I'm thinking of replacing my PocketPC and have been looking at Palm OS units, as well as the Zaurus. With my new found love of Linux, the embedded Linux/Java system in the Zaurus sounds interesting. Any experiences with the Zaurus anyone can share? (especially in terms of compatibility with the SuSE Linux desktop, but any other thoughts are appreciated as well) Mark
On Wed, 30 Jun 2004, Creamer, Mark wrote:
I'm thinking of replacing my PocketPC and have been looking at Palm OS units, as well as the Zaurus. With my new found love of Linux, the embedded Linux/Java system in the Zaurus sounds interesting. Any experiences with the Zaurus anyone can share? (especially in terms of compatibility with the SuSE Linux desktop, but any other thoughts are appreciated as well)
My first and most immediate thought is that marking a post with "OT" by no means makes it ok to make that posting. comp.sys.handhelds on Usenet, or one of the general SuSE lists. Bjørn, happy user of Zaurus and SuSE :) -- Bjørn Tore Sund Phone: (+47) 555-84894 Stupidity is like a System administrator Fax: (+47) 555-89672 fractal; universal and Math. Department Mobile: (+47) 918 68075 infinitely repetitive. University of Bergen VIP: 81724 Support: system@mi.uib.no Contact: teknisk@mi.uib.no Direct: bjornts@mi.uib.no
Creamer, Mark wrote:
I'm thinking of replacing my PocketPC and have been looking at Palm OS units, as well as the Zaurus. With my new found love of Linux, the embedded Linux/Java system in the Zaurus sounds interesting. Any experiences with the Zaurus anyone can share? (especially in terms of compatibility with the SuSE Linux desktop, but any other thoughts are appreciated as well)
I have an older version, so take what I say with a grain of salt. I'm not impressed with the zaurus for a few reasons. One, the battery leaks. If it goes dead, the programs you install must be reinstalled. The interface is via windows intellisync, which does not always funcion smoothly. There is a linux program which supposedly syncs as well, but you will have to be more expert and/or determined than I to get it to work. I've been told palms are easy to sync with linux, but have no experience.
Mark
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi Mark: On Wednesday 30 June 2004 07:26, Creamer, Mark wrote:
I'm thinking of replacing my PocketPC and have been looking at Palm OS units, as well as the Zaurus. With my new found love of Linux, the embedded Linux/Java system in the Zaurus sounds interesting. Any experiences with the Zaurus anyone can share? (especially in terms of compatibility with the SuSE Linux desktop, but any other thoughts are appreciated as well)
I have an older Zaurus SL-5500. Here's a rough summary of my experiences, bad news first: Con: * Linux sync support is poor. The Linux version of the QTopia suite never worked satisfactorily for me, and apparently doesn't back up note-pad files. Yuck! * Battery life is short. If you want to run it for extended periods with an ethernet card in place or driving external speakers, get the external power supply. * It is big. Much larger than my previous PDA (Palm Vx). Pro: * It runs linux and it is hack-able. I am running a custom image (Crow) that relocates the file system to an SD card, and frees up all RAM for program use. Disk (?) write performance is a LITTLE slower, but linux knows how to buffer writes. This is a relatively complete environement. You can install gcc, emacs, Python, etc. I have used xmms to listen to music on my server via NFS over 802.11 while working in my yard. * Compact flash AND SD/MMC card slot. Wired and wireless ethernet cards are supported. * It has a proper TCP/IP stack and can ping, telnet, ssh and run a variety of web browsers. * It has a serial port. You can use it as a pocket console for devices that need such things (like routers). * It has a keyboard. Excellent many things. Mine is getting a little old, and I am planning on replacing it with one of the newer clamshell Zaurus models. To summarize: if you only need the classic PDA functions (contact management, schedule) then go with a Palm. They are optimized for this and are very small and light. If you need more power and flexibility, go to the Zaurus. The lack of build in sync capability is relatively easy to overcome if you have an ethernet card and know how to use tar. Myself, since all my data resides on an ext2 formatted SD card, I just pop that into my desktop and back up everything. Hope that helps, - Darrell
