Slashdot Mirror
Zaurus Software Reviews
Steve Emms writes "The Zaurus SL-5500 PDA represents a new frontier. Here Linux is not an afterthought shoehorned onto a windows product - the Zaurus is a PDA that comes configured with Linux out of the box. And it's a good fit, Linux works well on relatively low spec machines like PDAs. But it's the software that makes the machine. So LinuxLinks has started a series of reviews of commercial Linux software for the Zaurus." Little thin right now, but a nice start for anyone interested in the PDA.
Three pieces of software?
That's a review of zuarus software?
tkcPlayer 1.5.0-18 Price: $9.95 - the first Ogg player for the Zaurus. (09/15/02)
:o
Reef War Price: $9.95 - Battleships (09/15/02)
IslandReversi Price: $9.95 - the classic board game for the beach! (09/15/02)
No wonder linux is a clear choice for pda's
10$ each for a ogg player a battleship clone and reversi, if the things based on linux wouldnt it be rather easy to port many freeware games to it? I would think at least ogg123 and some simple frontend for it
Nice summary by O'Reilly
Sharp USA site
Zaurus user's site
Sharp Developer site
ZDNet UK review
cNet review
Linuxdevices.com review
ZDnet review
TechTV review
ThinkGeek review
PC Magazine review
IT Reviews review
Cnet shopper latest prices
Buy @ Amazon
I don't care if it runs Windows, Linux or QNX but what hardware should I get? I don't want ugly beige plastic boxes...
A PDA running linux ? great !
c Pl ayer-MediaLibrary.png
Now when you look at the screenshots, it *really* looks like they are trying to make it look like Windows XP.
http://www.linuxlinks.com/portal/content/png/tk
That's a pity that the Kompany cannot even develop its own look and feel. People tired of windows ME & co, who will buy this, will be quite disappointed to get linux with a windowsish style, won't they ?
theefer
It's good to see that, right off the block, there are apps for a Linux-based handheld.
Granted, most of them are games, and a bit on the bad side, but Linux is starting to make mainstream strides beyond the server market...which is always good to see.
Personally, though, I'd be more interested to see a review of the software included with the Zarius.
I mod down anyone who uses M$ in their posts. I like to live on the edge.
Where information on almost Zaurus software can be found, including many nice screenshots and discriptions. There are quite a few library ports (but not many fronteneds) As a Zaurus owner, I haven't been disappointed, infact, it's been very handy to have a little Linux computer around.
Opie player 2 is better in many ways though, because it supports OGG, MP3, MPEG4 (divx), MPEG1, MPEG2, RV10 (early real video codec) (ffpeg's codec) and has a pretty graphical front end.
Some of The Kompany's stuff looks interesting, but their multimedia stuff is just a rip off. (tkcVideo uses ffmpeg as the backend (which is also used by opie player 2 and mplayer, all it provides is a $10 pretty GUI, which opie player 2 does as well now)
Though I suppose it should be called QMMS now because it isn't in X anymore
It is nice but check your firmware rev out of the box. Mine came with v2.12 and when I tried to load The Kompany's address book program, the PDA encountered a load error and would no longer allow file transfers after that. I reset it, threatened it and even offered it flowers but no go. Calls to Sharp Tech Support revealed that I needed level 2 help as the suggestion script they were reading was of no use. I was told the level 2 guy would call me back so I waited. Every day for 3 days I called and reviewed my problem. I never did hear from the level 2 guy. I eventually got through to someone at Sharp who had a clue and they revealed that there is a firmware problem with 2.12 and The Kompany Address book. A simple flash upgrade to v2.38 solved all of my issues and I was off and running. Sharp could do a better job with their frontline helpdesk.
My 5500 replaces a Palm 3. Synchronizing that data was seamless. Being able to pop a CF wireless or networking card saves me the hassle of having to pack a laptop for troubleshooting network problems.
