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Linux PDA Resurfaces in U.S.
An anonymous reader writes "A high-end Linux-based Sharp Zaurus PDA thought to be discontinued in the US is actually available from two sources. The SL-6000L is available from stock from 10East, a seller of vertical market systems for the railroad industry which has established a direct manufacturing relationship with Sharp Japan, it says. The Wi-Fi equipped SL-6000L is also available in single quantities from SDG Systems, which, incidentally, is porting Linux to several PDAs that normally run Windows, including the super-rugged TDS Recon."
It's like finding a species thought to be extinct! Seriously.
We need more linux PDA's period. I still want linux on my ipaQ 4350 I wonder how much I can do with 400MHz processor and wifi. My main problem is that the integrated keyboard isnt supported.
Does it run Linux? ...oh wait
Game! - Where the stick is mightier than the sword!
I own a Zaurus 5500 and have used a 5600, and judging from my use of these two systems, I would not recomend doing much with these PDA's if you want to add much software that does not come with it.
I was overjoyed with the prospect of linux on a PDA and got it, and the build in keypad seemed to be a great asset. Compact flash AND SD card slots made me think that this little thing was a diamond in the rough. But it went downhill. They keypad would sometimes malfunction and require a reboot to get it to work again, package finding for the zaurus is a nightmare, and don't bother trying to find a belt holster for it without getting one custom made.
They are great using for little apointment scheduling, wireless lan sniffing, network diagnosis (what I do with it) and playing the odd game of destroyer, but really, if you are thinking about the wonderful linux stability and versitility, you may have to think again.
also making progress
...twice shy
I love the idea of the sharp zaurus, but the problem I find with them is the lack of support for key things.
A while ago I bought a SL-5500 just to find out that Sharp wasn't going to support it as soon as the 6000 series came out. This irks me because it's still a decent PDA, but I can't get any real upgrades for it now. In essence, I'm stuck running sharp's horribly outdated rom, or one of the openzaurus roms which are habitually buggy, and don't get updated very often.
Another issue I have with sharp is while they're all about Linux on the PDA, they don't seem interested in writing software to sync the PDA with a Linux workstation. This doesn't make any sense to me at all, since the majority of people who would buy a PDA like this probably run Linux or Unix.
Anyhow, Sharp already got $600 CAD out of me once, I don't know if I'll be willing to go through it again.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
The article says that 10East currently has about 1,500 SL-6000Ls in stock, of which 300 and 400 are currently unallocated. It orders about 300 each month, in order to keep reserve stocks on hand.
This amount seems a little low, especially if this slashdot post causes many people to buy them. If slashdotters bought all the ones in stock, would it be the first instance of slashdotting a store? Or have there been others in the past?
What I'd really like is an updated HP100LX or 200LX. I wore mine out. It was the perfect PDA; 2AA batteries, ran DOS (5? 3? forget), you could get Borland Turbo C++ to run on it no problem. Lotus 1-2-3 was in ROM. Even had a seperate numeric keypad, so it was actually useful as a calculator, too.
One of my favorite memories of this calculator was using the wonderful symbolic math package, Derive! in my engineering classes - While the prof was sketching out crude appoximations, I could fire up and get a really nice picture. Symbolic step-by-step reductions were handy for checking homework too.
Had a real keyboard with the beautiful HP signature tactile response. Grey transflective screen didn't need a backlight. I hacked an LED to run off the serial port on mine for night use.
It would be very interesting to see what could be put in the same forum factor and weight these days. I really miss the clamshell design with a real keyboard.
This was "kinda" the form factor that the first WinCE devices had, but they were much bigger and heavier, and worst of all, they only ran WinCE which made them more or less useless for any real work. None had seperate numeric keypads that would make them useful for engineering and scientific work.
A pox on those short-sighted MBA's at HP who ruined a real gem of engineering and turned it into a fond memory.
Saddest of all; my hp48 is starting to die, and the palm T3 emulation is nice, but not the same.
..don't panic
Not true, my friend. The Zaurus PDAs are some of the most flexible PDAs out there today, with a wide variety of software, with everything from SNES emulators to FTP servers. You won't get very far with the default software, however. I recommend installing something like OPIE or Watapon for the 5600. Some of the software is very mature. I hope to see more Linux PDAs in the States. They are all about customization.
If you're looking for a start, try the OE forums. After you get a new OS image on there, you will probably be much more satisfied.
No. They don't actually run Linux software, just Linux.
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
Tiny 300-gram Qtopia Linux-based PDAs with 4GB HDD, 416MHz CPU, 65K-colour 640x480 screen, mini QWERTY keyboard, CF/SD/USB/IrDA and what-else are commonplace in Japan but you can buy them for 800 Euro in North America and Europe if you click here or here or here, and their interface is even translated in English. If you feel like installing your own Linux distribution on this PDA, click here. But you can also install OpenBSD on it, as you can see if you click here.
Roms based on openzaurus with an updated qtopia-2.1.1, that will sync with Linux, Mac OSX and Windows are available for the sl6000, as well as other Zaurus including the a300, from Trolltech's new Qtopia Community web site:
http://www.qtopia.net
-- "Perceptions create reality. By changing your perceptions you change your reality."
Last time I checked people have a definitive list of what they want a PDA to do. As far as they're concerned, it doesn't matter if it's written in Cobol and runs on the same chip as the ZX81 as long as it does what they want. Often this is:
- Syncs nicely with Outlook
- Calendar, contacts, notes and tasks
- Alarms, reminders
- Logical UI
- Ability to see what they have to do soon/today on one screen
- Small, light, good looking, nice screen, long battery life
- Plenty of applications - preferably free (as in at no-cost)
Having Linux on a PDA isn't a big seller to many. We have Linux on phones and people still say "so what?". The magical cost savings that Linux supposidly gives aren't passed onto the customer - at the end of the day, its what runs on top of the OS and what features and functionality it has, not what the OS is.Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
There is plenty of support.
http://www.elsix.org/
http://www.oesf.org/
Support doesn't always have to come directly from a company.
The greatest experience we can have is the mysterious.
- Albert Einstein