netbook is an awesome machine - it still gets 'oohs' and 'aahs' from co-workers who haven't seen it. It's got a 640x480 touchscreen screen with full keyboard in a clamshell type design. I've got the 64Mb version with a 340Mb microdrive for any rubbish that I need. Here are the things that I absolutely love about it :
* Instant on - i.e. within a second. Beats the hell out of booting a laptop, even from sleep mode.
* The bundled apps, although minimal, are perfectly functional. Wanna write a doc, do a spreadsheet, read / write email ? Absolutely no problem
* It stops me tinkering. It just does the job
* 6 hour battery life. speaks for itself.
The things I despise :
* It's called a netbook. It's networking drivers are still 0.1, support the barest minimum of devices and frequently crash. How can you call something a netbook if it doesn't network ???!!!
* It's TCP/IP over the Irda is shockingly bad. Probably goes back to comment 1.
* Minimal, some say none, Mac support. Oh well.
* Lastly, FORGET about any further development about Epoc 6. Oh yeah I was an idiot to believe the rumours about that !!

To have a usable *nix ported to a netbook would be an absolute godsend. I could code here, code there, email, etc etc. Man I would *pay* (and I mean pay) at least 100 GBP to get my netbook running a reasonable X with just the simplest apps working.
Anyway, please keep up the great work linux -> psion porters. PLEASE !!

--
Two wrongs may not make a right, but three ....

Psion Range by Anonymous Coward · 2002-02-04 01:36 · Score: 3, Informative

It might be worth pointing out that the colour screen shots are from the Netbook and Psion 7 - mini-notebook form factor Psions, while the 5 and 5mx are palmtop clamshell style organisers with mono (16 greyscale) screens.

Having said that, the Aqua theme does look tasty enough to warrant finding a Netbook going cheap. From experience with CE professional laptops, I can say that a laptop form factor with no HDD and 'instant on' is a lot more useable than a full scale notebook by far. Add Linux? Yum!

Falling prices? by Anonymous Coward · 2002-02-04 01:42 · Score: 1, Informative

I don't know what the price should be, but the cheapest 5mx on Pricewatch.com is $499. The new Zaurus Linux PDA is $399.

Re:Falling prices? by Anonymous Coward · 2002-02-04 02:07 · Score: 0

According to the Psion website, you can get the 5mx for $449 in the USA or 432.58 euros if you tell 'em you're British (that's less than $400 American).

--t
Re:Falling prices? by thegoldenear · 2002-02-04 02:10 · Score: 1

atleast in the UK they're easy to pickup for two hundred UK Pounds second-hand and brand-new
Re:Falling prices? by RevAaron · 2002-02-04 04:13 · Score: 2

Wouldn't that make the iPAQ 3150, which I've seen around for $150 *including* the CF sleeve really the cheapest and most practical option, especially if you're talking about just running Linux on it?

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Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad

Psions are a great bargain nowadays by Qbertino · 2002-02-04 01:46 · Score: 2, Informative

This guy's right. If you're into buying a PDA, don't forget to check into all those Psion Sales going on just now. They're dirt cheap and even if you don't wanna bother sqeezing Linux on them, EPOC is a very good and solid PDA-OS.

--
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca

Re:Psions are a great bargain nowadays by Lewisham · 2002-02-04 02:14 · Score: 1

Absolutely. I stumped up the cash from Amazon.co.uk for a Revo, which fell over half it's price down to £100 (164 Euros or $142). Bargin.

It's also a cut being reflected on other sites, which leads me to believe it's come from Psion itself. It would make sense: their share price along with their market share is taking a bashing and the best way to get sales is to undercut even the unuseable end of the Palm range.
Re:Psions are a great bargain nowadays by Pembers · 2002-02-04 03:32 · Score: 4, Informative

If you're wondering why Psions are so cheap nowadays, it's mostly because Psion have stopped making them. The reasons are complicated, but I suspect it comes down to a form of the British disease: we invented many things that the modern world takes for granted, but we're hopeless at making money out of them.

I agree that the OS is rock-solid. I've owned three Psions in the last 4 1/2 years, and have had exactly one crash in that time. This resulted when I let my girlfriend's eight-year-old nephew play with the machine, a testing method I recommend to anyone who thinks they write stable code ;-)

I wouldn't swap my 5mx for any variety of WinCE, nor for a Palm. Many people don't realise that Psions are true handheld computers, whereas most PDAs are more like detachable peripherals for a desktop machine. Many Psion users don't even own a desktop.