Software for the 5500 is constantly being added. One of my favorite sites is
http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus/
Please stop continuing to spread your lies, I've talked to you about this in the #zaurus channel before. tkcVideo does in fact use ffmpeg, but it is just one of the things that go into it, we have a lot of assembler floating point optimization routines and other code around and in addition to ffmpeg because ffmpeg wasn't available as an lgpl library when we started. ffmpeg is a great piece of work, but it is more icing on the cake and that is why mplayer isn't the same, nor the opie players. Since you don't have a copy of tkcVideo, all your statements about it would tend to be false.
Shawn Gordon
President
theKompany.com
The Zaurus keyboard is better than nothing, but it's not good enough -- and handwriting input isn't what I want. 90% of what I do with a laptop when I'm on the move is concerned with text, and the Zaurus with a folding external keyboard and a spare battery would actually replace a laptop for most purposes. So where are the hardware add-ons?
There are over 550 programs for the Zaurus at the Zaurus Software Index. Also the Zaurus is more than just a PDA, it's a complete computer in a very small case.
Why can't linux design their own style? Why do they have to copy apple? I was so interested in Zauras, no whatever, I'm buying an iBook and an iPod.
Linux is for the server, hands down. As for a part of my personal life? I've decided to make the switch.
Does the Zaurus SL-5500 support a non-GUI (console) mode?
goatse guy likes it!
I know its every Linux nut wet dream, but if we're going to keep hearing about this gizmo shouldn't it be at least labeled as an advertisement so the rest of us can move on?
I am currently on the lookout for a good developent on the go PDA. (Mostly for a hobby) Has anyone here had any experience using the Zarius or similar PDA for mobile work? I am mostly thinking about wiriting Java apps. Thanks guys.
There is nothing wrong with being gay. It's getting caught where the trouble lies.
hmm, so youstarted writing tkcvideo with ffmpeg before it was legal to use ffmpeg?
If you make any changes to any ffmpeg code, you must publish your changes, or make them available to your tkcVideo customers.
If it wasn't for the fact of watchful eyes, tkc would not even admit to using ffmpeg.. in fact, I remember you stating that tkc wrote the tkcVideo codecs yourselfs.
What other gpl or lgpl'd code does tkc use in the software without giving proper credit to the authors of that code?
Eon Games has a number of great titles available for for the Zaurus. Including Pyrogon's excellent puzzle game, Candy Cruncher.
Check out ioquake3.org for a great, free, First-Person Shooter engine!
Applications
QuickTime coming to PDAs
By Matthew Broersma
ZDNet (UK)
March 25, 2002, 10:00 AM PT
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-867888.html
A California company says it is developing software that plays Apple's QuickTime video format on handheld computers such as the Handspring Visor Prism and the Linux-based Zaurus SL-5500 from Sharp.
California-based Media Metastasis said last week it has begun private demonstrations of ZygoVideoH, which consists of server-side compression software and a client-side player for mobile devices. The player presently works with the Visor Prism and Zaurus, Media Metastasis said.
The announcement follows RealNetworks' launch of a RealOne streaming media player for Pocket PC devices.
The GUI shells you can get for the machine work pretty well, as do X and the C compiler off the Open Zaurus web page. The X package seems to be made to install in RAM and doesn't like being relocated to install on a CF or SD card. The C compiler is not a package file and can be detarred anywhere, though making all the links to get it working right can be tricky.
Oh yeah, and battery life sucks. That kinda goes without saying. I get about 2 to 3 hours of powered on use out of a battery. I keep a spare on hand, and that helps a little. Palm users will have to modify habits (And take that AC adaptor with you on business trips.)
You can also replace the initrd with a build of your own. So if you want to completely build your environment from the ground up (or try Debian's build) that's pretty easy.
All in all a nice little machine, though it could benefit from fuel cell technology.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Hi Harlekin, glad to see you are still not paying attention. What I said was we started before ffmpeg was an lgpl library, so consequently we were not using it, so we were doing our own codecs. We always submit back our changes as required, we've done it with the jabber irc-transport code that we fixed so it was usable, and we've done it with ffmpeg.
If you would like to make a formal accusation, then by all means make it and supply your proof.
Shawn Gordon
President
theKompany.com
www.handhelds.org
:)
opie.sf.net
And that's all you need.
