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Bad Review for the Zaurus
higginsx writes "Sharp's new Linux PDA, the Zaurus SL-5500, gets pretty bad marks from The Wall Street Journal's tech columist Walter Mossberg. He doesn't get much into the OS (other than complaining it wouldn't synch up with his laptop), but concludes that "it failed to do the simple things well. It has a high price, a complicated user interface, and hefty dimensions and weight. Even the cool-looking keyboard turns out to be clumsy to use."" I still really want
to try one out since I don't expect I'll ever sync a Zaurus to Outlook.
I just got the Zaurus 5000D from JavaOne this year and I have had very few problems. It syncs with Outlook without any problems. I was also able to setup internet connection sharing through the USB connection so that I could use the Zaurus to browse while it was in the cradle.
In addition to that, for the geeks out there, I have installed sshd, boa (webserver), and a samba server. I also saw Perl and Python for the Zaurus, but I am waiting on my SD memory card before I install too much more. There are many programs out there already that make this a PDA I might actually use, and most of them are Open Source.
There are several good development sites out there: ZaurusZone and sharp's own Developer Site. You can download the kernel for it from Sharp's site and recompile it yourself because they have detailed instructures and supply a link to a gcc cross-compiler for the ARM processor.
In the Zaurus development guide they explain that the easiest way to do development for it is to NFS mount a shared drive onto the Zaurus. That is just cool.
I would totally agree that it is not for suits, but for the geek in me it has been one of the coolest things I have played with in a while.
~Giliath
I signed up to be a developer for the Zaurus several weeks ago. I placed my order and had it in my hands within two days. The first thing I did was update the ROM to the latest image. I also updated the drivers for my PC. I hooked up the cradle to my Windows 2k workstation, that does in fact use Outlook. It worked perfect the first time. And with the developer edition no less. Everything synched perfectly.
I seriously have loved this thing since I got my hands on it. That is saying a lot since I have hated every single PDA I have ever had before this. I think the keyboard is great, but it is definitely not for the fat fingered user. One thing that you can not tell from the pictures is that the keys are a hard plastic, not soft rubber. At first I made the mistake of trying to punch them with the stylus. It slipped off for the most part. So I went with the double thumbs technique that is popular with the text messaging via cell phone crowd. Now I can rip right through the keys, oh and they have a very nice tactile click when pressed. I could seriously go on all day about this product. But here are some cool links to an open source version of the Rom image that removes the Jeode JVM and Opera (which has now been replaced with Konqueror). I just have to assume the guy from the WSJ is a fat fingered dolt.
Sharp Developers Program
The OpenZaurus Program
Program Overview
OpenZuarus Downloads
Believe me, Walt Mossberg is anything but pro Microsoft anything. He's consistently battered Pocket PCs for battery life and size and has praised Palm to the rafters. It's pretty rare for him to say anything positive about Microsoft.
What he *does* say in the review, though, is that the Zaurus compares unfavorably with PocketPC devices in terms of battery life, hardware, size, available software and PDA functionality. He's spent time with many Palms, many PocketPCs and now, the Zaurus. Ever think that maybe he knows what he's talking about?
I got a SL-5000 in November and it's an amazing little box. I can't speak to the Outlook thing since I don't use it, but the device *does* know about Imap mail servers, which is very important to me.
They keyboard took some getting used to, but honestly I can't think of a better solution for the size this has to be. Thumbing is fine and fast.
And it has a real browser that understands real HTML and CSS. The (adjustable) scaling is amazing - I can read two columns of NY Times w/ no trouble.
Being a Linux box makes a huge difference. Screw PDA-sync - this thing does *rsync*!
Plus it was amazingly easy to install the ftpfs kernel module and have instant ftp-in-file-browser. Try that on your PocketPC!
Even if he already tested many PDAs there are still big faults in his description: :-)
1. I don't think the UI is complicated. It is indeed very similar to other PDAs. But this is only a personal point of view and not very objective. For nearly every PDA OS I can find somebody who completely loves the UI or hates it more than anyhing else.
2. He wasn't really interested in the available software at all. He only looked at the offical Sharp site but compares the amount of this software to all the Palm/WinCE programs which can be found somewhere in the internet. If he would look at zaurus.sourceforge.net and zauruszone.com he would find some other programs. Also the KDE project begins with porting desktop applications. I can already play Quake and Nethack on the Zaurus!
Additionally every new PDA OS lacks programs. Why had anybody bought thinks like Palm OS or even Windows 95? In the beginning there were no good applications for them? With this in mind you cannot really critisize the lack of software (perhaps when you still use DOS because there are no really good win applications you can
Damn my fault!!
Make that [LeftShift + Space] gives you the | (pipe)
If Slashdot is where the spelling-challenged go when they die, I'm in heaven.
I recently bought one at JavaOne, where they were selling the development models (32mb instead of 64mb memory).
I agree with a lot of the review (especially the screen being really nice) but have two other additional gripes:
1) The palm-like handwriting recognition doesn't seem to work well, and also seems to "lag" while I am drawing out the strokes. It's a good idea to trace the strokes to see what I wrote, but it doesn't fee responsive. Some of the bad recognition could be me just being used to the Palm interface.
2) (Big problem) I'm not sure I should blame Zaurus for this really but... the wireless 802.11b CF card they sold with the Zaurus at the show has a serious issue. When in place, you cannot remove the stylus!! Good thing I always carry a Palm so I had easy access to a stylus. I guess in a way I can blame them for not moving the CF card a little over to the side anticipating things like the wireless CF card (which it does have drivers for already).
My other thoughts are that with the CF card it seemed to drain power rather quickly (possibly even while the device was off?), and that I found using the keyboard awkward while holding the device - also slower than grafitti.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley