Slashdot Mirror
Linux on Palm
thppt writes "PalmStation is reporting that a company called OSK Inc has ported Linux to the Palm hardware platform; they're dubbing it as a kind of "LinuxCE". They have some screenshots of bootup, running apps, telnetting to the Palm, connecting to the Palm's web server, and multitasking. " They've actually got a WindStone ROM Image for evaluation on their web site. I haven't tried to download it yet, but has anyone else tried this?
OSK did not port Linux to the Palm; they're using the ucLinux kernel. OSK has written a PalmOS compatibility layer (analogous to Wine), which lets you run existing Palm applications as well as Linux apps.
Because some people have the mistaken impression that Linux, like Windows, can be made to fit all roles from tiny little handheld devices to large scale clustered supercomputing. Just because it CAN doesn't mean it is any good at it. Linux on a handheld device is kind of pointless since, like you said, PalmOS does the job much better than Linux ever could. Likewise, if you're really going to build a supercomputer you go to SGI and build a clustered system instead of fscking around with ethernet connections between cubes/nodes. So, basically, people are trying to make Linux into Windows and that is the sad part. NT is excellent for the average user's desktop, Linux is good for advanced unix users and up to mid-range server usage.. workgroup settings, etc. Solaris takes over after that scaling up to near-mainframe level computers, and then you have the dedicated stuff that the average user will never interact with being taken care of by IBM or SGI. I no more want Linux to dominate the desktop and server markets than I want Windows to. Why can't we accept certain OS's have their places and they work best in those places and leave it at that? Use standard, open, interoperable protocols and everyone can talk to everyone without caring what OS they use. That is the OSI 7-layer model!