OESF Portables Forum
General Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: Miami_Bob on September 10, 2004, 06:23:11 am
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Per tblumer in
http://www.zaurus.com/dev/board/index.php?showtopic=7732&hl= (http://www.zaurus.com/dev/board/index.php?showtopic=7732&hl=)
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Posted: Sep 9 2004, 04:52 PM
I am sorry to inform you all that Zaurus DevNet is going away again, this time for good. Sharp wanted me to express to you that they appreciate the support that you have given to the developer site and the Zaurus. The site is planned to go down on 30-September. If you have specific questions, you may send e-mail to helpdesk@zaurus.com.
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Guess this shows us all how much Sharp *really* cares?
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I wonder if there is any hope of archiving the site here. This is one reason why it has bothered me when people of this forum direct others to devnet for a solution.
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they appreciate the support that you have given to the developer site and the Zaurus. The site is planned to go down on 30-September.
Does this mean they not only cancel all developer support end of this month but the Zaurus? (highlight by me)
In that case I would propose to found a non-profit organization (similar to the Blender Foundation http://www.blender3d.com/cms/About.30.0.html (http://www.blender3d.com/cms/About.30.0.html) ) to aquire donations to buy all required hardware and software IPRs from Sharp to develop a new, compatible device and software (e.g. OpenZaurus, pdaXROM). There are a lot of companies in Asia with PDA hardware expertise who can do that, several dealers for devices in all continents and for software there are already some projects (which should be focussed IMHO).
Each of us ZUG users donating 30$ (4000 users) would end up in 120,000$. Isn't that much but could convince other investors.
-- hns
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If it came down to Sharp ditching the Z then I'd throw 30 bucks in definately.
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According to Todd (quoted above), Sharp is offically dumping all US support for Zaurus. They'll sell US Zaurii for a few more months then axe the whole thing. I guess their focus on "enterprise solutions" wasn't all that successful.
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they appreciate the support that you have given to the developer site and the Zaurus. The site is planned to go down on 30-September.
Does this mean they not only cancel all developer support end of this month but the Zaurus? (highlight by me)
I did not read it that way, dhns.
He only said that the DevNet site was going away.
I think the ".. help given .." was meant as thanks to the user community for supporting BOTH the site and the Z & that other attempts at broader interpretations of the meaning would only be taking it out of context and promotion of rumor mongering.
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This from Todd at SDG systems:
Thanks for contacting me. Sharp will have a significant number of units
available for several months, if not longer, but the US Zaurus program
is officially being discontinued. SDG Systems is working with some of
Sharp's other customers as to how to move forward with a Qtopia / Linux
platform. We are trying to move quickly on this situation. I'll keep you
informed.
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they appreciate the support that you have given to the developer site and the Zaurus. The site is planned to go down on 30-September.
Does this mean they not only cancel all developer support end of this month but the Zaurus? (highlight by me)
In that case I would propose to found a non-profit organization (similar to the Blender Foundation http://www.blender3d.com/cms/About.30.0.html (http://www.blender3d.com/cms/About.30.0.html) ) to aquire donations to buy all required hardware and software IPRs from Sharp to develop a new, compatible device and software (e.g. OpenZaurus, pdaXROM). There are a lot of companies in Asia with PDA hardware expertise who can do that, several dealers for devices in all continents and for software there are already some projects (which should be focussed IMHO).
Each of us ZUG users donating 30$ (4000 users) would end up in 120,000$. Isn't that much but could convince other investors.
-- hns
Hi
This is a very good idea. Most of us certainly already have resonable hardware spec in mind.
The bigger problem won't be the hardware but the software. To be more precise, it will be the graphical environnement and graphical applications. The very good Linux Palmtop environnement for everyone is still expected. Having a part of the hardware cost sent to the "Palmtop team" could resolve the issue and motivate an enterprise.
http://www.thefeature.com/article?articlei...048&ref=2934556 (http://www.thefeature.com/article?articleid=101048&ref=2934556)
We are back to the beginning. The fusionned Linux PDA OS effort is still expected by the market.
