Newbie Question Concerning Oz

[MikeCr]

Hi

I am not a newbie to Linux but I am to the zaurus - haven't even bought one yet in fact but am saving like mad.  I like the idea of OpenZaurus but no matter how much surfing around I do I can't seem to find the answers to the following questions - please accept my apologies if I have missed something obvious.

What packages will I have installed my default when I first install OZ?

Is there a respository of OZ packages that I can later install?  I did find something that looked promising but it only had kernel stuff and so on.

If I can't find an OZ package for a piece of software that I want to use then is it straighforward to compile it?  What compatibility issues are there?  Is it a matter of just having to cross-compile or will the code need to be ported in most cases?

Thanks in adance for any help
Mike

[lardman]

What packages will I have installed my default when I first install OZ?

It depends on the particular flash image you use (i.e. Opie, GPE or bootstrap).

Is there a respository of OZ packages that I can later install? I did find something that looked promising but it only had kernel stuff and so on.

Yes, the OZ feed is here: http://www.openzaurus.org/official/unstable/3.5.3/feed/

With some upgrades here: http://www.openzaurus.org/official/unstable/3.5.3/upgrades/

If I can't find an OZ package for a piece of software that I want to use then is it straighforward to compile it? What compatibility issues are there? Is it a matter of just having to cross-compile or will the code need to be ported in most cases?

It depends on the software you want to cross-compile/port as to how easy it will be, I can't give any more info than that I'm afraid unless you give an example.

However there is an awful lot of software in OE (the build environment for OZ), even if it's not in the feed ATM, so you may not need to try adding anything immediately (though please do start adding packages, the more choice the better).


Si