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General Discussion / Zaurus DevNet going down to stay
« on: September 15, 2004, 02:35:42 pm »Quote
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.QuoteHiQuotethey 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 ) 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
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
We are back to the beginning. The fusionned Linux PDA OS effort is still expected by the market.
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