Install Familiar on your iPAQ (you need a serial cable), then install opie (if it's not already installed.) Use ipkg to install zaurus packages. Then smirk and go "NYAHHHH" to all those trying to charge you money for it.
Have fun!
--pi
First, Qt is clearly is a desktop widget set that has been converted to a handheld: the shape and size of many components simply takes up way too much space, completely unnecessarily, and the overall layout of applications is also quite wasteful of screen space. The Zaurus Opera browser illustrates this: at the "tiny" settings: you still get the 3D decorations for buttons and text entry boxes, but the text for those widgets is completely gone; now, which is more important--wasting pixels on a 3D look or being able to see the actual text? There are lots of ways of indicating buttons that do not require a several pixel wide 3D border. Of course, even at larger scales, when you can read the text, those pixels take up unnecessary space. If you only have 240x320 pixels to play around with, this kind of thing needs to be highly optimized, and there are better ways of doing this. What we really need is a special-purpose handheld toolkit, not a port from a desktop. Altogether, with its 240x320 screen, Zaurus applications feel more space constrained than a Palm Pilot; it's the same problem that Windows CE and PocketPC have.
Second, Qt/QPE software takes up lots of memory to run. The QPE process alone takes up nearly 8 Mbytes of memory, with a terminal application taking an additional 3.8 Mbytes (all RSS while being used). A full, running X server (Xvnc) running on the same system takes 1.3 Mbytes, and that includes additional support for the VNC protocol, and a handheld version of rxvt can be run in a few hundred kbytes of memory. The Agenda/VR applications also took up a fraction of the amount of memory of what the equivalent Zaurus applications take up. It's a myth that Qt/Embedded is memory-efficient.
Third, the use of Qt/Embedded cuts the Zaurus off from a lot of other Linux handheld development: there are lots of neat, small, efficient applications written for other widget sets, some of them straight to X11, some of them using FLTK and others. While you can run them using Xvnc on a Zaurus, you end up with two completely unintegrated environments--that is not acceptable for day-to-day usage.
Sharp and Lineo should recompile the Zaurus applications to use X11; given that they are written in Qt, that should be easy, although they may have to do some performance tuning on the X11 version of Qt. Then, people could pick and choose which applications they like to run among a larger variety of software. I'd replace some of the built-in applications with FLTK-based ones, saving both memory and getting an interface I prefer. And then there would be a lot more software available for it and we wouldn't need reviews of four tiny applets at the amazing price of $10 each.
Has anyone tried the SL-A300? I really like its form factor much better then the 5500 (I would miss the keyboard though). I wish I knew someone in Japan who could pick one up for me :-). Anyone know the differences between the two?
...I must say that I am stunned by the usablility of the thing. I have a basement littered with various handhelds (we use them often on customer projects and usually get one for ourselves for testing) that never get used because, well, they aren't very usefull. Storing contacts, having a calendar, etc. is great, but it's faster and easier on paper. Yes, I can get my e-mail on it, but entering text is a hassle to say the least. The fact is, I (speaking personally here) want to do much more with my handheld than just play "Daytimer" with it. The SL-5500 is just the ticket. My company is teaching "Intro to Linux" classes that target existing MS administrators. For the class we need a server sitting there for them to hit during exercises. I need an MS box (so they can setup and use SMB client connectivity), a web server, FTP server, ssh server and a telnet server (again for use during exercises). I wanted to do something at the end of the class to really wow the students (who are all new to Linux). The answer in my opinion was the 5500. I received it a few days ago, and within 30 minutes of unboxing it had SaMBa, Telnet, ssh, Boa, and FTP serving happily on it and a Linksys CF 802.11b card for connectivity. Threw a 128MB SD card in it for storing the files used during the class and stuck a SaMBa share on it. Works beautifully. Tested the various pertinent "servers" under load (10 concurrent users pulling data - as the class is limited to 10) and it worked like a champ. This is what I have always dreamed of in a handheld...something that lets me do 75%+ of what I do on my desktop (albeit in a more limited but still very useful fashion). I would recommend it to anyone in the market for a PDA. I have seen a few comments about the interface "Trying to look like XP." You obviously HAVE NOT used one. The interface is all it's own. VERY fast to get around, totally customizable. All around fabulous. Later.
