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Zaurus SL-5600/SL-5500 Comparison Whitepaper
Bill Kendrick writes "A cool as the Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 Linux-based PDA is, there are definitely some quibbles about battery life, software and syncing. Fortunately, it seems the folks at Sharp and TrollTech have been working on it for the new 5600 model.
Sharp just posted a whitepaper (PDF) comparing the two models. (Newer kernel, no more root-privs-for-everything, JFFS2, dropping slow XML for PIM stuff, and USB-IO syncing, to name a few.)"
Gee, that's a terrific battery comparison chart. They're "comparing" both units under completely different operating conditions. At least they come right out and say it, but this gives absolutely no indication that they've fixed the 5500's weak battery life. Bummer.
The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
I ordered one of the $170 dollar 5500's off of HSN. I don't care how bad it is compared to the 5600, $170 for a pda with 2 expantion slots that also happens to run linux! I can't wait too boot and get to a shell! :)
What ever happened to the KDE sync program that would sync QPE/Opie based Linux handhelds?
One thing I'd like to see is some company selling OS upgrades that lets people throw away Microsoft Pocket PC/Windows CE and replace with Linux. But then there must be a good syncing solution for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
Ciryon
- Although you can configure multiple SMTP accounts, the mail client only uses the one configured first
- Every now and then the soft eject for a CF card doesn't work and you have to physically take it out
In addition, since Sharp has already worked on a new kernel, PIM, etc., it would be great if existing 5500 owners could benefit from what their software group has done since the latest firmware upgrade came out.The hardware changes on the 5600 are not a radical shift from the 5500 (unless, of course, you buy into the MHz hype). I bet that not many people will ditch their 5500s and invest in 5600s primarily to fix problems that could be resolved through a firmware upgrade.