Hello Zaurus World !

[espi]

Just a quick "hello" to the forum.

I have bought my first Zaurus from another forum member today!
I've been doing a lot of research on purchasing the best smallest computing device and settled on the Zaurus SL-C3100!

I really am blown away by all of the amazing work all the developers put in, it's all highly impressive and commendable.
All the contributors to open software are the true pioneers and revolutionaries of today.

Open software and tiny devices like this are the future.

I live in the United States in Baltimore City (most are familiar with as the backdrop of HBO's The Wire and home of delicious crab cakes) and being a fan of small Japanese electronics my entire life I wager that no Zaurus was ever sold here. I am glad to have now learned about it, albeit late, and am equally amazed at the potential of the device and how still it has yet to be matched.

Thank you for your work and I look forward to learning more over time. I will try my damndest to not be an annoying newb and continue to search and learn.  

-espi

[HoloVector]

Welcome.  May you enjoy your Zaurus as much as I do mine.  

I have a feeling that you might find another Zaurus user in your city.  My small city had five Zaurus owners in it until recently.  It's more like four and half now since my six year old son owns on of those Zaurii.  

[espi]

Cool - yea, it's a lot to learn now, but that's a big part of the enjoyment.

In looking through the forums I've noticed your signature before - especially the GIVEN AWAY part!    

The one I got is all black with the C1000 top on a C3100. I think that's cool.

I'm a little scared because it has Debian on it and most of what I see on here deals with PDAXROM beta 3 and Cacko.
From what I've been reading, I think I can eventually run Debian off of an SD card and have Cacko on the machine.

I'm so green to the linux game...this Z is the 1st thing to really jump out and show me a reason to learn about linux and BSD because of the form factor.

[stupkid]

Welcome!

Well you can always flash something else on there if you don't like Debian.  I'd be inclined to keep it on their if it were me.

[HoloVector]

Cool - yea, it's a lot to learn now, but that's a big part of the enjoyment.

In looking through the forums I've noticed your signature before - especially the GIVEN AWAY part!    

The one I got is all black with the C1000 top on a C3100. I think that's cool.

I'm a little scared because it has Debian on it and most of what I see on here deals with PDAXROM beta 3 and Cacko.
From what I've been reading, I think I can eventually run Debian off of an SD card and have Cacko on the machine.

I'm so green to the linux game...this Z is the 1st thing to really jump out and show me a reason to learn about linux and BSD because of the form factor.

Yeah, my sig is getting too long.  I really need to trim it down.    
The Sharp PC-3000 that I gave away wasn't a Zaurus it was very early DOS palmtop computer that Sharp made before the Zaurus came out; it was around the size of a VHS tape and had an Intel 80186 running at 8MHz.  I still have a copy of the service manual somewhere.    

Normally I recommend that new linux users with a Zaurus start with SharpROM or Cacko then move up to pdaXii13 then explore Angstrom, Debian, pdaXrom 2.6 with U-Boot and the BSDs until they get tired (and some never do) and return to the one that most closely fit the way they want their Zaurus to work.  But if you have a working Debian already setup on your Z you might as well start there since you basically have pretty much the same Debian setup as you would have on a desktop which makes learning Linux through the Z a little more straight forward.

Good luck and have a good time.

[speculatrix]

Just a quick "hello" to the forum.

greetings! welcome to the amazing community of the zaurus world. almost anything is possible, even things quite improbable for such a device.

[ArchiMark]

Welcome, espi!

Glad to see another member join up here....

Here's a few tips for you and some homework which should prove very useful...

Check out the wiki has lots of great info....

Check out meanie's website which has PDF file download of it, very useful...

Check out trisoft.de's website which has a PDF user guide download, very useful since our Z's only came with Japanese manual's originally...

Then when you have questions, post in the right forum and I think you find that this is a very helpful bunch!!

Have fun!

Mark

[Snappy]

Welcome espi! Welcome!

We, the zauriians, are among a dying race ...  ... so welcome, new being!

[InSearchOf]

Welcome epsi, you have a pdaXrom (retired) dev in your semi-local area :-)

Late

[espi]

Thank you everyone for your welcome and recommendations, I am looking forward to receiving my z...
This is the one I got:
Fs : Near Mint 3100 + Accessories, -= Well Cared for unit =-

Probably won't receive it before the holiday now, but hopefully next week.

InSearchOf: awesome! - I would like to eventually learn how to put pdaxrom on it in a multiboot situation but it seems a bit complex to attempt right off the bat.

ArchiMark: thanks  one thing that appealed to me about this over, say, a nokia 8X0, is the ability to utilize what everyone has already learned about the hardware overt the years since the c760.

