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Psion May Look To Linux For The Next Big Thing
An anonymous reader points out this "interesting interview with Psion founder Dr David Potter. It explores the reasons why Psion sold their share in Symbian to Nokia and why Potter believes that there is good future for Linux on "compact" notebooks and the like. Guy Kewney is a very well respected commentator on technology, he's been doing for a long time and I've always found his insights to be pretty spot on.
"
They do Handhelds, right? I want a FreeBSD handheld. Cute mascot, established ports system, lots of support; FreeBSD has everything! :)
... just ignore me ...)
(Okay, I'm trolling
Features - Psion looks past Windows to Linux as Nkia buys Symbian
By Guy Kewney Posted on 09/02/2004 at 23:40
Ignore the comments about the value of Psion shares: concentrate on what Psion is going to do with all the money it got from selling its interest in Symbian. The answer is probably: "Linux portables" but we'll find out later this year for sure.
Guy Kewney
The problem with Symbian, for Psion, is very simple: wireless. Too much of it.
Symbian is the property of Nokia - and (to a lesser extent) three other phone makers, Panasonic, Siemens, and Sony Ericsson - and Psion thinks there's more to life than phones.
Exactly how much more, is something for which there are only clues right now. But the clues are pretty clear. First, we know what Psion Teklogix is actually doing already. And second, we know what Psion founder, Dr David Potter, is enthusiastic about.
"We weren't in control of Symbian," Potter told me. "But it is true in business, you have to focus; and Symbian's focus was wireless. We didn't control Symbian: we had a major stake, we had been powerful in directing the conduct of the company." The question is, where would Psion want Symbian to go in future?
Look at Teklogix. It makes a portable notebook PC. Nobody actually seems capable of believing it; but this PC runs Windows, not EPOC. EPOC, famously explained as "Eat Plenty Of Carrots" (with a straight face!) by Potter when it was first launched on the Series 5 hand-held, was a real-time OS which gave rise to Symbian. Has Potter given up on Symbian? Not at all! - he has a huge stake in its success.
But he has given up on taking it into computing. And instead, he's dreaming of Linux.
The Netbook Pro looks like an ordinary Windows notebook...
This isn't a secret. The hint is hidden in plain sight in today's official statement: "Future strategy: Broadening markets using existing products," it says.
And it goes on: "Psion Teklogix can leverage its global sales and support capability to expand into complementary markets such as field service and the mobile professional worker segment. The Netbook Pro with Windows CE, aimed at corporate users, was launched last August, and many units have been shipped for pilot trials from which feedback is encouraging. Additionally, there are positive results from a viability study of Netbook with Linux for professional users with specialist applications."
Potter: "We have some interesting developments and projects, which have filled out in terms of the research we've been doing. We believe there is an opportunity there! - we see it as going way beyond Microsoft, being much wider than that. We see Linux as being very interesting, not only in terms of technology, but also in market dynamics; lots of companies want to move in that sort of area when they buy equipment these days."
The key to Psion's involvement in Windows CE, is simply that it's a much more compact, responsive, and more mobile environment than Windows XP. And Linux, they think, is even more so. The irony, of course, is that when Motorola pulled out of Symbian late last year one of the reasons it gave was its desire to launch a Linux phone. But Psion won't - actually, can't - compete with Symbian in phones. Instead, it sees the value of Linux as giving the world a smaller, more reliable and more portable personal computer.
David Potter
The hand-held market right now is in the doldrums. "When Microsoft first said they'd blow us out of the water was 1990," reminisced Potter. "It's gone through many morphings, with Winpads and so on; but they haven't really understood the market a hundred percent. Even today, they don't understand that the cellphone industry is predominantly a consumer market."
Potter reckons the typical corporate executives - buyers of PDAs, of course - account for 5% to 6% of the world market. "That's why Microsoft haven't had traction. They're learning, and may be they will learn what it's about, but it's amazing how long
Beware the psychokinetic mimes!
That other Canopy company has a very nice small-system interface an application toolkit available for Linux. In fact, a certain top-selling Japanese PDA is based on it.
Linux + QTopia would certainly be better than, say, BREW. I hope it takes off.
Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
...on Sourceforge here, screenshots here.
The mailing list seems pretty active, which is usually a good sign...
The Army reading list
I hope SCO doesn't sue me if I buy one of these portables or a cell phone!
But seriously, this would be a really good thing for Linux, not just because it gives more exposure, but because it adds another element to SCO's already faltering legal practices. I mean... if Linux devices become very common, who will they sue? Everyone?
Psion has real, studied experience at making handheld products. If they were to sit down with Linux and attempt to adapt it to a product appropriate for handhelds-- meaning in an APPROPRIATE USABILITY sense, not meaning in a "uhh X will start on it" sense-- the result would be an extremely valuable asset from the perspective of the Linux community.