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This is very sad news, I hope this does not mean that they will axe the Zaurus in Japan.
If they do, there is always the Yopy 3700 (www.gmate.com) which has started to be sold globally, runs X faster than my old 860 and can also run Qtopia 1.7 and all my old Z apps. It won't suit everyone but is an option.. Let's me keep a finger in the Z pie anyway ;-)
Ciao everyone...
F
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Well the Archos AV 500 series media player / pda hybrid also runs Qtopia, not sure what version, and that's going to be global soon, so if you're ok with a keyboardless linux handheld that can also playback and record divx/xvid movies and TV as well as playing back your mp3s and comes with either a 20, 40 or 80gb internal hard disk and a CF slot.........
I'm already saving up.
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Well the Archos AV 500 series media player / pda hybrid also runs Qtopia, not sure what version, and that's going to be global soon, so if you're ok with a keyboardless linux handheld that can also playback and record divx/xvid movies and TV as well as playing back your mp3s and comes with either a 20, 40 or 80gb internal hard disk and a CF slot.........
I'm already saving up.
I could dig that for a media center, if the menu software is good, but not as my daily mission critical cyber better half. Too "borged" to give up an efficient keyboard for any of the less efficient data entry alternatives that I've tried. Now, when they can finally jack me directly in via neural link, maybe then I'll be able to finally shuck the two thumb tango. Till then, YMMV (G).
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Look it up, there are pre release reviews and other reviews of it's predecessor the av 480 and 420.
The idea of ditching my pda and my ipod and being able to carry around a few films too....
And take that on holiday with my digicam and not need my laptop!
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I'll be sad to see all of the info from the devnet gone (or at least inaccessible assuming they are willing to share the db, etc.) as there was a hell of a lot of stuff on there, but what support have Sharp really given us? Spencer was helpful, but that was his doing rather than Sharp's goodwill.
I really can't see that it makes much difference to those of us who already have Zauruses (or Zaurii ;-)
Si
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Hey, quit panicing.
I think if you translate some of the Japanese Sharp sites that you will find that Sharp are actually still supporting the Sharp Mi/Pi series Zaurus - these were way before the Linux devices
There definitely seems to be some committment to support older devices. + I believe embedded Linux is actually quite popular in Japan - bit of a cult thing.
I would wait and see what happens.
- Andy
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The apparent discontinuance of Zaurus distribution in the US isn't good news, but it's not at all the end of the Zaurus platform. I do much of my computing on a C860 and a Vaio U1 -- neither of which has ever been distributed in the US. The Zaurus market in Japan remains strong, and there are more and more international dealers doing English conversions and offering some sort of warranty assistance for Japanese hardware. The size of the Zaurus community will be limited in the short tem, as some will be worried about the conversion or unwilling to buy without stronger warranty support. But if projects such as pdaXrom or some at Open Embedded become as powerful and reliable as they might over the coming year or so, converted Japanese hardware could support a large and growing US and international community. The real end would come if future Zaurus hardware were to be incompatible with the Linux PDA OS's now being developed, which doesn't seem particularly likely for the present.
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There are other Qtopia based PDAs in the works. The Archos device is marketed as a multimedia player, although it will have Qtopia PIM apps as well. Another device we are waiting for is the LineaLX from Royal. There are a few others being worked on for the US markets.
As well, the Zaurus will still be available in the Japanese market.
The future of pda's is mobile smartphones, and there are a few Qtopia Phones being worked on as well.
Hang tight.
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Hey,
at least we got advanced warning this time, maybe sharp do listen to us after all.
Can we get a searchable copy of the database from them, I feel they owe us that much at least.
