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Full X11-Based Distro For PDAs
omin0us writes "over at http://cacko.zaurususergroup.com, we are working on a Full X11 based Linux distro for the Sharp Zaurus SL-c7x0/860 series of PDAs. The screen has a usable full VGA resolution of 640x480 and the distro uses Openbox/ROX Desktop as its Native WM. But others such as Fluxbox, Afterstep, and XFCE have been compiled for it and run nicely. You will also find a WIDE variety of compiled apps in the Feed on the Cacko website such as a native GCC Compiler, XMMS, Mplayer, prboom, Gimp, Gkrellm, Abiword and numerous others. Many different screenshots of it in action may be found here. This is truly bringing desktop linux to the PDA. Also, another project that has branched from Cacko Linux is Gentoo for Zaurus. This project, at the moment is based on the Cacko X11 environment, but will eventually become a full Gentoo environment. "It can emerge packages, sync, or create Gentoo packages using the -B switch in emerge." This should be an interesting project to watch."
Wouldn't a 4Gb hard disk just like whats in the mini ipod go down a treat in one of these things?
:)
Combine that with wifi (as mentioned by another poster) and at least laptop battery life expectancy and i would instantly order one.
I don't ask much
Is the Linux desktop really the right metaphor for a palmtop device?
Probably not, but is that relevant. Do you think people run X on their Palmtop because they think it makes it a better PDA? I rather expect it's because more because Linux has a vast range of other software that they want to run.
I run Linux on my Psion 5MX - means that I can hack on my personal coding projects on long journeys without having to lug a huge laptop around. I couldn't do that with the Psion's native OS as it just doesn't have the tools.
Eventually we will have the best of both worlds - a decent PDA interface running on top of X. But first you have to get the basics working.
I work at a bank, and own a Zaurus SL-C700. I work full-time in a tech support call center (noon to 11 PM), and am a full-time student. This means when it's late at night, I have plenty of time to work on homework.
For the past two semesters, all of my programming assignments have been written, built, and debugged on the SL-C700. I'd say it takes me perhaps twice as long to type in code, and GCC runs rather slowly. But the hours would otherwise be wasted. I'm not allowed to put Linux or GCC on Bank computers.
Portable GCC is indeed useful.
Rubbish. X is just fine on a platform like this, if you do it properly. Not to mention, with this box running X, I can access countless fleets of Unix machines which are quite happily configured to allow my X session to work.
... its not as bad as those who haven't worked with it recently would make it out to be ...
"Qtopia", being new and exciting, is of course a nice lib to namedrop, but in fact 'porting Qt applications' isn't necessarily a factor when you've already got a standard, open, fully working window system implemented. you can port anything to X.
X works. and
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Could this be used as a remote X terminal? I haven't looked into the prices of these things, so it'd probably be cost-prohibitive (or at least cost-a-lot), but it could be really useful to have access to my main machine's desktop as I walk around the office.