Mark
- -- sused@mucus.com "Perfect! ....what am I doing?" -- Washu -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.7 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFA4uMyeo6c0kw6mZ0RAgjoAJoDhT85GppgskXecgzfaSldigPF9wCfcwt/ PRjEx5FLQaC9XyA8Hz0Nh+I= =b16S -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Mark, I wish to second what was said below. Darrell really laid out the pros and cons well. I too have a SL5500 (actually 2 of them, my wife hated hers and went to a palm). The biggest thing to consider is what is your daily intended use for the device. I use it mostly for remote sysadmin functions and minor dayplanner functionality. No other device I have had (all Palms) allowed me to plug into the network and use them for meaninful sysadmin duties (ssh,ftp) I use the wireless card in mine on almost on a daily basis, I recently freaked a client out who came to my house to visit when I showed him I could reboot one of his servers 5 miles away sitting on my back deck with nothing but my Zaurus. But I will say if you want a dayplanner to sync with linux stay away, it is definately more headaches than it is worth to get that to sync right now. If you want to sync it with windoze then it has been fine although a little rough getting it to initially sync with palmdesktop. My personal choice will be to stay with the Zaurus and eventually upgrade to a new Zaurus. Craig Weaver On Wed, 2004-06-30 at 11:58, Darrell Shively wrote:
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Hi Mark:
On Wednesday 30 June 2004 07:26, Creamer, Mark wrote:
I'm thinking of replacing my PocketPC and have been looking at Palm OS units, as well as the Zaurus. With my new found love of Linux, the embedded Linux/Java system in the Zaurus sounds interesting. Any experiences with the Zaurus anyone can share? (especially in terms of compatibility with the SuSE Linux desktop, but any other thoughts are appreciated as well)
I have an older Zaurus SL-5500. Here's a rough summary of my experiences, bad news first:
Con:
* Linux sync support is poor. The Linux version of the QTopia suite never worked satisfactorily for me, and apparently doesn't back up note-pad files. Yuck!
* Battery life is short. If you want to run it for extended periods with an ethernet card in place or driving external speakers, get the external power supply.
* It is big. Much larger than my previous PDA (Palm Vx).
Pro:
* It runs linux and it is hack-able. I am running a custom image (Crow) that relocates the file system to an SD card, and frees up all RAM for program use. Disk (?) write performance is a LITTLE slower, but linux knows how to buffer writes. This is a relatively complete environement. You can install gcc, emacs, Python, etc. I have used xmms to listen to music on my server via NFS over 802.11 while working in my yard.
* Compact flash AND SD/MMC card slot. Wired and wireless ethernet cards are supported.
* It has a proper TCP/IP stack and can ping, telnet, ssh and run a variety of web browsers.
* It has a serial port. You can use it as a pocket console for devices that need such things (like routers).
* It has a keyboard. Excellent many things.
Mine is getting a little old, and I am planning on replacing it with one of the newer clamshell Zaurus models.
To summarize: if you only need the classic PDA functions (contact management, schedule) then go with a Palm. They are optimized for this and are very small and light.
If you need more power and flexibility, go to the Zaurus. The lack of build in sync capability is relatively easy to overcome if you have an ethernet card and know how to use tar. Myself, since all my data resides on an ext2 formatted SD card, I just pop that into my desktop and back up everything.
Hope that helps, - Darrell
Mark
- -- sused@mucus.com "Perfect! ....what am I doing?" -- Washu -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.7 (GNU/Linux)
iD8DBQFA4uMyeo6c0kw6mZ0RAgjoAJoDhT85GppgskXecgzfaSldigPF9wCfcwt/ PRjEx5FLQaC9XyA8Hz0Nh+I= =b16S -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
participants (5)
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Bjorn Tore Sund -
Craig Weaver -
Creamer, Mark -
Darrell Shively -
David Joyner