AFAIK, there effectively has been only one commercially released model (the developer model is similar but has only 32 Mbytes).
It's slow as hell!
You must be confusing the Zaurus with something else. There have been three Linux PDAs: the Agenda/VR, the Yopy, and the Zaurus. Linux also runs in the iPaqs. The Agenda/VR runs on a 66MHz MIPS chip, and it is a bit sluggish--but once applications are loaded, it's OK. I haven't tried the Yopy, but I don't think you could have either--as far as I know, it's only available mail order.
While it has some flaws (see above), the Zaurus UI is very fast and responsive, comparable to Palm and better than Windows CE, in my experience. In fact, the quality of the Zaurus UI is at least comparable to Windows CE, not just in my opinion, but also in many reviews. On the iPaq, we can even make a side-by-side comparison of the performance on identical hardware, and X11 running on the iPaq beats Windows CE hands down.
the price wasn't there, though much cheaper than the linux models.
The Zaurus costs $340 mail order, for a 206MHz device with keyboard, CF, MMC, MP3, and other features, and it comes with a huge amount of software. It is, and has always been, cheaper than comparable Windows CE machines.
I know people with WinCE models and love them
To each their own. To me, the Windows CE machines aren't even in the running: they are expensive, slow, and lack most of the software that I would want to run.
I bought a Zaurus thinking it would be great to have a Linux PDA and it looked on paper to have pretty good specs. Now that I have one, I find that it is little more than an expensive paperwieght. First of all, their promised wireless solution took forever to become available, is too expensive, and the idiots they got to do it for them still don't really have a working usable product. I have Mac's and PCs running Linux here, and since Sharp has chosen not to support the Mac at all and the Linux software is buggy and moot considering there is really no software to sync with, like that horrid outlook clone Evolution, I don't really see the point. I would suggest to everyone that people NOT waste your money on a Zaurus. It may look kewl, but it really isnt a functional machine that is actually ready to use.
I often say that Bill Gates doesn't have to lift a finger to crush linux on the desktop because so many people in the linux community do his job for him.
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
I can't wait to start porting programs to it, I already have a StrongARM based Netwinder which is running Debian Woody, got a SanDisk SDDR-009 Compact Flash Card writer, I'm totally set and ready for some serious Linux PDA hacking fun. And there is already a Debian Zaurus specific port in progress. There is going to be tons of software for these things before too long, as the Debian ARM port is quite mature and already has some 9000 packages!
Clickety Click
That's planned for the 3.0 kernels. Those will design their own style, will not copy apple, and will become benevolent rulers of the human race.
In the mean time, we're stuck with a bunch of human-run companies writing software and occasionally imitating each other.
I am _still_ waiting for my PDA and my mobile phone to be one device! Does anybody know if there are any accessories that give the Zaurus GSM capability?
Opinions stated are mine and do not reflect those of the Illuminati
I do Linux, and I would love to develop for and sell these ( handheld terminal-type business ), but Sharp's European pricing is, erm, "not quite as competitive" as that in North America ( i.e. They seem to work on an exchange rate of $350=EUR800 ) - I'll stick with Compaq/Familiar, so my customers don't feel ripped off Before they hit "Go".
The Microsoft monopoly abuse sucks.
The Sony/Sharp/Panasonic/... cartel sucks harder, and longer.
http://people.inf.elte.hu/isten/xmms/
Taylor Durden is a google karma whore
XMMS - early port but working.
Opie Media Player 2 - early beta but plays divX.
Alea jacta est!
Although there is a lot of hype about the Zaurus, I don't think a lot of people have given much thought about its security. I think it is only time before someone discovers how to make a worm for the Zaurus.
There are some organizations who would benefit by a Zaurus worm which would cause fear, uncertainity and doubt among the general public. Corporations could end up banning the Zaurus from their networks, if it appears to be insecure. This would also harm the Linux cause, by making it appear as though Linux is the cause of the insecurity. As it is, the next news item on Slashdot perpetrates this idea.