-- Super Ugly Ultraman
Heres my take,
80's = PC Boom
90's = Internet Boom
00's = Linux/Information wants to be free Boom
It's because, Linux is not simply a matter of choosing apples vs oranges - it is actually a superior paradigm, and it can compete like one, and changes the society and the marketplace like one. It is only a metter of time.
Psion blew it when they got out of the handheld market. And they blew it totally when they gave up Symbian.
Linux is often touted as the "next big thing" for handhelds, but it isn't, and it shouldn't be. For handhelds you want and need simplicity like the old Psion handhelds and the PalmOS based devices. You can dress Linux up all you want, but at the end of the day, you're running Linux.
I have both a Zaurus and a Revo Plus. When I got the Zaurus, I put the Revo into storage figuring the Zaurus would take over it's functions. I gave it a good go, but 6 months later I was forced to give up and switch back to the Revo.
Why? The revo can go weeks on a charge. The revo can go 12 hours or so without the battery draining. It has a great agenda appliction, a good address book, a good email program, it can do Word and Excel. It syncs. The Zaurus had a bunch of subpar applications (and I'm being generous there) and things never really improved. Sure it could play MP3s and had a great screen, but that doesn't mean anything when it loses appointments and your email program scrolls thru big emails at the rate of a line every 3 seconds.
Maybe if Psion starts using Linux they'll improve some of the PIM applications. It's a shame to reinvent the wheel when you had a really simple and robust OS in the first place.
Except for the price, the NetBook is the perfect device profile for a student. Instant on, low OS overhead (EPOC)... What was missing was the connectivity, and as the article states, a good middleware binding solution. Linux is really going to make inroads into this product category, as well as mobile devices. IMHO however, the ultimate device is going to be smaller than a handheld and slightly larger than a cell phone, and provide "desking" or terminal capabilities when the user is near a workstation. Perhaps flexible screen technology will make this type of product viable.
The combination of three factors makes this reasonably to see...
First is the £0 per unit licensing fee. A great thing for any manufacturer.
Second is that existing interfaces combine flexibility of use with a good mobile usability. Current versions of Qtopia rival Palm's interface and are miles ahead of PocketPC on ease of use, whilst they have a parity of features with PocketPC and are miles ahead of Palm. The API they have is unbeatable for pocket devices.
Thirdly is that Linux is fairly well suited to low power environments already, with a fair bit of work done in the embedded space. It already runs on PPC and ARM chips for example.
Sure, the PIM apps are at best basic (although adequate for me) - but Palm knows how PIM apps work and can afford more than a few developers.
Syncing is also a non-issue, as people seem happy enough to plug in whatever software that comes with the device (ala palm handhelds) and of course with a little effort (USB mass storage support for the device to write directly to the internal storage or cards from any modern Win, Mac or Linux box) no drivers would be needed for most tasks.
Beep beep.
Back in the 90s, Psion pulled out of mainstream PDAs because they said they "only" had 14% share. These days, that's 14% share of a damned big market including Smartphones. IMHO Psion have not got the balls to be in business because they keep pulling out of every field they're any good at. Luckily for them, the Teklogix business is a bit of a cash cow but it's hardly mainstream stuff.
Never email donotemail@WeAreSpammers.com
that it would run Linux on a Crusoe CPU.
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I can only hope that they update/bring back the Psion 5 series form factor. I still use, and love, my Psion 5mx every single day. IMO, the Psion design represents a near-optimium compromise for a handheld machine: usable keyboard, large display, high portability, and reasonable connectivity/expansion.
But, above all, the old Psions have outstanding battery life. If anything, the 5mx got more battery life than the original 5, despite a 2X boost in both RAM and clock speed. I routinely get more than 30 hours of actual usuable on-time. This means I can take the thing on any business trip without worrying about batteries. And the fact that it uses standard AAs means I can replace the batteries anywhere anytime (no looking for an outlet, carrying a wallwart, getting international adapter plugs, or worrying about declining recharge life as the PDA ages). So even if I had to worry about batteries, I don't have to worry about batteries.
I hate hate hate the fact that all the "newer" and "more advanced" PDAs have a no usuable keyabord and horrible battery life. Technology is supposed to improve!
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
It has been clear since the late 1990's that Linux in its many variations represents the future of the operating system as a technology.
There is of course a huge vested interest in trying to delay and/or stop this process, but it is - obviously, to me - already unstoppable. We are watching the elimination of all incompatible operating systems one by one, much as we watched TCP/IP eliminate a slew of different network protocols in the 1980's and 90's.
