Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ask Slashdot: Handheld Linux, Today?

Posted by Cliff on from the this-ain't-your-father's-pocket-slide-rule dept.

Jesse Montrose asks: "I'd like to find out what others are doing about the urge to carry Linux around. I currenly live in Linux on a Thinkpad 560, but it's something of a commitment to bring along with me. Linux on a Psion series5 is exciting, and I'll keep an eye on their progress, a 340MB CFFlash would hold a nice text-only distribution. The various mini-laptops are also interesting, if weak on battery life (ie the Libretto, IBM's PC110, and the sexy new VAIO PCG-C1 which is due in the US around March 15). There are a lot of active projects, but is anyone using a handheld Linux solution right now that they recommend?" nthomas isn't so picky. All he wants is a "handheld...in the $500-$1300 range". What say you all?

8 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. PocketBSD by mustapha · · Score: 2

    yeah, FreeBSD for NEC MobileGear, built by japanese, it has to be cool (tm) ;)

    http://www02.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/ca2/takemura/

    takemura-san's webpage is mostly in japanese, but enjoy the pictures!

    mustapha

  2. Libretto by Tet · · Score: 2
    I've been running Linux on a Libretto 50CT, since they were first released in the UK (nearly 2 years ago). I've been extremely happy with it so far. The only real problem has been the size of the hard drive (the 50CT only came with 810MB). However, I've since found a supplier of larger drives (up to 4GB), and the newer models all come with bigger drives anyway. I haven't found battery life to be a problem (I get about 2.5 - 3 hours from the standard battery, and a friend with the larger battery reports nearly 5 hours).

    The 50CT will do 640x480, and some of the newer models (100CT and 110CT) will do 800x480. Both can do 1024x768 (or higher?) on an external monitor.

    --
    "The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
  3. Linux on the PCG-C1X by Bookwyrm · · Score: 2
    I recently purchased a Sony VAIO PCG-C1X and installed Linux on it. A more detailed report of my experiences can be found http://www.solluna.org/~bookwyrm/pcg- c1x.html.

    The machine is pretty nice. The keyboard is fairly large, considering, and the feel is acceptable. The 1024x480 provides a fair amount of screen space, if oddly shaped. With a few utilities added, it takes the place of a low-end digital camera, a portable music CD player (MP3s), and makes a nice portable development box.

    The base box is a pretty penny right now (~$2300) though that will probably drop over time. I was looking at a Libretto, but decided to go for broke (sic.) All of the built-in hardware (except for the camera -- still looking at that) appears to be supported just fine under Linux.

    I think I prefer the 1024x480 screen resolution over 800x600. I can fit two Xterms comfortably side by side in 1024x480, which is harder to do in 800x600.

    The technology is certainly interesting to watch. The PCG-C1X strikes me as being almost a concept laptop that snuck out into production. Give it five years, and you could have a laptop with built-in DVD, 5 hours of useful battery life, a better built-in camera, and wireless connectivity. Phone, video-condferencing, music, movies, digital photography, word processing, software development, etc. all in a hand held box. The social/cultural changes from that could be interesting.

  4. The crap I carry... Cell phone, GPS, REX, Rio... by drewpt · · Score: 2

    I haven't looked at the specs on the Qualcom PDQ, but it's a phone with a built in Palm Pilot. Since I work in the Car Navigation industry, I've experimented a lot with GPS on a Palm Pilot. There are many devices that can easily be connected to the Palm Pilot. This phone looks like a step in the right direction for you.

  5. Generalisations don't work... by Cato · · Score: 2

    As always, generalisations are dangerous - no doubt many hand held users use them just as appliances, but quite a few load them up with lots of shareware and write their own small apps (as I have done in Pocket C).

    It's a question of whether you need the power of Linux on a handheld or not - if you develop on Linux, go for it, but if you just need address/calendar/notes etc, something like a Pilot or a Psion is cheaper and gets the job done quicker, compared to a more general purpose platform like Linux.

    I've got nothing against Linux but I don't have enough of a desire to carry it in my shirt pocket, though of course it does run on a PalmPilot and I now have a 4MB Palm IIIx, so I could do ... really I need VMware for the Palm platform so I can hypervise PalmOS and Linux, or at least run xcopilot under Linux on the Palm...

  6. Dev for pilots on Linux by mitch · · Score: 2

    I just tried this out last week. xcopilot, pilot-link and the pilot dev tools are great. Here is a screenshot of my very first app... http://blevins.simplenet.com/bean.jpg Or you can download the actual app here: http://blevins.simplenet.com/bean.zip

  7. I carry linux every day by Lumpy · · Score: 2

    I dont do hand-held... that is for the technologically impared, I wear linux. My wearable computer is with me 18 hours a day, running linux faithfully and doing all i need. I admit i wish the Head mounted display was better but this is only the 20th century and technology versus affordable (Read: less than $5000.00) isnt there yet so I use X windows at 640x480 with huge fonts (No HMD is available that will actually do 640x480 most are 320x200 that are under $3000.00 and are B&W) a wearable can be built for about $2000.00 or purchased from Xyberaut for about $6000.00 less the display. If you want bleeding edge technology you have to pay through the nose till it hurts, if you want last decades technology you can use windows CE.

    BTW: the PalmIII is the only real hand held computer with the super fast dragon-ball processor... and there is a linux port in the works! (A dirty rumor i heard)

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  8. Windows CE hardware for Linux by jetson123 · · Score: 2
    I think the Jupiter-class Windows CE hardware could be pretty good for running Linux. The machines are generally more powerful than, say, the Pilot, and they have around 10h of battery life. Some CE machines come with MIPS processors. In fact, it's kind of amazing to me how poorly the Windows CE software runs on such powerful hardware.

    A usable portable Linux system should fit into 20M of flash memory, but you can get around 150M now in Compact Flash cards, which should make a pretty good distribution (including a small X windows installation).

    Of course, the Pilot-like CE hardware is pretty good, too. But for any Pilot-like device, Linux kind of lacks the applications.

    Still, since nothing like that exists yet, I just bought an Omnibook 800. You may be able to still find one for around $700. They have 166MHz MMX Pentiums, weight 4 pounds, and are smaller than most notebooks. But the battery life is pretty limited.

    In the long term, I'm actually more interested in handhelds and lightweight portables that run PersonalJava--if I'm going to write GUI apps for a portable, I'd like to do it in a language and environment that makes it easy, and Java is a good compromise between power and simplicity for GUI apps in my experience. And once I write to Java, it doesn't matter much to me whether there is Linux or some other OS underneath it.