What makes Zaurus insecure ? There are many things. First, the default root password is blank. Luckily, there don't seem to be many services that use the Unix authentication system (any that do, would be insecure). But, anyone who ports anything to the Zaurus must remember this. The connection between the PC and Zaurus on its holder is actually a TCP/IP connection via the USB, so any TCP/IP stack vulnerability also holds good for the Zaurus, including the various denial of service attacks.
What we (the Linux community) should be worried about, IMHO, is that the insecurities of this particular Zaurus release would end up reflecting on the Linux community. Extrapolating this argument, the insecurities of any of the various versions of Linux might, eventually, destroy the reputation of Linux as a secure operating system.
I'm not sure whether any PDA other than Zaurus will act as a VNC server. With VNC, you just make the Zaurus grab an IP address off the network and set the VNC server running on the Zaurus. Then, from any other terminal on the network (could be runing Windows, Linux, Unix ... just about anything), open a VNC client, type in the IP address assigned to the Zaurus, and your password.
Lo and behold! The screen of the Z (with a keyboard below it, if you want) pops up in a window on your terminal, and you can just type on the terminal's keyboard.
In other words, it is just like being able to attach any keyboard that you could attach to a regular desktop computer to your Z, and use that for typing. VNC enables you to do a lot of other cool stuff, too.
Hope that suggestion helps. Not perfect (sometimes you don't have a network). But it is awfully good. And if you have a laptop, you can always connect the laptop and the Z in ad-hoc mode wirelessly, and use the laptop's keyboard as a surrogate keyboard, via VNC.
Tons of completely free programs are available for the Zaurus already, and the pool of free software is expanding rapidly! Take a look at this page, to get a taste of what you can install.
Anyone tried installing UAE on the Zaurus?
My Zaurus (just bought it a couple of weeks ago) has now effectly replaced my old laptop.
Now mind you, my laptop, in terms of processor power, wasn't much more powerful than the Zaurus. But it was much heavier. I can do everything on my Zaurus I used to do on my laptop and actually much more. It's much easier to carry around to classes or work. It's a perfect "datebook" and personal computer. I have faced a few bugs here and there, but you know, the nice thing was that I could often figure them out and fix them, while with my old palm I felt much more helpless.
Probably the thing I love the most is how easy it is to transfer information to and from the Zaurus. With my palm, all my files had to be converted and manipulated between formats. Now it's a matter of FTP or swapping a compact flash card. Text files are still text files, PDF files are still PDF files. I'm dealing with a real computer here which is wonderful.
Is the Zaurus perfect? No. In fact, there's plenty of people I would NOT recommend the Zaurus to. PDAs like any technology should be considered with need and use in mind and some people don't need a whole little Linux box in there pocket, a Palm works just fine. But for me, the Zaurus is one of those devices I've always been looking for.
Who said Freedom was Fair?
I initially bought this for three reasons:
:-)
:-)
1) It's the only portable OGG player right now
2) It's a reasonably full functional, and powerful PDA
3) It runs linux, thus has endless potential -- far more than any proprietary PDA
Already there is a completely opensource replacement OS for the Zaurus.
But... there is no "killer app" yet. A few possibilities though:
1) Real, usable, opensource GPS software using one of the many CF GPS cards out there.
2) Wireless portable OpenH323 terminal
For now, zaurus xmms and zmame are enough to keep me busy for a long time
Okay, here you go.
The Calander application is thin, but adequate.
The synch software pretty much sucks and is the only piece of software that needs a complete overhaul.
The text editor is a functional text editor.
The address book, email, todo list, voice recorder, image viewer, and media player apps - ditto.
Asteroids is a pretty good asteroids clone.
I don't know how to play Go, so I can't comment on that.
Mindbreaker is like the Logic game on some Nokia phones.
Mine hunt is a good Minesweeper clone.
Patience is a reasonably good solitaire game, with one caveat. You can't double-click on the cards to send them home.
