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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?"

4 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Lost Functionality by dirkdidit · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have the iPaq 5450 and that model comes with a biometric fingerprint scanner. I've noticed that this distro doesn't explicitly say it has support for the scanner. Does anybody know if it does indeed support it?

    I use a fingerprint as one of my passwords and I'd like to try this distro out but if it means losing the scanner capability,then I'm hesitant.

  2. Question by justsomebody · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Does anybody know or has experience with iPAQ and Linux, I'm thinking about buying one, but I don't know one thing.

    Does iPAQ with Linux supports GSM phone card (read as accesory drivers), so I could be able to access my servers trough ssh from anywhere?
    If yes, then which model and which accesory.

    Yes, I know that Windows do support that on iPAQ, but I really hate Windows too much, it's not an option, I'm not in suicidal mode.

    --
    Signature Pro version 1.13.2-3 release 83.5 beta3try7 after-breakfast edition
    1. Re:Question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Yes, I know that Windows do support that on iPAQ, but I really hate Windows too much, it's not an option, I'm not in suicidal mode

      Interesting - while I don't really like desktop Windows, I find they've done a better job with PocketPCs. A lot of the issues with Windows tended to be with its underlying x86 DOS legacy stuff. That's not there with PocketPC, it just looks a bit like Windows and has the Windows brand, but it certainly isn't Windows under the bonnet. To be honest, it doesn't handle much like Windows, more like my old Palm but a heck of a lot faster.

      So, yes, I don't like Windows much at all but I'm forced to use it and yes I really like my PocketPC and wouldn't give it up for any other device right now. I'm pretty baffled why anyone would want to remove a decent pen-optimised GUI that they've paid for and replace it with... a decent pen-optimised GUI with questions about support. If you're hating Windows as a religion then fine, but sometimes tarring everything with the same brush because of its name and source has its disadvantages, especially when you're looking for a solution to a problem...

  3. Java on iPAQ by BeerMilkshake · · Score: 2, Interesting

    We are doing a project in Java and the target is the iPAQ with Windoze. We found a commercial JVM that supports javacomm and Swing, though we are experiencing flaky behaviour.

    I am not sure if it is the O/S or the JVM, but our code seems to work fine on Win2K.

    Has anyone out there had good results getting the full JVM (1.4) working under Linux on this device? Should we switch?