Ask Slashdot: Palmtop Computing And Linux

A couple of folks have submitted questions about Palmtops (not PalmPilots) and getting them to work with Linux. Now I'm not exactly sure how well Linux works with the variety of these units, but I would be interested to know which ones you all think work the best. If a specific model isn't supported under Linux, what would be involved in getting it supported? Click below for the actual questions.

Uart asks: "I am really interested in buying a Psion palmtop, however, I spend almost 90% of my time using Linux and I would want to be able to transfer files to and from the palmtop and desktop computers, as well as syncronizing it with a calendar/address book application. Is this possible under Linux, or is the Psion windows only?"

And Alternate Personality submitted this one: "Being one of them busy college students I carry a Philips Velo1 w/ Windows CE(v. 1.1) machine around with me so i can type up papers or jott down some quick code between classes. But, using Linux I'm at a loss. I have to keep the cradle on my girlfriend's windows box then transfer my paper to disk, because there is no support for such a device under linux, at least as far as i know. Can someone point me in the write direction on how to get this working. Either with existing software OR how to communicate with the device so i can write my own? "

Comments

libretto

[belial]

I have a libretto, there are a ton of resources.
check : http://www.cerfnet.com/~adorable/libretto.html


I highly recommend it.
installing linux was a snap.

http://www.gawth.com/belial/libretto.html

Kudos to Psion for Support

[eGabriel]

Psion has apparently been quite helpful in getting
the kernel to run on their palmtop, and made
their information available to developers. Even if the kernel isn't 100% yet, it will be.

I was looking at palmtops and pdas, and was going to buy one tomorrow. After visiting the Calcaria page, I decided to order one from buy.com tonight.

Psion 5 and 5mx + Linux

[Brent Nordquist]

Someone else already pointed out p3nfs that makes the Psion an NFS server, across the serial link to your Linux box. I use it for backups, and it works great. You can also move text and HTML files to the Psion, which can read them with no conversion.

Conversion of the Psion file formats, and synchronization to off-palmtop applications, is the sticky point. Psion supports this only through PsiWin under Windows; the list of apps it works with is impressive, but it's only Windows (not even Mac).

The point that people often miss is that, while the PalmPilot etc. are really designed to extend your PC's data (a PDA), the Psion etc. are really computers in their own right. I do almost everything right on the Psion itself (you can even develop OPL software right on it); so as long as I have a Linux backup solution, I don't really need anything else.

But if conversion/synchronization is a concern, check out psiconv (you can find it on freshmeat) which is an effort to reverse-engineer the file formats to convert them to open formats. Psion Word to HTML has been done already.

I am very happy with my Psion 5. The 5mx is worth checking out; same great palmtop, but 2x faster, 2x the memory (16MB), and has a Java JVM built in. Actually, ANY device (Ericsson, etc.) that runs Symbian's EPOC is worth checking out! It's a very impressive, tight, responsive, multi-threaded operating system.
--

Re:Linux on the Psion 5...

[Uart]

(Wow, my question actually got posted!)

Yes, i heard about that, but its far from where I would need it to be, at the moment anyway.

Since asking slashdot, I discovered a neet little gem, its not quite exacly, what i was looking for, but it is close, you can find it here, It allows you to transfer files between systems. Which would at least allow me to get some work done, but heres a question, what formats do Psion's Spreadsheet/Wordprocessor/everything else use? are they standard formats?

linuxce.org

[beppu]

There are some people who want to liberate WinCE devices. Check them out at: LinuxCE.org

Linux on the Psion 5...

[Trumpet]

Well, maybe in a totally unrelated but still midly similar way, I remember checking out some information at http://www.calcaria.net/ about getting Linux to run on the Psion 5's. Sounds like the perfect solution to me - why develop sync utilities when you can just run your favorite Linux scheduling software on your palmtop? :) [Unless that software doesn't exist yet...] (And of course I know that the Linux7k kernel is far from being totally complete, and I'm sure most of your favorite console apps haven't been ported yet, but hey - That's why you hack away at code, right?)

--Chris

it does use tcp/ip

[iserlohn]

Try this link
http://home.utah-inter.net/clalor/lin ux_ce.html
All you wanted to know getting those wince thingymijigs working under 'nix.

Re:Psion 5 port webpage

[sgml4kids]

I saw the presentation/demo of the linux port
to the Psion 5 at the Ottawa Linux Symp. It's far from stable but it's working! It was the most memorable part of the show. The presenter even
ran Perl on the Psion (about 2.5 secs to print
"hello world"). They have no X server yet but the fbcons is working well. He said X client should work now (to display on a remote server) but that he's not installed the Xlibs to test it. They even have gcc running *on* the psion.

All in all it's a pretty impressive result for 1 year's worth of labour.

Speaking of the OLS, was anyone other than me as embarrased for the rebel.com and corel guys as I was? In a crowd of geeks and nerds they stood out as a group of out-of-touch losers. It was hard to watch. It angered me that they cut short Alan
Cox's Q&A to bash Microsoft and show their "cool"
promotional video. It was creepy.

TCP/IP & Windows DUN

[jwang]

I think CE devices use TCP/IP to communicate. The exact data I don't know. The TCP/IP argument is because:

• CE Services on Windows requires that you install Dial-up Networking, the Dial-up Adapter, and Direct Cable Connection
• I haven't been able to use the Dial-up Adapter while my CE device is connected - Windows complains about the device already being in use
• The CE device gets assigned its own IP when connected (try running winipcfg with the device connected)

My 0.02...