HoloVector and stupkid: I indeed am keeping Debian on it to start. It's configured and working and that is a great way to receive it

speculatrix and Snappy: I think we are just ahead of the curve. I'm late on this by over 2 years! This can do so much and one can only hope that will set a trend going forward for pocketable, highly configurable open platform devices. I'm happy to have learned about it.

I think that the popularity of the Z might grow actually, because now UMPCs/MIDs/etc are a growing market that the industry is finally getting behind with the Atom processor, etc.
In my search for a device the most important thing is size. I like the OQO and may get one, but the fact it's not a clamshell was crucial.
I also like the Fujitsu u1010/u810/LOOX U50XN but it's way too big for a pocket.
I think that the Zaurus is still the best choice. If the u810 was the size of the Zaurus, I would get one, as I'm sure a lot of us would.

Time to drink,
espi

[Jon_J]

Welcome espi, since you live kinda close to InSearchOf, git over there and kick his butt back into developing pdaXrom!  (joke - just kidding)
I'm still a Linux noob, even after 2 1/2 years of learning Linux on the Zaurus. Below is my opinion:

I have an SL-C3100 that runs Cacko with eviLjazz's kernel. (2.4.20 kernel) I find my best experience surfing the net with Opera on my Cacko Z.
I just wish there would have been just a couple more upgrades of Opera for the Zaurus, let's say to 8.0, but no higher.
I have the 9.10 version of Opera on an old desktop PC running Puppy Linux 3.01, but Opera has gotten more bloated in its later versions, although it still loads and runs a lot faster than Firefox or Seamonkey on my Puppy.

My other Zaurus is an SL-C3200, which runs pdaxii13 (a derivative of pdaXrom beta 3) - (2.4.20 kernel). I like it a lot also, and this Zaurus is much closer to a "standard" Linux distro than Sharp/Cacko. Meanie has really done a whole lot of work on pdaxii13 and it really improves upon the pdaXrom experience.

I have stayed away from the 2.6 kernel distros for several reasons.
1. pdaXrom 2.6 kernel requires U-Boot. - Just read the U-Boot threads, I won't need to explain why I'm staying away from that...
2. debian, angstrom, android, openbsd, and others, just seem way too complex for me and my limited Linux knowledge to install.

[espi]

More useful knowledge - thanks Jon_J, appreciate it. Actually I didn't know that pdaxii13 was a derivative/refinement of pdaxrom beta 3, so thanks for making that clear for me. I would love to have Cacko on my Z as well, and from what I've read, it sounds like it's possible to have that and Debian together, but I likely won't risk anything right away that could disable basic usefulness. I originally thought it was bizarre that people would have different Zs for diff distros, but the multiboot situation does seem to be a bit difficult and confusing at least in my preliminary skimming on the subject.

[jocasmi]

Hi espi, and welcome. I hope you got a lot of fun playing with your Zaurus, and sharing thoughts and experiences in this forum.
I'd really like this world. There is a hole for every flag here.

Greets!

[InSearchOf]

Welcome espi, since you live kinda close to InSearchOf, git over there and kick his butt back into developing pdaXrom!  (joke - just kidding)

LOL, That might be what i need :-)

Late

[espi]

I've had quite an interesting experience getting started with the C3100. I've gained much from all of the community--especially the members of this site and forum. I hope everyone is making it through this crazy life with triumph.

My awesome all black c3100 basically sat as a $400 paperweight for the whole month of April, not having a chance to get an OS onto it. (Came with debian and I'll post on how a GDM flag setting made it unbootable for me).

Tonight, I finally am in, completing my first ROM install with PDAxII13, and it is tight as hell. I'm really happy to finally have this working and it's awesome.

I finally am able to use this in a few of the ways I was hoping to, making the unit already exceed its value with the applications bundled in the Full distro. One in particular is xjournal which is one of the best pieces of software I have ever used on a handheld. I take notes and draw on little scraps of paper all the time and never have had the use of any stylus/pen unit before (save for a Wacom Intuos2 9x12). I basically blew my college wad on the "first ever 17-inch notebook" (1Ghz G4 Powerbook, $3300 at the time, ouch) and never had a pda of any sort despite keeping up on the latest palms, winmobiles, iPh(cl)ones. The unencumbered customization is most attractive in the zaurus, making it the choice.

My initial two problems to remedy are inability to function after waking from sleep and asking for the date and panel managers every bootup. Leads me to believe that there is a dead "cmos" battery I suspect is on the top of the unit behind that soft rubber slot I haven't poked out. "...soft rubber slot I haven't poked out..." Noyce.

I'll be busy figuring the zaurus out, very happy to have it up and running.
Cheers, -es