New At Zaurus Forum And Zaurus

[Sirius Black]

HI, I am from Mexico and are very glad to have found this forum.
I purchased my Zaurus 3000 about 2 months ago and I am enjoying it very much, but I want to really take advantage ao all its features but as I stated before I am new in the Zaurus world and have a few questions I hope all the Zaurus experts can answer for me,
What's is the ROM? what does it do? I have ROM V 1.01 JP, can you upgrade this application? how? whre can I get them?
What is Qtopia? what does it do? I have V 1.5.4
I also have the Linux kernel V 2.4.20 compiled by Lineo.
What is cacko? I have hear that the Zaurus is good for developers, to develop what? How can I learn to develop anything in the Zaurus? Is there any good starter book for developers? users?
I am using it as a PDA only, contacts, addresses, meetings, etc. to play a few games, and that is it.
I have read in this forum that there are a lor of diferent ROMS, Linux kernels and applications for the Zaurus to make it work better, Which one of the ROMS are the best and wich kernel is the best.
Can anybody sugest what are the must have upgrades in hardware and software, I have a ambicom wifi card that I have not been able to conect to the internet, but besides that can you recommend any other improvement.

TIA

Rafa

[B_Lizzard]

Heh,

I don't have a Zaurus *yet*, but I'll do my best to help you.

1. A ROM is kinda like the Operating System on the PC (Windows, Linux, Mac OS).It's basically a Kernel (Tell ya more about the Kernel Later), a GUI (Graphical User Interface, or what you see on your Zaurus when you use it, except when your screen is full of text), and a bunch of Applications.

2.Qtopia is the GUI used in your Zaurus ROM (We call it the SHARP ROM).

3.Cacko is a alternate ROM.So are the PdaXrom, Openzaurus, Watapon and a million of other ROMs.Check their respective webistes for more info.

4.Develop software, of course! Well, If you've heard of C++, Python, Java and all that, the Zaurus can make programs, if you know how, although the Zaurus is not powerfull enough, compared to a PC.There are millions of books out for learning programming!! Search Amazon, or Google for more!

5.Now, all Kernels are basically the same, just their versions are diffrent.There are two out right now, the 2.4 family, and the 2.6 family.If you want more info on what a Kernel is, look here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_%28computer_science%29

The Kernel is basicly the piece of Software "talking" to the Hardware, and telling it what to do.You get the idea.

The ROMs out are:

http://openzaurus.org
http://www.pdaxrom.org/
http://my-zaurus.narod.ru/cacko.html
http://www.handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/FamiliarDistribution
http://zaurus.duelmonsters.ca/
http://www.pocketworkstation.org/

Now, none support your device, the C3000, which means that if you try to put them in your device, you're in trouble.Now, the BEST ROM is clearly a personal opinion, but in my opinion the most mature projects are the OpenZaurus and the PdaXrom, and mabye the Familliar ROMs.

That's all folks!!

[kahm]

Actually, Cacko 1.23 is in beta for the 3000 right now, and is working quite nicely. Keep an eye on the 3000 general forum for updates.