Snake is a much better version of the Nokia phone game.
Tetrix is a passable Tetris clone.
Word game is very fun once you figure out the UI eccentricities.
There are a couple of unnecessary Java demos that I can't understand why were included.
The appearance app doesn't allow for enough control over the appearance, but more than other handhelds that I've used.
Hancom Office is a totally usable, MS Office compatible office suite (though I admit to using the text editor more than Hancom Word).
Opera is - well, Opera. If you hit a site that tries to open more than one window, you're given the option of which one you want to open which is kind of nice. I think I'm going to try to track down a flash plug-in for it, though.
All that said it might sound like I don't like the Zaurus that much. Not so. I love it. The power of it being Linux based is all of the software available for it NOT included (oh, and I LOVE the keyboard). I immediately downloaded the terminal app so that I could get to a bash shell without having to reboot it. It's a nice terminal - has shortcuts to commonly used commands - very cool. I also installed a VNC client/server, ZIC for IRC, Sketches of Q - which is a nice little drawing app, FTP spftware (opie ftp), and even a nice version of PacMan.
The machine is snappy and has a great screen. Text input via the keyboard is much faster and more accurate than any handwriting recognition. On the other hand, the handwriting recognition on the Zaurus is outstanding. No grafiti to learn, just write normally in the appropriate section of the screen and it works. In addition, it has a predictive text input system, so as you're writing on the screen, it gives you several suggestions as to what word you're attempting to type. If it makes a hit, just clikc on the word and move on. Very nice.
I've also added a WAP (in my home office) and a Wireless CF card. Both are Linksys and the installation was basically non-existant. True plug and play (except for security on the WAP). I can surf the net, hang out on slashnet or #everything, ftp, vnc, whatever from the Zaurus. My next foray may be into a wireless modem. Still deciding whether it's worth it.
The cradle it USB and synching is easy (once you've got it set up), but lacking in options. You can synch to the proprietary app (Qtopia desktop) or Outlook. I use Eudora, and would like an option to synch my contacts to there, and the other stuff (calander, etc...) to elsewhere, but alas nothing yet exists to allow for this. Of course, that the system is Open Source, this probably is not far off.
Copying individual files to and from the Zaurus is also easy as the device works sort of like an external USB harddrive. No, it doesn't get a drive letter, but through QTopia Desktop, you upload and download files as if it were a drive. Simple and reasonably quick.
There are some areas that need work, but overall the Zaurus is a hell of a little handheld that is already very powerful because of its Linux roots and has a significant amount of potential.
I'm waiting for Payback by Apex Design.
An awesome looking GTA2 killer, should be availible any week now.
I choose to remain celibate, like my father and his father before him.
> ESC is just the Cancel button (on the front
i on s/character_input.php3
> panel) and CTRL I think is the "Fn" button, Fn+C
> does a CTRL-C in the console anyway.
For most control keys, you hit CTRL-SHIFT-?. CTRL-C is one of the two or three exceptions.
http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/zaurus-faq/sect
is one source of info on this. There's a chart somewhere, but I'm working on eight seconds or so of sleep and my cups of tea and coffee haven't kicked in yet, so I can't find it.
This is the primary reason I don't have one yet. Heck, I'd be happy with a USB port that I could plug a PC keyboard into.
Sleep is just a poor substitute for caffeine, anyway. -Bob Lehmann
- vnc server: I can type right into my Z from my laptop or desktop keyboard
- ssh server: I can log into it directly
- brigher screen
- bigger screen, and higher resolution
- faster cpu
- some apps better than Palm equivalents (that I've found, anyway), e.g. Hancom Word & Spreadsheet.
- cardflash and SD card ports
- Java, Perl, Python, Vim (and KVim eventually)
- trainable input mechanism
- builtin keyboard
- Linux
All these things contribute to me prefering my Z over my m505. If you prefer top-of-the-line PDA functionality, like DateBk5, stick with PalmOS.My
I've copied over all the files, but it segfaults.
At one time I saw a link to a howto, but can't find it now of course
-- I speak only for myself.