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Royal Linux PDA Finally Coming To Market
An anonymous reader writes "According to LinuxDevices.com: 'After a false start and a delay, Royal appears ready at last to ship its Linux-based PDA, the Linea LX. The Linux LX is now expected to arrive this quarter, priced at $399. The device will be based on a 200MHz Motorola i.MX1 MDragonBall processor equipped with 64MB of SDRAM and 32MB of Flash memory, and will include Trolltech's Qtopia graphical framework and PIM suite.'"
What counts is how fast it feels to the user... not bragging rights for processor speed... such a pity that it's competitors are going to push their clock speed to the fore on spec sheets and the proles aren't really going to notice the real speed.
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
"with Microsoft Outlook synchronization. "
I hope that's not all it sync's with?? I was hoping I could finally have an all-encomposing Linux solution at home, that I could PDA on the road with, but apparently this Linux solution still wants me to have Windows installed at home..
Mod +5 Drunk
I love the idea of more Linux in my life, but the hardware seems a little less than stellar compared to something like an Ipaq for the same money. I believe you can get an Ipaq with a 400mhz Intel X-scale processor for 400 dollars also. Unless this Motorola has some sort of different rating...
I still have my Linux-based 'Agenda' PDA. It's pretty good - although the handwriting recognition is kinda iffy and it's a bit short of CPU power.
It's quite surreal to be able to pop up an Xterm on this tiny box.
It's nice to be able to use NFS via PPP to copy files back and forth to my PC...having that level of general 'stuff' available is a powerful reason for wanting Linux in a PDA.
www.sjbaker.org
try carrying that in your pocket though...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Compare it to say, the h2210.
Maybe Linux PDA users aren't fashion conscious, but if i've paid a small fortune for a PDA, it would be nice if it didn't look like something by Fisher Price.
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Yes, real performance is more important than MHz, but more MHz of the same model usually means more performance.
The Raven
between desktops and laptops/notebooks, too: for a given class of machine (CPU, RAM, HD, display) the laptop would cost significantly more than the desktop.
However, in recent years the gap has narrowed: now a 2.4GHz Celeron laptop with a 14" display can cost under $700. (Scroll down to the Inspiron 1100) The laptop still costs more than the same class desktop, but the gap isn't nearly as wide as it once was.
I believe that - as the PDA/handheld market matures - the price gap will close a bit. There will always be expensive stuff on the high end, but the entry- to mid-level stuff will offer pretty darn good performance.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
Bah, this has the exact specifications of a Zaurus SL-5500. And it looks cheaper and clunkier and the keyboard is some snapon crap. And it's $400! You can pick up SL-5500's these days for cheap.
For the record, I do love my Zaurus. The battery life isn't super, but it lasts about a week or so worth of actual use before I need to charge it (unless I'm in a meeting and need to "take notes"...read: play a game). I don't code on it though, but it's highly beneficial to be able to get in and tweak various scripts to do nifty things (like when cards are inserted).
Anyway, if you're going to spend $400, you can probably get a newer model or an iPAQ and load OpenZaurus/OpenEmbedded (yes, it works on non-Zaurus hardware). You'll probably end up wanting that anyway.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
You can get a dell axim with more memory (and a faster processor, but it doesn't matter how fast it is if the software is inherently slow) and throw linux on it for $200. Pay another hundred or so and you've got wireless built in.
What, exactly, is the upside to this new portable, and is it worth the premium? It seems to me that the extra money is for a supported linux handheld, but is there really going to be much support beyond reflashing the handheld and re-syncing with the computer? If not, is there some other reason to look at this?
-Adam
Just kidding :)
The Truth About Slashdot
Looks like the specs are pretty close to my Zaurus 5500, excepting the fact that my Z has a built-in keyboard as opposed to that snap on thingy (extra $$ ?) and includes a Compact Flash slot. Oh yeah - and I only paid US$190 for my Z a year ago. Sure the processor may be a bit faster, but I really don't see much to justify the price. Also, only one expansion slot means that when you plug an 802.11x card in the SDIO slot you are stuck with the built-in 64MB of SDRAM and 32MB of Flash. Judging from the way I use my Z, that would be severely limiting, especially when you are doing online activities that need to keep logs, like kismet.
\/\/oobie
I owned a Royal DaVinci (the original line of DaVinci's that Royal had out) and was very hurt when the lawsuit with palm (Link - Link - Google Search) because Royal stole code from the PalmOS source and used it in that line of products. While the UI was fairly nice and I liked the Royal Davinci, soon after I received it I found that Royal basically stopped supporting it. It had been a great deal, and I had been hoping to get a lot of use out of it, but software and accessories never made it to market that were supposed to, and Royal was not allowed to continue supporting the device during and after the lawsuit.
It left me as a customer fairly hurt, so it is understandable that I'd be just a bit cautious before spending 400.00 on a product made by Royal. I doubt they'd make such a mistake again... especially if they are using an open-source platform, but I'd still be very cautious, I've lost a lot of faith in them as a company.
[Something witty and intelligent should have appeared here.]
{Traicovn}
Royal Linux Release 2.6 (Vegeta) for DragonBall
Kernel 2.6.1
Login:Goku
Password:********
Then, just name the Email client "Gohan", the Office Suite "Saiyan", and the mp3 player "Android 17" and you'd probably have the market cornered in no time. ;)
I'm as big of a linux fan as the next guy.. I own two Zaurus PDAs. But, I'm not sure why they are releasing this after so much time. I don't see anything about these PDAs that lead me to believe they will succeed.
- Linux OS - some of us find this a compelling feature. But, the Zaurus's have met that relatively small market already.
- Form Factor - it looks rather thick, and not particularly small in any dimension. There are many small/lighter/thinner PDAs to choose from.
- Performance - at 200MHz, it's not bad for a PDA, but there are many others out there that are faster and can do MPEG video.
- Software - Yes, the linux command-line utilities are nice. But, for general PDA apps, there are many better choices than the Linux PDAs.