FW: Linux handheld! (fwd)

[Shawn T. Rutledge]

On Mon, Apr 16, 2001 at 10:49:45PM -0500, Deepak Saxena wrote:
> Seen it, played with it, it sucks.  There's a couple of reviews floating
> around the net, and that seems to be general conclusion too.  It's a
> great first attempt at a simple Linux based PDA, but nothing too exciting.
> People are getting to caught up on the fact that it's Linux.  The
> applications is all that matters in the end. IMHO, the IPAQ + Linux
> is mucho cooler (though mucho more $$ too).

I agree, the applications matter a lot, and the Agenda is too slow;
I have doubts that they can optimize it enough unless they throw out
X and use some other GUI toolkit.  It takes several seconds to start
an app, whereas on the Palm it's nearly instantaneous.  I've always
had doubts that Linux would be suited to this kind of usage as-is,
because the runtime model is different; instead of "loading" off a 
slow disk into RAM to run, you really want to be able to run the code
in-place from the "disk" which is now FLASH, and also preload the data
segments so that the apps are always running and instantaneously available.
I think the Agenda may have achieved run-in-place, but I'm not sure; and 
you have to start up each application.  You can multitask, but running
too many apps at once seems to stress it a bit.  I sure hope it's not
swapping to FLASH because that would decrease the lifetime of this 
memory a lot.  

I have one, and I don't use it much; it's too obviously unstable as
well as painful; it simply doesn't compete with the Palm at all.
But it has a unique advantage in that it has a "consumer IR" port -
you can use it as a full-power remote.  You can use a Palm as a 
remote too, but only over a short range because the IR emitter is too
weak.  So it still qualifies as a toy, and compared to other 
touchscreen universal remotes, it's worth the money too.  And I can
hope that I can write some apps which don't suck... if only I had 
the time.  But I can't replace my Palm with it in its present form.  
It remains to be seen whether the open source model will result in 
such an overwhelming abundance of applications that people will want 
it for its versatility.  Unfortunately apps are not portable across 
the Linux PDAs - they're all different (different processors and GUI
toolkits).  The Agenda uses the FLTK, which is not popular
for desktop apps, so the apps generally have to be ported unless
they happen to use only plain old Xlib or have other libs statically
linked.  Another Linux PDA (I forget which) wisely chose GTK...
and now that there is an X-less GTK, it might be fast and small
too.  That would be interesting.  But hey, this is all open source
so if somebody wants to replace the GUI implementation on the 
Agenda, at least it's possible.

What's sad is they plan to release a ROM-only version, no FLASH.
I hate to think of all those wonderful touchscreens going into the
landfills because the software sucks...but maybe they will 
be hackable, to retrofit a FLASH.  I wouldn't be surprised if both
models use the same PC boards.

It does look as though if they can solve the power-management
software problems, it might last as long on the batteries as a 
Palm.  That's kindof impressive.  They also plan to release one in
a metal case with rechargeable Li-ion battery.

BTW this is not new... the "developer edition" I have has been available
for several months, and there are several other Linux PDAs available
or in development, and also several non-Linux PDAs for which full
Linux implementations (with GUIs and apps) have been developed.
The Helio, for example (which probably has the record for cheapest
Linux PDA so far); or some of the WinCE machines.

I think I'd rather see a Java PDA; and if Linux could be used as the
underlying OS, fine - but application portability is more important.
Unfortunately it requires too much processor power to get decent
speed.  But, there was a native-Java processor announced within the
last week or two, boasting 10x acceleration over a virtual machine
implementation... and if memory serves they had a PDA planned.  So
after 5 years since the idea became obvious, I might finally get my
wish.
> 
> On Apr 16 2001, at 10:51, Rusty Carruth was caught saying:
> > It was only a matter of time, no?
> > 
> > >>>>> Thus spake "Wane, Bokar" 
> > 
> > Interesting
> > 
> > (Agenda Computing) - California-based Agenda Computing will be the first
> > company in the world to launch a Pure Linux(tm) PDA (personal digital
> > assistant) and lead the new revolution of futuristic, affordable Linux-based
> > technology appliances while it prepares to challenge Palm ..."
> > www.agendacomputing.com
> > 
> > <<  End forwarded message

-- 
  _______                   Shawn T. Rutledge / KB7PWD  ecloud@bigfoot.com
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