Advantages Of Oz Over Sharp Rom?

[artaxerxes]

Hi all,

I'm the port maintainer of Exult on the Zaurus (default Sharp ROM) and I was under the impression the ipk I made does not work well with OZ. Someone in Exult's forum mentioned I should try to install OZ on my Z but to be honest I am not convinced (yet) the move is worth it.

I was wondering if anyone here would care to make a case about OZ compared to the default Sharp ROM. I don't use the Hancom stuff or any of the Kompany's and I never use the Java environment either. I use a lot of memory with Exult, and I need a good, solid, SDL support. So is OZ good for me?

Thanks to all!

Artaxerxes

[silvio]

One thing I like in OZ is - its filesystem hierarchy looks more like a desktop linux.
The Sharp Rom filesystem hierarchy is excessively filled up with symlinks and does not follow standards.

One thing I like in Sharp Rom is the reliability and easiness of the backup solution.

But while some of the programs I use very often will not run well under OZ I'll prefer Sharp Rom - in its Cacko incarnation...

For me the cards will be shuffled again if OZ supports a 2.6 kernel.

regards,
Silvio

[Merardon]

For one thing, OZ allows you to choose how you want your memory allocated, instead of a mandatory 32-32. I quite like Opie, as well. As for SDL support, there are Opie SDL libraries available in the feed, and SDL support is, from what I've gathered, quite good. Doom runs perfectly fine for me, with no lags, and SNES games run reasonably well with the sound turned off. The 2.6 kernel is being ported currently. For me at least, it's rather difficult to explain why I prefer OZ, but the last time I tried to revert back to the Sharp rom, I switched back soon. I recommend backing everything up and trying it out. Be sure to pick Opie, (unless you don't mind not being able to use Exult, or any other Z software),  and memory-wise, I have 48-16. You can always revert back if you don't like it.

[craigtyson]

I run tkc for language reasons, but liked OZ when I ran it.  infact most of the software I run is opie based except Opera and Hancom.  There's more functionality to OZ but there are also some gaps.  No browser tab aka 3.10.  and a few applets that dont install

Craig.

[Merardon]

No browser tab aka 3.10.
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This can be easily fixed by navigating to /opt/QtPalmtop/apps in the console, and creating a new folder called Browser. Then, it's simply a matter of moving the opera.desktop file from the Applications directory to the Browser directory, and restarting Opie. If you want a better icon, open up the .directory file in the Applications directory, edit it accordingly, changing the Applications references to Browser (aside from the icon), and save it to the Browser directory as .directory. Hope that helps.

[acpkendo]

This can be easily fixed. . .

I think he's talking about the "Files" tab here.  I too would love to see something like this in Opie.

As for my $.02 on why one should choose OZ over the Sharp ROM, I think it can be summed up in two words--ongoing development (I should add that I'm a 5500 owner, and so can't benefit from most of the other neat ROM's out there).  It's pretty clear at this point that nothing new or exciting will be coming from Sharp.  In contrast, I found 3.5.2 to be a HUGE improvement over 3.5.1. . . if the upcoming unstable and release version progress at this rate, I'll be one happy kid.

[adf]

OZ has more potential, it looks like it will be a solid future for the linux pda, but it is still unstable.
It is worth using to get the hang of, but you will find really annoying issues that come with an os still in development.

You will end up ther, the question is when, I think.