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

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.
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