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Why Open Source Makes Sense For Handhelds
Guylhem writes "Are you still wondering why you should prefer an handheld running free software over one running Palm OS or Windows CE? Here's a short article to explain the main reasons you should consider.
The most important are sustainability and freedom: you don't want your applications to break when you update your handheld OS or hardware, and you certainly want to decide what *you* may do with your data. Palm and Pocket PC's DRM protected and obscure formats stand in your way. That's another good reason to prefer free software: you have the source code so you can develop plug ins to read such obscure formats. Even better - you can stick to standards formats such as divx which are poorly supported on handhelds running proprietary software." On the topic of handhelds, tanmay submits brighthand.com's small chart of some upcoming handhelds and smart phones that may be launched in the coming months.
This is slashdot...don't we all already think opensource is right for handhelds?
DivX is THE standard for pirated movies.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Yeah Open Source is the ticket. Why would you want to be able to choose from some 17,000 PalmOS apps? Too many software choices, it's overwhelming! And PalmOS apps are designed for PalmOS. Why would you want purpose-designed handheld apps when you can get ports of apps designed for a 19" monitor? That's what scrollbars are for anyhow.
That's the worst table I've ever seen.
> The most important are sustainability and
> freedom...
Are you sure Kofi Annan didn't submit this?
Because most of the people reading this site read 'Free software' as shorthand for 'free as in speech'. Not free as in beer.
I just realised you're a troll, but never mind. Bah. Well done. I was mildly annoyed for a minute there. Well done. I'm still narked some idiot modded this, though. Bah.
[FUCK BETA]
You obviously have not tried a modern cell phone lately have you?
Everytime I borrow someones cell phone, I need them to show me how to dial out.
Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life
You say that taking notes should be braindead simple, but take a look at Graphiti, the old Palm standard for text input. Graphiti is far from braindead simple. Who thinks to make a lower case alpha to form a 'K'. I know I don't. But, if one spends a bit of time learning the system, it becomes second nature. Linux based PDAs may not seem brain dead simple at first, but I'm sure they'll seem that way to you after a while.
Yes, lets do.
I guess this story is true. It explains why the Palm and the Pocket PC have had no luck with sales, and the Zaurus has done so well. /sarcasm
People want something that is easy to use, has lots of add of parts (camera, CF readers, network cards), and runs the software they want.
I don't see any reason anyone should buy an OSS handheld, unless they hate MS and Palm that much, or are going to port some of their apps to the device.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."