The thing that drew me to Psion in the first place (apart from patriotism) was their excellent keyboards. It saddens me that most newer PDAs have, at best, sorry excuses for keyboards. I can type a lot faster than I can write with a pen, especially on a slippery surface like an LCD. Perhaps I'm atypical, but I enter a lot of text while I'm on the move. The wordprocessor is the most-used application on my Psion, followed by Contacts. I hardly use the Agenda on it. My favourite program for it, though, has to be the ZX Spectrum emulator that actually runs faster than the original on some games. So I suppose I don't fit too well into the target market for all these new Linux-based PDAs (when one actually appears on the shelves), because I don't need to be told minute-by-minute where I'm supposed to be, nor do I want to surf the web on a 2-inch screen or listen to the same 20 MP3s while I go there.

Damn... I'm getting nostalgic for a machine that isn't even officially dead yet. Psion have said they'll support them for the next couple of years. I take my hat off to these guys for the cool hack, but I think we won't see the true utility of Linux on a 5mx until Psion's support ceases.

--
Just another wannabe fantasy novelist...
Re:Psions are a great bargain nowadays by zulux · 2002-02-04 05:09 · Score: 2

The reasons are complicated, but I suspect it comes down to a form of the British disease

IMHO - Psion dropped the ball when they tried to grab market share by making the money losing Revo. Most Psion users (like me) diden't care what the things cost and would glady have paid the high costs of a product that allowed Psion to make a profit. Simply put - Psion should have played to their strengths: wonderfully built little computers. Palm already had the cheap little organiser market locked up.

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Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
Re:Psions are a great bargain nowadays by mlk · 2002-02-04 11:13 · Score: 1

Yeah for "lets ignore the US market" :(

mlk, a happy Revo user, that ill not move on till there is a nice sized keyboard device...

--
Wow, I should not post when knackered.

QNX? by DamienMcKenna · 2002-02-04 01:47 · Score: 2, Interesting

Ask QSSL about a QNX port, they're already doing one for the Compaq iPaq PDA.

3G cell phones by interiot · 2002-02-04 01:49 · Score: 4, Interesting

Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, and others will be basing some of their new 3G phones off of a psion-derivative, Symbian OS. Hopefully this will result in a consistent API that stands a fighting chance against Windows CE in the cell-phone market.

Re:3G cell phones by harakh · 2002-02-04 04:16 · Score: 1

Personally im supremely confident that they already have domination over the cell-phone markets, bot OS and phone, and Nokia will be the next big player on the PDA-markets (are already actually) with their internet-enabled communicators etc.
There is no chance in hell that Windows CE will ever become a bigger player on Cell-phones imo. It will also become smaller on the PDA front when Nokia whips up more Phone/PDA's that are of superior quality.

Are you happy to see me?.. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-02-04 01:55 · Score: 0, Funny

Or is it just som Psion Pocket Pr0n in your pocket?

;-)

(Anonymous so you don't call me e K.H.)

Re:Are you happy to see me?.. by friscolr · 2002-02-04 01:59 · Score: 2, Funny

just som Psion Pocket Pr0n
Well, shucks, if they can get linux running on their psion i'm sure they can get Karin doing many more tricks on their Psion.
(no, these aren't completely off topic, but more images from the same dir)

--
-f
www.blackant.net

Dot CX by Anonymous Coward · 2002-02-04 01:57 · Score: 4, Funny

Yeah, we're all gonna click on some wierd dot CX link. Yeah right...

Re:Dot CX by Anonymous Coward · 2002-02-04 01:58 · Score: 0

*lol*... was actually the first thing I thought too.. :)
Re:Dot CX by game0ver · 2002-02-04 07:55 · Score: 1

But we all clicked it. Point? You know you did. So do we.

--
http://www.SachaWheeler.com

I advise against buying a Psion by Pentagram · 2002-02-04 02:02 · Score: 2, Informative

I bought a Psion Revo Plus last September. I managed to break it, and for the last three months have ben trying to get it repaired. Emails to Psion's technical support section, then webmaster, etc., just get ignored. They seem to have nothing but contempt for their customers.

Nice hardware, shame about the company.

Re:I advise against buying a Psion by thegoldenear · 2002-02-04 02:17 · Score: 1

in Britain POS http://www.posltd.com/ are better people to be fixing your Psion. well recommended.
Re:I advise against buying a Psion by Pentagram · 2002-02-04 02:25 · Score: 1

Thanks for that. I'll consider them.

