Lycoris Shipping Linux OS For Handhelds

Bill Kendrick writes "According to LinuxDevices.com, it appears Lycoris has put together an OS for handhelds like the iPAQ and Zaurus. It's based on the Open Source OpenZaurus and OPIE projects, so it should look pretty familiar to Linux-on-PDA fans."

Comments

Palm OS's

[Rick and Roll]

Yeah this looks nice. But what I would really like is to have an Open Source Operating System on my cell phone. They already have 640x480 digital cameras on some sleek models. I would like to be able to take a picture with these and have it go into my Photo-Blog. This could be done by sending the image over e-mail (which might be the way I code it anyway) but I don't want to have to enter things in every time.

But putting this on an iPaq would be sweet. I dunno, though, if I shelled out money for a palmtop, I would probably get the Palm model with the expanding screen. That is nice for viewing pictures and stuff.

Re:But still not ready for the desktop eh

[agent dero]

I own the same iPaq, and i'm really excited about this; BUT.

Say the installation screws up, or I don't like it; how could I get Windows CE back on my iPaq? Any takers?

So you want to make a Linux PDA?

[IceFox]

Having worked for Sharp and have stuff in Opie and delt with quite a lot of Linux in the PDA scene. I put together an article in my free time the last few years. Some ideas you may like, some you may disagree with. A few ideas you might not have known about, and many that you probably could list yourself. Without further delay here it is:

http://www.csh.rit.edu/~benjamin/articles/linux_pd a.php

-Benjamin Meyer

Need?

[bluewee]

Do you really need Linux on a PDA? it seems kinda redundant. I do agree it is better to use opensource programs, because you know what is actually going on, but I would bet that the Prop. software that HP, palm, Sony created is just as good, or better(people's jobs depend on how good the software is).

This inspired me to do Opie on iPaq yesterday

[Anonymous Coward]

This Lycoris announcement looked cool so I went out and looked around for similar solutions.

I ended up putting Familiar Linux and the Opie environment on my iPaq 3850 ( I backed up the wince ROM just in case I want to go back ) It looks exactly like the screenshots for Lycoris and I got it for free.

Not only that but I can run almost all the Zaurus software out there and there's plenty (see zaurus software index website and others...) I can get a shell on my iPaq, use the Internet over ppp through my desktop via the iPaq cradle (I don't have any fancy networking h/w for my iPaq) ssh in, use my Compaq microkeyboard, rotate the screen, get a better and crisper display of text, have a media player that supports more formats, use my SD cards (3800 series only) scp files over with no stupid Activesync installation and all that crap, install and remove software with ipkg, update the whole system (which is debian-like) with ipkg update; ipkg upgrade, have a konqueror web browser with multiple magnifications that actually work and look good... etc.

I think Linux unleashes a lot more of the power of my 206mhz iPaq than PPC Windows ever did.

Now if only Opie had A DECENT WORDPROCESSOR THAT WORKED!!!!!!! Someone, please! Something that would read/write Openoffice files would be amazing.

iSync'ability ?

[mirko]

Do this OS support SyncML (in order to be able to iSync it with OSX) ?
I think this could be THE reason I'd buy it.

Why Linux?

[R.Caley]

Maybe I'm missing something, but ISTM that unixoid OSs were not designed for this kind of role. Eg power management is just an afterthough on such systems, and size has never been a high priority.

Same can be said for windoze too of course.

What's the battery life like on one of these things? Psions go for 10s of hours (and run off normal batteries, which is a huge advantage).

Actually, of all the small computers which have come and gone, the only one which really made me go `I want one' was the (now deceased) rex. When my Psion 5 started looking it's age I was tempted to get a very small laptop and a rex. The buggers had stopped making them.