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The way I see it is that DevNet is going, and *eventually* the Zaurus will no longer be available in the US.. and? the C700, 750, 760 and 860 were not available anywhere outside Japan and it didn't stop people buying them, unless Sharp are going to be really silly and kill the Zaurus completely in Japan - and I cannot see that happening yet - I really cannot see what the panic is, I think people maybe getting a bit excited over nothing. ;-o Sharp here in the UK had dropped the 5500 before I bought one, it didn't stop me, they never introduced (AFAIK) the 5600, 700, 750, 760, 860 or 6000 here, it still didn't stop me buying a 860. I don't think it matters if a product is officially supported in your home country as long as you can get one if you really want it, I've never had to rely on a manufacturer for support on any PDA.
As for the future of the PDA being a phone, well, that's never appealed to me on any level - I have no intention of ever owning a mobile phone, I think there will always be a need for pocket-sized computers which are more than organisers, even if it's by a small minority. :-)
Archive DevNet here on ZUG and move on, that's my view, I never liked it much anyway...
Bye all...
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I've emailed tblumer and sharp about the possibility of me getting a backup of the devnet forums db. The archive that I currently have on the zug isn't searchable. I would really like to re-create a non-postable, yet searchable copy of the devnet, or just import all of the posts into these forums, so there's just one forum to search on. (that was a hidden reason why I wanted to move to this forum software).
Regarding the Foundation thoughts, I think it's a neat idea. I'm currently doing the research and paperwork to make the local LUG I'm involved in a non-profit organization. I would be interested in doing the same or similar for a zaurus organization.
offroadgeek
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I asked Sharp's permission to provide the forum database to ZUG. I don't see why they would not agree. I'll let you know.
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I guess it finally happened. It was definitely a struggle always fighting for the DevNet at Sharp. I always believed that developers were extremely valuable and that they should have been taken care of in a better way. Towards the end of my days at Sharp, it was basically just me trying to manage the entire developer area (due to layoffs in the developer support area)... and always trying to convince the execs eventually wore me out.
In any case, I hope that the ZUG community will continue to strive. I have some fond memories of the DevNet (except for the late nights writing content and testing the site). And I met a lot of great people while at Sharp. But it was time to move on.
If anyone really cares, I'm now at AOL putting together a developer program. If anyone has any good developer ideas or thoughts about developer programs they've liked, feel free to drop me a line at huangs04 AT aol dot com.
-Spencer
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I think it would be important to get sponsorship from companies needing OpenEmbedded / OpenZaurus / Opie / pdaXrom for their own purposes.
All of those projects would _enormously_ benefit from one or more developers being paid to do work on that.
Arrangements like that work in the desktop linux world, think all the full-time oss workers employed by RedHat, SuSE, Mandrake, IBM, Intel, etc.. We need to bring these over to the handheld world.
True, it needs a couple of openminded visionary decision makers for that to happen.
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they appreciate the support that you have given to the developer site and the Zaurus. The site is planned to go down on 30-September.
Does this mean they not only cancel all developer support end of this month but the Zaurus? (highlight by me)
In that case I would propose to found a non-profit organization (similar to the Blender Foundation http://www.blender3d.com/cms/About.30.0.html (http://www.blender3d.com/cms/About.30.0.html) ) to aquire donations to buy all required hardware and software IPRs from Sharp to develop a new, compatible device and software (e.g. OpenZaurus, pdaXROM). There are a lot of companies in Asia with PDA hardware expertise who can do that, several dealers for devices in all continents and for software there are already some projects (which should be focussed IMHO).
Each of us ZUG users donating 30$ (4000 users) would end up in 120,000$. Isn't that much but could convince other investors.
-- hns
Hi
This is a very good idea. Most of us certainly already have resonable hardware spec in mind.
The bigger problem won't be the hardware but the software. To be more precise, it will be the graphical environnement and graphical applications. The very good Linux Palmtop environnement for everyone is still expected. Having a part of the hardware cost sent to the "Palmtop team" could resolve the issue and motivate an enterprise.
http://www.thefeature.com/article?articlei...048&ref=2934556 (http://www.thefeature.com/article?articleid=101048&ref=2934556)
We are back to the beginning. The fusionned Linux PDA OS effort is still expected by the market.
This is a great idea, but I think the hardware will be the biggest problem. Take a look at the Yopy, another ARM-based PDA. The Yopy runs the X Window System with an open-source window manager.
