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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.
Why bulky? (I have a Zaurus and have seen it together with Pocket PC's and Palms.) The Zaurus is about the same size.
Most people don't care if they run Linux or some other programs on their PDA as long as they get their work done.
*I*, however, *do* care because that means that I can use the same programs on the desktop and the handheld. My (Windows-using) techie collegues are amazed when they see that I can VNC into the Zaurus, or ssh into it and manage files with MC, or make backups with ssh+tar+bzip2.
You find lots of software. IPSEC kernel? Apache with PHP so you can develop wherever you are? Vim? Python? MC? mplayer? ogg player? Doom?
Everything there.
Computers. You can't live with them, you can't live without them.
Think of the Zaurus as a mixture of a PDA and a Palmtop(think toshiba Liberetto). You get the basic functionality you need out of a PDA... instant on, PIM functions, ect... You also get most of the full feature applications you want. Supposedly because it uses Linux many applications whould only require a simple recompile. I havn't found it that easy, but everything I need has already been ported. I used to carry a palm for phone numbers and a datebook, along with a laptop for divx and connecting to my companies network. Now I use Zaurus' built in PIM and installed The Kompany's video player as well as a terminal emulator for work. Its great.
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in our household, we have a zaurus, running linux (bought last week) and two cassiopeia e-125's (bought several months ago) ...
... why? well, you've got more options.
... just don't.)
... you're all set (how did they not get sued?) You can also shrug off the help of a GUI, and use your favorite gcc, with cross-compilation support. You can also install all sorts of interpreters on it. You can install a webserver and php, for example. Python, perl ... whatever. Recompile, and push to the pda. Or even better, install gcc on the pda, and compile there! (okay, maybe not -- it's not the fastest thing around.)
... how many of you actually -love- win32api calls that are broken, the ability to develop -only- under nt/w2k/xp (yes, we're running it, but c'mon ... choices?) and the fact that you pretty much have to use eMbedded Visual Studio to do your work? It's a pain ... but it does work. You just don't have many options. The VB thing is easy to use, but for those of us who hate VB, there's still C++ ... only ... it's really not helpful. At all. It would help if we had a bit more experience with visual studio ... but as we use it only for command-line apps, and run to builder for anything window-y ... well ... we've already got a bias against it.
... insert into CF card reader, mount it (in my case, it thinks it's sda1) and have fun that way.
we're all programmers. each of us with a pda. but i can tell you, if you wanna program on the damn things, linux beats windows
for the casio's, we've got:
-python 1.x interpreter (hey, it's amusing, okay?)
-the microsoft SDK (3.0 and 4.0, more on that later.)
-vb (don't
for the zaurus, we've got:
-everything you could imagine.
let me expand on that -- because the linux pda runs Qt natively, you can use the Qt-[Borland-Builder-esque] designer to build applications. it's great. it's c++, and the framework doesn't suck. didn't take long, and if you're used to Borland Builder
Now, for windows
Okay, so maybe we suck at visual studio. But at least the Zaurus offers a -lot- of options for creating your own programs. No, you won't be able to just port your X apps to it directly (it -is- Qt, not X.)
Did i mention it was cool to just ftp to your zaurus, etc.? Cassiopeia support under linux is this: take the CF card out
IMHO Linux on a palmtop makes perfect sense as the palmtop market isn't as strongly under the Microsoft thumb as the desktop PC market. On a level playing field, where vendors must compete on price and features, not "how fast does it run Microsoft Office" the co-operative nature and free licencing of Linux should be a big strength.
Get em while they last! Make sure to get to the booth EARLY, cause at JavaOne this year we had 3-4 hour lines going around the BLOCK at Moscone.
For developing custom applications very quickly, the zaurus kicks booty, but it would be irresponsible to suggest to someone the zaurus as something you could use for phone numbers or schedules, no matter how many other cool features it has.
Note: Right now, the linux community is in hardcore denial about usability problems in general, and any attempt to deny the truth of this post only further proves the truth of it.
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!