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The following letter was sent to PC Pro magazine, after they failed to present any Linux-based PDAs in their recent 24 PDA super-test:
Dear Pc Pro Editorial Team,
Your recent PDA Supertest (issue 110, p.129) disappointed me. You didn't mention
any Linux-based PDAs, and the models you examined were simply the mainstream
Palm-OS and PocketPC ones. The Linux-based models have so much more to offer
to the computer professional, who is the typical reader of your magazine. I'm sending
this letter hoping to redress the balance.
The small footprint of the Linux kernel, thanks to its well-optimised, stable and
bloat-free code helps it to perform well on the least-powerful of platforms.
Thus, it is ideally suited to a PDA architecture.
A massive amount of free open-source software is available for Linux. One downloads
the source code, tweaks it for the PDA platform, and then compiles the programs
ready for use. These steps aren't trivial, but there are plenty of open-source
coders who publish binary installation packages on the internet. One can download
and install these applications easily.
An example Linux-based PDA is the Sharp Zaurus SL5500 (and 5600, C700, etc).
This PDA has an abundance of free applications available for download.
(See http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus ) There are email, ftp, samba, sql, ssh,
vnc, web servers and clients. It has irc, instant messenger, snmp, and
remote-desktop clients. There are network scanners, wireless lan monitors,
emulators, programming development environments (perl,php,html,xml,java,c++,
etc), gps tools, and all manner of editors, viewers, and readers.
On my Zaurus PDA, I run an ssh server, samba file-sharing, web server, vnc server
and email client as background tasks. I use a wireless network compactflash card
to link me into the home, office, or friends' network and then onto the internet.
I think a better description than a 'PDA' is a Pocket-Server!
I hope my comments have inspired you to be more open-minded in your reviews, and
not just follow the pack! Also it is worth noting that Ipaq users can trash their
PocketPC boot-roms, and install a Linux-based Opie rom over it,
see http://opie.handhelds.org for details. For those interested, a list of Linux
PDAs can be found on http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT8728350077.html
Regards,
Edo.
It looks like they aren't planning to publish my letter, after I couldn't locate it in issue 111.
To their credit, they have previously reviewed the Zaurus SL-5500 favourably.
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