Re:Shafted by Psion, but probably not there fault. by mattfoster · 2002-02-04 02:02 · Score: 2, Informative

I think you'll find that the kernel already works on the Netbook. In fact there is a shot at the psilinux site.

The speed at which things seem to be developing is really exciting, and so i wouldnt be surprised if there was a working X server before long.

Just before Xmas there was no kernel or anything for the Revo, and now I have it booting and running no problem....

just give it some time :)

Apple. by saintlupus · 2002-02-04 02:04 · Score: 3, Funny

the oustandingly attractive aqua theme.

Welcome to Lawsuit County, population: You.

--saint

Re:Apple. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-02-04 07:03 · Score: 0

Um. Apple's only, and biggest gripe with the creation of aqua themes was the use of the Apple logo.
Re:Apple. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-02-04 21:32 · Score: 0

LOL this is the funniest comment i've read in years

Karin seem.. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-02-04 02:08 · Score: 0

..very nicely rounded. You think they managed to implement AntiAliasing on the Psion? Coolness!

Nokia 9200 series by flipflapflopflup · 2002-02-04 02:43 · Score: 1

Has anyone considered that Linux on the 9210 would be quite nice?

After Psion, Nokia? by flipflapflopflup · 2002-02-04 02:45 · Score: 1

Eventually these old Psion devices are going to get completely outdated, but what about the new ones by Nokia?

How about Linux on the 9200 series? Surely half the work has been done if its already been ported to a 5mx...

Re:After Psion, Nokia? by flipflapflopflup · 2002-02-04 02:50 · Score: 1

Of course, there's nothing actually wrong with the OS they come with (Symbian OS), and version 7 will be coming soon...

Penguin pants by lala · 2002-02-04 02:47 · Score: 3, Funny

Is that a penguin in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
(sorry, couldn't resist this awful joke.)

Re:Penguin pants by Anonymous Coward · 2002-02-04 11:08 · Score: 0

There's definitely something in my pocket after viewing the .jpg of Karin!

PicoGUI help wanted by micahjd · 2002-02-04 02:53 · Score: 5, Interesting

PicoGUI already runs on several platforms, including the Agenda VR3, the VTech Helio, TuxScreen, uCsimm, and now the Psion.

PicoGUI's still in need of developers, authors, and artists. We need developers to write PicoGUI applications and help debug/extend/port pgserver. We need authors to write more documentation. We could even use some artists (preferably with some programming knowledge) to make some more themes. If you're interested in helping, join the pgui-devel mailing list or stop by the #picogui IRC channel on irc.openprojects.net.

--
-- 2 + 2 = 5, for very large values of 2

Re:PicoGUI help wanted by RevAaron · 2002-02-04 03:52 · Score: 2

Micah knows what he is doing. PicoGUI is quite rad, and I encourage you to check it out if you're looking for an intelligent GUI system. Damn fast on something like the Helio, too. (rev, occasionally on #picogui)

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Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad

PSION long history with linux by harkal · 2002-02-04 03:18 · Score: 3, Informative

Linux was ported long time ago to the old PSION Series 3, throught it's ELKS little brother. Look at this site for more info.

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HarKal

Re:PSION long history with linux by mj01nir · 2002-02-04 14:34 · Score: 2

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Thanks for posting the new links. I thought the ELKS project died out years ago. Someday my 5150 will run Linux! :^)

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the no .sig .sig

mod me down. by BobSoros · 2002-02-04 03:32 · Score: 1

But am I the only one that thinks the screenshots look like the hell. That isn't a UI, its a hackery of widgets tossed and turned until something popped out.

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Contain my voice. Place my user into your foe list.

Re:mod me down. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-02-04 11:30 · Score: 0

That is the beauty of PicoGUI. The UI is as functional as possible while minimizing CPU and memory requirements. It is very powerful, and the idea is that you give all (or most) of the screen space to the program that is running. This is critical when you only have 160x160 to work with. That and with themes, the UI is so customizable that you can pretty much do anything you want.

Re:Psions are a great bargain nowadays-bull by Lumpy · 2002-02-04 03:33 · Score: 4, Informative

Every place I checked the Psion 5mx was pricey.
Sales? where? I dont call pricing it the same as the new Sharp Zaurus as on sale.

A search on ebay for used ones the average price is $160.00

If there are great sales on these items post a link to where, as 5 different E-tailers list them as really really pricey.

