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MSNBC Reviews the Sharp Zaurus
Khalid sent in a link to this review of the Sharp Zaurus. They only noted a few flaws, such as the synchronization being harder than necessary, and generally seemed to like it, at least better than the Wall Street Journal columnist did.
It DOES run Linux. And it is prety nicely set up too.
Microsofts opposition to Linux is more philosofical than compeditive and visa versa.
Linux is "Free speach" philosophy and Microsoft is "Intelectual property" philosophy.
At the extream "Free Speach" and IP can not co-exist..
The copyright clame on the "I have a dream" speach makes makes it difficult to have a sereous and relivent debate on the details and meaning of the speach.
At the core IP sillences speach.
however free speach makes it difficult to impossable to make a proffit on intectual works.
It's hard to have a relivent discussion of the ideas presented in Gean Rodenburys work with out clips of Star Trek and scripts of his other works.
Yet... the same matereal being distributed would result in a loss. Actually when he was alive he alowed unoffical merchandice by fans to be created and it's quite likely he did lose money as a result.
So it's an issue of those who wish to learn understand discuss and educate themselfs vs people who wish to make a living on what they know.
Microsoft on the side of making a living and Linux on the side of learning.
That's actually pritty logical considering Linux was made as a project to learn something and Microsoft came into being to pay bills.
So anywho on to a Linux PDA.
Well the PDA is a bit diffrent from a desktop or server. It's much harder to violate IP laws with. You need to compile your code on your desktop or server. It folows the Microsoft philosophy of making money with what you know quite nicely while firmly imbeded in the idea of free speach.
So Microsoft is more inclined to welcome a Linux PDA.
Additionally Microsoft plays a nasty game in compeating of using a third party to wedge. Linux is not going to be an effective compeditor in the PDA market. It dosen't sereously satisfy the wants and needs of an avrage PDA user (For that reason I have a Palm Os PDA).
The user friendly thing is mostly a farce from what I've seen of users. They'll jump at the cheapest price and complain how hard it is AFTER they have it. They don't care when it costs them money.
For that reason Macintosh dosen't sell as well as Windows. The PC hardware simply costs less. Once they have Windows and the money is paid Linux isn't cheaper than already paid for Windows.
However the Macintosh is easyer than Windows and more powerful.
On the PDA the user wants cheap. They don't want a full power computer they want a simple interpreter of data.. a web browser, e-mail, and something to carry databases and speadsheat files.
The Palm Os PDAs do this perfictly. With some additional games and other neat applications a Palm Os PDA is everything a business user would need.
The stuff that's missing is movie and music players.. enteratinment. Entertainment is not the purpous of a PDA. Personal Digital Assistant... a PDA that plays music is a secretary that dose strip tease. It would be cool to have but would you really honnestly want to pay extra for it?
Ok some of you said yes.. I know you did.. pick up your Zaurus and go..
But for me a PDA is a simple effecent business tool. Not a video game system or a movie player. Those are nice extras that I would not want to pay for.
A lot of you will use a Linux PDA becouse it runs the same software that runs on your Linux workstation. That's the same reason people bought WinCE systems.. but those units didn't sell very well and there are fewer Linux users to want the same advantage.
When Apple made the Newtion they could have just made a MacOs PDA. It was the populare thing to do.. with PenTops running Dos, Windows 3.11 and the Zoomer to run Geoworks. But apple knew they needed something specal. Sadly the kinda goofed on the price..
A Linux PDA is a very compact cheap portable computer. Neat. But it isn't the portable business tool that Palm Os is.
Microsoft can use Linux PDAs to pull users away from Palm Os. They know some won't switch to Pocket PCs but most would.
I think the persons who made the first Linux to run on a PDA were right when they said it's great for the coolness factor and improvements to Linux but it's douptful a Linux PDA would be very useful.
Linux TiVO yes, Linux kits yes, Linux in car yes, Linux on a PDA... ummm no...
The needed processing power to make Linux useful is waisted on a PDA.
But I guess untill perl is ported to the Palm... it's not a total waist.
I don't actually exist.