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. "

Comments

hmm

[B3ryllium]

They do Handhelds, right? I want a FreeBSD handheld. Cute mascot, established ports system, lots of support; FreeBSD has everything! :)

(Okay, I'm trolling ... just ignore me ...)

Re:hmm

[Ruzty]

As long as the framebuffer/console video support worked properly this wouldn't be a bad idea. I mean to the end user, why would they care if their Unix-alike handheld had a Linux kernel or a BSD kernel?

Functionality is the key, not the license the OS is distributed under.

-Rusty

Re:hmm

[robslimo]

Functionality is the key, not the license the OS is distributed under.

I couldn't agree more. I'd like to go a bit further, though, and say that functionality on a wide variety of handheld and embedded devices also means modularity, even down to the level of the kernel.

I'm not dissing Linux here, but from what I've seen so far, Linux still has a pretty large footprint until you really start hacking (in the machette sense of the word).

The closest I've seen to what I consider ideal is QNX which has a micro-kernel that is inherently modular. Use only what you need and even swap portions in and out at runtime if necessary. However, QNX licensing, last time I checked, was pretty damned steep and the developer seats were outta sight for a small-time developer.

Linux + QTopia

[1010011010]

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.

There's a "Linux for Psion" project...

[tcopeland]

...on Sourceforge here, screenshots here.

The mailing list seems pretty active, which is usually a good sign...

Re:There's a "Linux for Psion" project...

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been a part of this project for 5 years now. There's been very little progress since then, mostly because Psion have steadfastly refused to provide any hardware documentation, or authorize its use in cases where developers have acquired it.

I think this is yet another pipe dream, we'll see.

Please Update Back the 5 Series

[G4from128k]

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!