--
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.

Re:Shafted by Psion, but probably not there fault. by RevAaron · 2002-02-04 03:49 · Score: 3, Interesting

Heh. The things you love about your netBook seem to be found also in the iBook. In OS X, coming back on from sleep takes a second. I'm not sure how it does it, but I kid you not. Same with the bundled office apps. Tinkering? Well, this is a Mac- the idea is that you don't *have* to tinker. And yes, 5-6 hours of battery life.

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Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad

Psion Revo by PlaysWithMatches · 2002-02-04 03:54 · Score: 1

I got PsiLinux's setup to boot on my Diamond Mako (just a USA-ized version of the Psion Revo), but unfortunately, it won't actually install as it wants a physical drive to install to. The Revos don't have the ability to use Flash media like the other (i.e. Series 5) machines do. Does anybody know of a way to get a decent Linux setup running on the Revo?

--

Mozilla's a nice operating system, but it needs a better browser.

Cool, now if only psion 5/5mx lasted 2years by yani · 2002-02-04 04:05 · Score: 3, Informative

This is great, and I was really into linux on the psion when my screen flexi-cable gave out. And no this is not unusual, it is a design defect and catches all psion 5/5mx's eventually. want to know the really sad part? Psion insists on replacing the whole screen for $250.

If your thinking of buying a psion 5/5mx just be aware that it dosn't last very long, there are planty of other faults, don't get me wrong I loved the machine and psion, I owned a psion 3a before it, but I finally just got fed up with Psion's consistantly bad reliability.

Re:Shafted by Psion, but probably not there fault. by SigmundK · 2002-02-04 04:09 · Score: 0

this thing runs W/O X11 you bafoon

Bit big-headed aren't you? by biglig2 · 2002-02-04 04:20 · Score: 2

Ressurected by Linux? What, are Psion gonna make more PDAs because they can run Linux?

--
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?

Kind of cool, but.. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-02-04 04:47 · Score: 0

This is cool and all in that it's always nice to see more linux gadgetry, but what's the point, really?
The PSION operating system really manages to kick ass in the GUI arena (for a PDA at least, and arguably in other ways) which is really where *nix fails to shine.

Have any of you seen the interativity between apps and such in the psion OS? It's amazing, intuitive stuff.

This is way cool ! by Lord+Hugh+Toppingham · 2002-02-04 05:09 · Score: 0

I went straight to the linux-7110 page to attempt to download the Series 5 version of Linux, but the site seems to be broken.

Does anyone know of a mirror for this stuff ?

Revo problem by DamienMcKenna · 2002-02-04 05:51 · Score: 1

I got my 8meg Revo in November 2000, and in the space of six months it developed power problems twice! The second time I should have gotten my money back and bought and iPaq to run QNX on :-|

The nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition dept... by GuNgA-DiN · 2002-02-04 06:55 · Score: 1

Can you imagine a Beowulf Cluster of these babies?

Sorry.... it had to be done.

;)

what works and what dont by SKicker · 2002-02-04 06:57 · Score: 3, Informative

ive been tinkering with this for a little while. Its a great machine.

Heres what works:

- infrared, just like a serial infrared on your desktop! (irattach and away you go).
- serial (connect it to your desktop with pppd)
- framebuffer console (640x240 4bpp)
- power on and off (deep sleeps the psion)
- backlight
- install a full debain-arm distro! (basically anything console that works on your desktop will work on the psion at the moment)
- great for running your favourite editor, irc, lynx etc.

Heres what dont work:

- X works but without keyboard or touchpanel support yet.
- sound (apparently it should be easy to write a driver but noone has got round to it yet)
- contrast controls
- uses more power than EPOC (even when 'off') but probably not huge difference in battery life.

Heres some problems with it:

- cant use IBM microdrives, only compact flash
- only 16meg memory, and swap on a flash card isnt a good idea (flash has a limited number of write cycles)
- a bit slow (36Mhz, emulated FPU)
- no specific distro for it yet (ie nothing like familiar for the ipaq, although most of familiar will run on it cos they are both ARM machines).

Wouldnt it be great if someone managed to buy the rights to build these machines again running linux instead of EPOC? I recommend snapping up a cheap second hand one while your still can.

Jornada please by nowt · 2002-02-04 07:25 · Score: 2

Any day I'm expecting my jornada 720 back with no trace of wince on it ;)

It will have the crl bootloader + familiar distro.

