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Zaurus Software Reviews

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the what-do-you-use-it-for-anyway dept.

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.

4 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. a Little expensive by Squarewav · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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

  2. Windows look and feel ? by theefer · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A PDA running linux ? great !

    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/tkc Pl ayer-MediaLibrary.png

    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
    1. Re:Windows look and feel ? by zulux · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Honda use to only make motorcycles. They decided to make cars one day, and low and behold - Honda made a car just like Ford! It had four wheels, engine up front with a stearing wheel in the same place. Hell, even the controlls were roughly in the same place.

      The point being, asiide from me being a sarcastic twit, is that people are getting use to XP and it's 'tarded telletubies interface. They, as all smart developers, are giving people (the consumers) what they want.

      And, to me, it looks like the "XP Team" copied Gnome - Gnome had rounded-large-colorfull icons well before XP did.

      --

      Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.

  3. Hardware, not software, is what the Zaurus needs by charlie · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Speaking as a [new] Zaurus owner, the one thing I'd give my right foot for is a Think Outside folding keyboard, or equivalent. Just something I can plug the Zaurus into and use for touch-typing.

    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?