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Familiar Distribution for iPAQ Handhelds

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the penguin-style-ipaqs dept.

Russ Nelson writes "The Handhelds.org project has released Familiar 0.7.2, a Linux-based firmware replacement for HP iPAQ handhelds. New to this release is support for the h5400 and h5500, which have built-in wlan interfaces. Both GPE (gtk/X) and Opie (Qt) are at or past version 1.0, and we now have a Python-gtk distribution called 'pypaq'. Why waste that commute time playing Tetris when you could be hacking on Python code?"

1 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Does it have MMC/SD support? by Cloud+K · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Last time I checked, it basically wasn't possible due to the closed design of them. But love Linux as much as I do, I still pick the most suitable hardware for my needs. An iPAQ answered that, with Windows CE.

    I tried Familiar (heart beating FAST as it messed around with areas that can easily turn the iPAQ into a brick) and one of the main things that put me off was a lack of support for the MMC slot. Sure, I could bloat the size of it even further with a CF jacket, but... meh :( My camera (which I like!) is MMC.

    The other thing that bugged me was Bluetooth. If you think it's behind the times in Windows, IMHO it's 5x worse in Linux. I've faffed with it for a week on a desktop machine, don't fancy the same on a handheld TYVM :)

    Not being a troll, just submitting my perspective on things as an honest fan of Linux.