The email app is Sylpheed. The Web browser is dillo. The Yopy uses MySQL to hold the data for the PIM apps, and Boa as a Web server. (The big downside of the Yopy is lack of synchronization software, but I'd guess that writing such software in Java would help, since it could then run on MacOS, Windows, Linux, etc., desktops.)
Much of what we need for software is already there, and open source.
When I see how many people order Cxxx Zaurii from Japan (so many that a number of companies focus on this market), it is clear there is a market for a programmable Linux PDA, especially in terms of a larger format PDA with a keyboard.
Combining the efforts of pdaXrom, OpenZaurus or handhelds.org, the Yopy, the NetWinder community and any one else could result in a very good software suite. Freely licensed software and a market for hardware could help bring in manufacturers. Anyway, I'm hoping.
-Eric
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fyi - tblumer got permission from sharp to give me a backup of the devnet forums (minus the user tables). I'm working with him to get this, and then I'll work on importing the data into our forums.
I'll keep you all posted on our progress
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tblumer got permission from sharp to give me a backup of the devnet forums (minus the user tables).
Great news! Thanks to both of you for your hard work.
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Just a brief update. The zaurus.com DevNet server is expected to go down on Oct. 1. I plan to get Michael (ofrdgeek) the forum posts, etc. by Oct. 1, as well.
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I guess it was a good job I got my Zaurus 5500 fixed by Sharp when I did! I'll have to be extra careful now not to brick it again since eventually there won't be anyone in the US to unbrick it anymore I assume? Still that may be a good thing as I don't think I could cope with paying over $100 again just for a reflash!
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fyi - i have the devnet forum posts... now I just need to work on importing them into this forum without messing anything up... i'll keep you all posted on my progress
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Anybody know what is going to happen with www.zaurus.com? - I mean dpecifically the accessories page. It was a handy place to find all the different accessories that were compatible.
R.
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Anybody know what is going to happen with www.zaurus.com?
Hm,
what't going to happen with the domain name?
Offroadgeek: could it be possible to aquire the domain and link to ZUG?
Just an idea.
-- hns
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I doubt very much that Sharp will give up the domain name as the Zaurus is still an active product elsewhere in the world.
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Howdy !
Is it just me or is "http://www.zaurus.com/dev/" gone ?
I can't seem to login with my dev account anymore and my username isn't in the database anymore.
p
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Zaurus DevNet has been shutdown for good. They turned the DevNet servers off at the start of October.
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Wow. damnit ! That's a major bummer.
They had some good docs over there.
Any other project taking over ?
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I believe, all docs.zaurus.com has been copied into the HOW-TO in this site.
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Howdy !
Is it just me or is "http://www.zaurus.com/dev/" gone ?
I can't seem to login with my dev account anymore and my username isn't in the database anymore.
p
merged with existing topic... please search before posting. thanks!
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Hi,
I'm new to the site...
Just Signed up and got my ID From Sharp
Here is their note dated Sept 22, 2004
Thank you for registering and welcome to the Zaurus DevNet.
This email is to confirm that we have received your registration information and are happy to have you as a developer for the Zaurus Personal Mobile Tool which is based on the Linux® operating system and supports Java applications.
Your Username is: xxxxxxx
Your Password is: xxxxxx
If you haven't already, we encourage you to apply for the Zaurus Developer Program. As a member of the Program you will have exclusive access to support
forums, Sharp's technical support, access to our knowledgebase, and more. Best of all, it's free!
Please go to http://www.zaurus.com/dev/program/index.html (http://www.zaurus.com/dev/program/index.html) to join.
Thank You,
The Z Team
Nice, just 9 days before unplugging and no words like GET YOUR DOWNLOADS NOW!!!
Hey, maybe there is a prize for being the last US developer to sign up....
I was going to recode Palm and WinCE apps for a customer of mine, he wants to support Linux PDA's (I just got the 6000L for development), I guess I picked the wrong platform...
Just my 2 cents