[Chaos]

Originally Posted by BobR

Thanks Chaos! While I can only understand this at a surface level, it's really awesome. I looked at some of the Sharp Zaurus 5600s on ebay longingly. But I figure it makes more sense for me to set up an old desktop that I have first.

That's where I started. An old 350 Mhz AMD K6-2 with 64 megs of RAM, running Mandrake Linux 7.1. KDE1, Linux kernel 2.2... Old stuff. That was almost six years ago now.

Originally Posted by BobR

Next time I get a good chunk of time to play, I'll get a KVM switch and give that a go. Thanks to you and Hacker, my Linux interest is rekindled again! If I really do get around to it, I'll ask you guys for a distro suggestion. Plus the linux.org site is pretty exciting when you see that long list of apps. It would be beneficial for me to learn something about Linux for work also, so I may just have to see if I can arrange for web training or an intro class!

There are SO MANY applications for Linux. Just take Debian for example. Among the libraries, programs, and every other Debian package... There are almost 10000 in the unstable branch.

Originally Posted by BobR

Are you planning anything for the SL-C3000?... that looks pretty awesome also! Kind of like those OQOs and other handtop pcs, except at a much lower price because they "only" have to run Linux.

If I had any other Zaurus, I'd probably make a ROM for it too. And if I had the money, I'd probably have another Zaurus. But I don't, so it'd be hard to do (no ability to test by oneself). The clamshell models also are able to run full X11. There's a project, mainly for the C700/750/760/860s (but will run on C3000/C1000 eventually - or already does - I haven't looked lately...), called pdaXrom. And if you don't know about the C1000, it's a version of the C3000, without the 4GB microdrive, but with 128 MB of internal flash total. It also has different colours, supposedly a black colour-scheme. It's basically meant to replace the now not-manufactured C860.

Originally Posted by BobR

It's amazing what you've accomplished. I wonder why (except for the cache stability thing) Sharp didn't so something like this themselves. Is there a limitation that would prevent them, maybe due to licensing? Hope it's public enough that the Zaurus design team knows about it!

The default ROM, while ok, is a bit plain. It's ok for "normal" users, but many people don't want something that's "ok". They're also limited by the space, by trying to include too much, in my opinion. They put in large apps like the Hancom word processor/spreadsheet, and the space-wasting games. I removed both, just getting rid of the games, and packing the Hancom apps as packages that can be installed.

I don't really think that Sharp has much interest in the "normal user" unfortunately. The Zaurus community has found this from the early days of the 5500. It was especially evident last year, when they stopped sell Zauri outside of Japan (many people now import the new ones), and shut down the Zaurus dev site, and community site. While the Zauri hardware is quite nice, Sharp hasn't really been that great at supporting the devices. They're a bit better in Japan, but still don't show much interest in the "average" consumer.