Linux is portable and can quickly operate any new system out there. Any vendor using Linux thus has access to a pool of applications that is already large, and growing.
Linux is stable so that applications built 10 years ago still run easily. If I can run Apache on my PDA it's not because someone sweated blood and tears to strip the code down. It's because the OS has done its job.
Linux is open, meaning that no single group can divert it into suboptimal directions. We all know how commercial interests often conflict with basic operational efficiency. Free of these conflicts, Linux is already incredibly plastic, and becoming more so. Beowulf. Knoppix. Technologies made by one or two people, able to change the basic rules of computing. Impossible with a commercial OS but natural with Linux.
Linux has, in essence, demonstrated that the "operating system" as a problem has been solved, and well solved. People will still pay for their OS software for a long time to come, but now it is down to attrition. Windows will conquer no new platforms, not a single one. Linux will take them all, one way or another.
So, Linux for hand-helds (and BTW, I deeply covet those Psion Netbooks) makes perfect sense, but not because of anything to do with the handheld format. Linux makes sense for the hand-held for the same reason that TCP/IP makes sense for the hand-held. How else are you going to do business in the 21st century?
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Many manufacturers of small mobile computers have a look into Linux. There are different reasons, to do so: first of all reduction of developement and license costs, then flexibility, standards, portability and more. See TuxMobil for a survey of Linux on laptops, notebooks, PDAs, handhelds, TabletPCs, mobile cell phones, watches, ... Though often their announcements are nothing more than vaporware, to generate some marketing without any advertising costs, e.g. different laptop manufacturers have done so.
I carry a Zaurus 5500 (which needs to be charged every 5 minutes). It runs linux. That was part of why I liked it. But more, Mom would never KNOW it runs linux. And that's good. Especially on handhelds, its about the apps. Whether it's on Palm or Psion or the Z, bad apps make the thing useless.
So how did Psion blow it?
Well, if you wanted to develop (beyond the scripting language), you had to give Psion lots of money for the devel package. It was defended on the boards: "They have a right to make money" blah blah blah.
The PALM came out and dev tools were RIGHT THERE. For free. Sure if you wanted an IDE, you'd blow <US$70 on the stuff to plug into your dev env. But you could right binaries for it without that, you could EMULATE the psion on Mac, PC and several *nix's.
That, combined with no brainer syncing helped the Palm take off. First, hundreds of useful utilities appeared for free. Harmful to 3com? Well ... no. They sell hardware. Hardware is more useful when more people have them and develop for them. Fancy apps don't generally come out of OpenSource, so there was a market. But handy util's (mileage trackers, shopping lists, etc) appeared instantly.
Contrast with Psion
Sure, I can sync it: how many extra software packages and cables (different for each Psion) do I own to backup the bastard? How many variations on small proprietary storage devices?
Sure I can get programs for it.
On cards (only 2 in the machine at a time). Which were often ok, not great. But they were too often islands. I know 3 people who ever had Psions. And I'm a geek. I know about 100 people with Palms these days.
What do I miss in the Zaurus?
I loved that I could press the PHONE button on the psion and it would emit touch tone. I made a call when visiting mom. Looked up the number, held it to the phone and pressed DIAL. Mom looked up at the sound and, after a couple seconds realized what I'd done. "God, that's so lazy..." Sure,,but I never misdialed numbers and it worked for my answering machine when NYNEX was disabling touch tones after the call went through on their payphones.
I miss the battery life.
I don't miss that the free software was mediocre and that the pay software was also not stellar (for lots of money).
I don't miss buying cards for that one model.
CF's boot a couple computers, feed the zaurus and work the camera.
BSD? Linux? who cares? :)
You don't buy it for the OS (though ssh'ing to it is killer). OPEN SOURCE is good. It means that people can use and extend it. Try that with VxWorks or Wince.
For flamebait, I find that most BSD developed software runs on any unix, but not so with too much software developed on Linux. That's not a reflection on the kernel/OS, but more a reflection on the professional maturity of the developers. There aren't that many fresh faced newbies that find BSD first. (but it's dead anyway and has been for 15 years
My question is what does this mean to Symbian. The alliance to prevent Microsoft from controlling the operating systems of future mobile phones seems to have vanished now that Symbian is becoming a subsidiary of Nokia. How come the other big mobile phone manufacturers were not interested in buying Psion's Symbian shares? I would think that Nokia wouldn't have bought the shares unless it absolutely had to. Must be hard now to convince other mobile phone manufacturers that Symbian OS does not favour Nokia over other companies. Does this mean that the chances to see Microsoft OS in my next mobile phone have increased?
Then perhaps Linux zealots can then settle down and perhaps stop being zealots.
