MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Sharp Zaurus production is being terminated

jmbowman · 01-22-2007, 04:04 PM

I tried OpenZaurus a while back, but at the time it wasn't as stable as the default ROM. I've seriously considered trying out pdaXrom (especially if I could get Qt 4 applications running on it), but that would prevent me from using the Japanese<->English dictionary...it's a closed-source Qtopia application. Still might be worth it (I could install some reasonably good open source Japanese dictionary tools instead)...I'm getting ready to migrate from my SL-C760 to an SL-C3000, now would be a good time to play around with it.

But this illustrates one of the basic problems with writing software for the Zaurus...people are running multiple, incompatible operating environments on it. The problem wouldn't be so bad if it was just a few people having fun trying out alternatives...but the default ROM is so stagnant that it motivates a lot of people to move off of it. Yet there are also a lot of apps that require Qtopia and Sharp's proprietary libraries, and flashing the ROM is a frightening prospect for many users, so the default is still in widespread use as well. While I was working on PortaBase, it proved infeasible to provide binaries for all of the environments in common use: old Sharp ROM, new Sharp ROM (with much-improved file selector), old OpenZaurus (mostly compatible with stock ROM), new OpenZaurus (using improved but binary-incompatible gcc version), pdaXrom (with X but no Qtopia), etc. The bad PDA apps scared off the Palm users, but this packaging nightmare is what drove off the commercial developers (those few who were willing to work in such a small market, that is).

Many Zaurus users have complained that developers ran off and spent all their time writing alternate ROMs instead of developing apps, but I think the main reason for this is that there was no channel for making improvements to the base environment...Trolltech was reluctant to accept 3rd-party contributions into Qtopia, and Sharp wasn't even bothering to deploy the new versions that Trolltech was releasing. So if a developer didn't like the way something in the base platform worked, they really had no choice but to go off and roll their own ROM.

Anyway, summarizing this into something relevant for e-book readers and portable computing devices in general:

It's important to allow for customization of the base platform and (especially) the default apps so that power users can tweak things to their liking; otherwise, they'll move to (or create) an environment that does allow such customization
This customization should be enabled in such a way that compatibility with existing applications is retained, so that the result of developers' work can be used readily by other users
The base platform and apps should be updated regularly with the most popular customizations so that the baseline for new development doesn't grow too fragmented
Compatibility with existing software is a huge plus...pdaXrom came about largely because of the vast supply of existing software written for an X11 environment. I can appreciate the desire to spur development of software optimized for a PDA's software stack and UI conventions, but the way Qtopia handled it (by not supporting existing GUI apps at all) was far from optimal...what's really needed is a way to adapt existing software to work reasonably well on the platform with minimal effort. The iPhone would be promising here, if not for the limitations on installation of custom apps...

01-22-2007, 04:04 PM	#10
jmbowman Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Somerville, MA Device: Sharp Zaurus SL-C3000	I tried OpenZaurus a while back, but at the time it wasn't as stable as the default ROM. I've seriously considered trying out pdaXrom (especially if I could get Qt 4 applications running on it), but that would prevent me from using the Japanese<->English dictionary...it's a closed-source Qtopia application. Still might be worth it (I could install some reasonably good open source Japanese dictionary tools instead)...I'm getting ready to migrate from my SL-C760 to an SL-C3000, now would be a good time to play around with it. But this illustrates one of the basic problems with writing software for the Zaurus...people are running multiple, incompatible operating environments on it. The problem wouldn't be so bad if it was just a few people having fun trying out alternatives...but the default ROM is so stagnant that it motivates a lot of people to move off of it. Yet there are also a lot of apps that require Qtopia and Sharp's proprietary libraries, and flashing the ROM is a frightening prospect for many users, so the default is still in widespread use as well. While I was working on PortaBase, it proved infeasible to provide binaries for all of the environments in common use: old Sharp ROM, new Sharp ROM (with much-improved file selector), old OpenZaurus (mostly compatible with stock ROM), new OpenZaurus (using improved but binary-incompatible gcc version), pdaXrom (with X but no Qtopia), etc. The bad PDA apps scared off the Palm users, but this packaging nightmare is what drove off the commercial developers (those few who were willing to work in such a small market, that is). Many Zaurus users have complained that developers ran off and spent all their time writing alternate ROMs instead of developing apps, but I think the main reason for this is that there was no channel for making improvements to the base environment...Trolltech was reluctant to accept 3rd-party contributions into Qtopia, and Sharp wasn't even bothering to deploy the new versions that Trolltech was releasing. So if a developer didn't like the way something in the base platform worked, they really had no choice but to go off and roll their own ROM. Anyway, summarizing this into something relevant for e-book readers and portable computing devices in general: It's important to allow for customization of the base platform and (especially) the default apps so that power users can tweak things to their liking; otherwise, they'll move to (or create) an environment that does allow such customization This customization should be enabled in such a way that compatibility with existing applications is retained, so that the result of developers' work can be used readily by other users The base platform and apps should be updated regularly with the most popular customizations so that the baseline for new development doesn't grow too fragmented Compatibility with existing software is a huge plus...pdaXrom came about largely because of the vast supply of existing software written for an X11 environment. I can appreciate the desire to spur development of software optimized for a PDA's software stack and UI conventions, but the way Qtopia handled it (by not supporting existing GUI apps at all) was far from optimal...what's really needed is a way to adapt existing software to work reasonably well on the platform with minimal effort. The iPhone would be promising here, if not for the limitations on installation of custom apps...