OESF Portables Forum

General Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: niv on August 30, 2005, 04:44:15 am

Title: Does It Make Sense Buying A Cheap Pda
Post by: niv on August 30, 2005, 04:44:15 am

Hi,
I got a Zaurus 5500 some months ago for 166$+S&H. It sells at 122$ now. thoght of getting a cheap PDA. then ordered the wifi CF at 26$. then realized 990 mAh is not enogth and ordered a 1800 mHa at 30 Euro. One may buy the Dell X30 at 220$ today. that device has better CPU better display,built-in wifi and BT.
How easy is it to run Linux on a X30?
thinking back, does it make sense to go x30 instead the "cheap" zaurus?

Niv

Title: Does It Make Sense Buying A Cheap Pda
Post by: Snappy on August 30, 2005, 11:58:51 am

I'm with you there about collie vs an X30. With rapidly dropping PPC prices, the X30 is fast becoming very affordable.

Running linux on X30? Not too sure about that.

Title: Does It Make Sense Buying A Cheap Pda
Post by: speculatrix on August 30, 2005, 01:24:45 pm

I think, if you really use the PDA as a PDA, and not as a mobile computing toy/device with some form of data access, the cost of the PDA quickly becomes negligible in proportion to the use of the device for storing important data.

I too considered various WinCE devices as a PDA to load linux, but realised that the Z was the shortest route to something that did the job. I still use my Palm T3 for some PDA usage and games.

Title: Does It Make Sense Buying A Cheap Pda
Post by: Tom61 on August 30, 2005, 02:28:52 pm

Last I checked, the X30 Linux project hadn't gotten very far. Their wiki page: http://www.handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/AximX30 (http://www.handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/AximX30)

I think the X5 is the farthest along of the Dell Axims, with a functional Opie GUI, sound, and touchscreen. However, the project has been stalled for a long time, and lacks important things, like being able to suspend and being able to read from the SD card port.

Some of the iPaqs, and a some Toshiba PDAs have a fully working Famaliar environment, you might want to check up on some of those. http://www.handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/Por...oOtherHandhelds (http://www.handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/PortingToOtherHandhelds)

Title: Does It Make Sense Buying A Cheap Pda
Post by: ev1l on September 04, 2005, 02:00:20 pm

Quote

thinking back, does it make sense to go x30 instead the "cheap" zaurus?

Purely depends on what you plan on doing with it.
On anything else than a Zaurus you're pretty much limited by a shitty linux software stack. Pardon my French, but I'll take the latest and greatest from MS above a semi-functional flash image.
If you want simple PIM functions, get a Palm.