Is there anything in the post which is Insightful? He's just rehashing what everyone has been exposed to here already.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
Badly. I posted on the subject just the other day:
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http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=96128&cid=8
Psion on the other hand produced fantastic operating systems and understood exactly how a small device user interface should work. They could build a truly decent interface and set of applications onto a Linux base.
Linux + Psion could be fantastic. I'd certainly be willing to give it a go.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
In my opinion there is no question whatsoever that Linux is the dominant operating system in the realm of embedded to small-functional computer systems.
PC's, yes, the kind you have to be able to plug thins into, no question that Microsoft has that realm. Same for business.
But, cheap, small, ubiquitous computing is happening. Linux runs on more architectures than almost any other operating system. Thats a vmlinuz for tons of cpu options, and once you've got that, you've got a mad universe of playthings to put into your small, cheap, affordable device.
Linux is what is going to remind us all that computer systems design and application, are utterly arbitrary activities. We can put linux in anything now, at this point, openly and creatively, in ways which definitely do not imply a desktop computing metaphor.
The desktop war has been won, but a new one is being waged, and it is The Device.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
I've been putting Linux on small systems for a while, now. Generally, it means rolling my own kernel with uClibc and using BuildBox. A company could start building a good, stable distro for compact notebooks and handhelds (yes, I know there's Linux on handhelds already...) and make a killing selling it to OEMs.
:-)
Anyone want to start one? I'd go after it.
Why the favourtism towards Linux?
It's not about favouritism but about choosing standards. This happens a lot in computing, as in other fields. In early days, lots of inventions, many excellent. As time goes on, problems that were once considered "complex" become banal. Products that commanded a premium start to become commodities. The products that move along this curve the fastest - which become commoditized the fastest - succeed and drive out the others.
Each field is different but the winners of such races generally respect certain rules. First, they don't play favourites. A monopoly, even a well-protected one, can only sustain itself so long before it kills its own market. Look at state monopolies on post and telecoms. Secondly, winning products need to be accessible so that they build up a critical mass of popularity and knowledge.
Lastly, winning products have to have a flexibility that lets them capture new markets faster than other products.
To take the example of an earlier comment, the internal combustion engine, though less fuel-efficient than some alternatives, was easy to 'hack', robust on poor road conditions, and open to all to build. Other designs were patented, broke down on rough terrain, or needed more expertise to maintain.
Linux has the critical mass and frankly is much, much more accessible than - for instance - BSD. Pop in your LindowsOS or Xandros CD and 15 minutes later, you have a running Linux. Pop in a Knoppix and it only takes 2 minutes.
Like all standards, it does not matter which one is chosen, rather that there is a standard.
We will, within only a few years, look back at the OS wars and wonder, WTF, why all the fuss?? Like I said before, think of TCP/IP... would you prefer token ring on your PC today?
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Some of you are missing some key points. Battery life has nothing to do with Symbian. 1. It's a pain to develop for Symbian. I hate to say it but .NET is easier. GCC is easier. Almost anything is easier then Symbian.
2. The head of Symbian is saying that they own the portable OS space. That they have a 2 year lead on Microsoft. Well, the 'computer world' landscape is littered with folks that didn't change and adapt FAST to avoid the Microsoft juggernaut. I don't see Symbian doing anything to fix that.
3. Information on Symbian is sparse and wanting. Symbian charges a $$$$ to go to one of their classes. There are only 2 books for writing C++ to mobile handsets. I don't know of anything for the Psion.
4. Nokia is making phones and Psion is making portable devices... maybe the two device will met in some ephihany device in the future. BUT for now the only thing close is a Treo.
Dr. Potter is right to change. Linux takes care of all this.
1. easy to develop on
2. Linux is gaining ground on Microsoft
3. Tons of information on Linux and help everywhere.
4. By choosing Linux, Psion gets a development solution for everyone's tastes. Lots of programs developed for it. Plus, they avoid having to go through any hoops that Symbian or Nokia creates, to serve their needs.
The folks at Symbian/Nokia need to wake-up and start address their problems, FAST! The juggernaut is right behind them!
I still use my 'ancient' Series 5 for working on the move because A: it fits in a pocket; B: I can touch-type on it; C: it uses two AA batteries that last for ages; D: I can pull out the flash card and drop files straight onto my Mac; E: it has a decent programming language (OPL) built in; F: it's been pretty rugged so far, going around the world with me; G: the built-in office package is solid enough for most tasks. Every time I see a co-worker pecking away at a PDA trying to enter text with a stylus, it makes me wonder what they can accomplish there that a 50p notebook and pen couldn't.
But then, that's the British technology story all over. We come up with great and novel ideas, then botch the actual selling of them and allow everyone else to take over. I shouldn't be surprised by it any more.
You must think in Russian.