Details will follow.
Anticipation...anticipation, it's making me wait!

--
A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess? - Joshua (Wargames)

Re:Psions are a great bargain nowadays-bull by Anonymous Coward · 2002-02-04 07:44 · Score: 0

If you can find one, the Psion Revo (a.k.a. Diamond Mako) is more slim, and a bit cheaper. I got mine for ~$90 with a deal at TigerDirect some months back. The downside is, you can't use Flash media with them, so running Linux on a Revo is much more difficult.

Re:Shafted by Psion, but probably not there fault. by nexthec · 2002-02-04 08:00 · Score: 1

instant on is different from instant awake. especcially when it comes to power usage, thanks for the advertisment tho

WAAAY of topic ;-) by Anonymous Coward · 2002-02-04 08:48 · Score: 0

This is very funny if you read the "Win2K has better security than Linux" comments..

http://thomas.de-ruiter.cx/projects/psion/screen sh ots/karin.jpg

Ha, ha, very funny :-)

If not, just plain embarrizing. >:-)

Heh by Pope+Slackman · 2002-02-04 09:06 · Score: 1, Troll

That isn't a UI, its a hackery of widgets tossed and turned until something popped out.

You mean it looks like X?

-or-

Don't worry, it's prolly just in "X11 emulation mode".

C-X C-S

Diamond Mako (Psion revo plus) by theLOUDroom · 2002-02-04 09:20 · Score: 1

I recently bought a Diamond Mako for $80, from Staples and am very pleased with it. Some people reading this may be interested to know that you can get a refurbished mako for $80 a sparco.com Pretty much an unbeatable price compared to a $400 zarus or the yopy. Hopefully there will soon be a linux distribution for the revo as well.

--
Life is too short to proofread.

Re:Shafted by Psion, but probably not there fault. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-02-04 09:44 · Score: 0

Ibook battery last 4 hours if you don't run anything. Apple always have inflated number.
I wonder where you get the 5-6 hrs from.

I do own a iBook.

Re:Shafted by Psion, but probably not there fault. by mlk · 2002-02-04 11:24 · Score: 2

(Suggesting something thats not Linux, this will kill my Karma)

Have you seen/considered SavaJE, a Java2SE OS, while it's not X, I've seen X for Java. It makes me wayy to tempted to nip into the local CashConverters and pick up a netBook...

mlk (happy Revo owner)

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Wow, I should not post when knackered.

Re:Shafted by Psion, but probably not there fault. by RevAaron · 2002-02-04 13:43 · Score: 2

I own one too. I get 5 hours of regular work in Mac OS 9, easy. On an iBook500, even.

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Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad

Re:Shafted by Psion, but probably not there fault. by Anonymous Coward · 2002-02-04 17:06 · Score: 0

It seems like what remains of Psion is jumping ship to WinCE, as Nokia becomes the driving force behind EPOC/Symbian. Strange, that.

Anyhow, please mod this up to note a major caveat with all Psion hardware other than the Netbook- *NO* ethernet support. Your connectivity choices are plain serial, IRDA, and a PCMCIA dongle that ONLY supports a serial-type connection to the modem. (e.g., no other PCMCIA cards will work) This has me itching for a newer system.

Otherwise, the Series 5/5MX form factor is great, the processor blows away the Palm offerings. EPOC is a touch bloaty, and most of the UI choices are unfortunately reminiscent of Win95; once the Linux install supports power management and ethernet over IRDA, I'll be jumping for it. (Hope it runs on the plain 5..)

Re:Shafted by Psion, but probably not there fault. by Troed · 2002-02-04 22:35 · Score: 2

* Lastly, FORGET about any further development about Epoc 6. Oh yeah I was an idiot to believe the rumours about that !!

Huh? Symbian is very much alive and kicking, releasing new versions of Epoc (yeah, 6.0, 6.1 etc) when they're ready - and they're used in products like Ericsson R380, Nokia 9210 and the upcoming Nokia 7650 as a few examples.

You _do_ know that Symbian was created from Psion Software, and that Ericsson, Nokia, Psion, Panasonic and Motorola are co-owners, right? (Now add SonyEricsson to that)

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it's in my head

Mirrors? by Cloud+K · 2002-02-06 01:14 · Score: 1

Ack, suppose it's far too late to be asking this now, but...

Anyone have a mirror for the Series 5 version? The FTP site (ftp://linux-7110.sourceforge.net) seems to be dead or Slashdotted or whatever.

Thanks

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