osted by timothy on Monday July 25, @05:59PM
from the mine-still-works-well dept.
TheAdmin writes "A few years ago the first Linux-based Zaurus, the SL-5500, was released for some $600 by Sharp. Today, it only costs $140 in some places online. This article at TuxTops reviews the 5500 from the point of view of trying to figure out how this model fares against today's PDAs and if it's still a good purchase after all these years, especially at this low price. And so I bought one recently because I needed a full-fledged pocket Linux at my workplace where I work as an admin. I just added a $30 Linksys WCF12 WiFi card (works out of the box after upgrading the SL-5500 ROM to version 3.10) which I use with SSH and by utilizing Zaurus' thumb-board. Works great and it's much more portable than a laptop, especially when all you need is some email and SSH on the go."

Despite the poor battery life and being a bit dated my 5500 is still an awesome tool. After getting my Wifi setup the way I like. I can leave it on the car charger when I get home at night, VNC into it to sync and play and I still have ssh for quick command line stuff