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Palmtop NetBSD

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the small-installations dept.

BSD Forums writes "'Of course it runs NetBSD.' NetBSD is fantastically portable, but that doesn't make it supremely easy to install on oddball hardware like a Dreamcast or a palmtop computer. Michael Lucas demonstrates cross-installation with the HP Jornada."

6 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Oh no, here come the trolls...... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    BSD is alive an well. Why does everyone keep saying it is dying?

  2. Why bother? by Twyst · · Score: 4, Insightful

    See, this is the thing I've never understood - why would you install *nix/BSD on a palmtop? Most of the apps out there are not designed for such a small screen - I've experienced the pain of XWindows on a 640x480 screen - And there's such a huge base of apps out there already. Mind you, I prefer the Palm OS over WinCE, and 99% of what I want / need in a PDA is already available.

    I can't see the benefits of this. In my mind, it's like tearing out the upholstery of your car, and replacing it with gravel. Sure, the car's still usable, but it's not comfortable to use, and it looks like crap.

    --
    -- Karma is for people who think they matter.
    1. Re:Why bother? by addaboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      because it's there. it's a hobby thing.

    2. Re:Why bother? by LizardKing · · Score: 4, Insightful

      why would you install *nix/BSD on a palmtop?

      For similar reasons that my company installs it on haldheld devices I guess. We run a minimal installation, including X, and write apps using the fltk toolkit. OK, you're not going to run OpenOffice or Mozilla on the things, but for specialised applications (warehouse management in our case), they work well. And it's a damned sight nicer programming a NetBSD app than a Windows CE one (the handhelds come preloaded with WinCE).

      Chris

  3. Re:portability by techturtle · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Check out Embedded Linux/Microcontoller project I've never tried it personally, but looks promissing. Don't know about support for the older platforms you're talking about though. Gives you somewhere to start though.

    Some very usefull tools that I've used on newer Palm devices with net connectivity:
    Top Gun SSH - Works pretty good for remote shell access.
    PalmVNC - Decent VNC implementation for the Palm.

    Not *nix on the Palm, but gives you good access to remote systems.

    --
    If you don't have something nice to sig, then don't sig anything at all.
  4. Re:Full text: by chromatic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you'd asked permission to reprint the article, I'd have given it to you. That wasn't very nice.

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