[plug] PDA's

[Bradley Woodward]

On Mon, 18 Sep 2000, Christian wrote:

> At risk of sounding controversial, why do you want a handheld that runs
> Linux?  If it's just for the cool factor/hack value then fair enough.

Well, two reasons.  I do want one for the normal PDA things, such as address 
books, hand held diary, that sort of thing.  The main reason I wanted a linux 
version was that I want to try and develop some software for it.  The idea of 
a hand held hooking up to my digital camera and automatically downloading the 
pictures sounded rather neat.  :)

It is a good question though.  I'm not sure I can get past the cool 
factor/hack value comment though.  Truth be told, that's part of the reason 
too.

> (For me personally, spending $1000+ for a toy is a little hard to
> justify!) But otherwise, Linux on a handheld may not be the best way to
> go.  For example, PalmOS is much less resource hungry than Linux.
> Therefore it can run on less powerful hardware.  Therefore PalmOS
> devices are smaller and faster and cost less.  Secondly, I don't know
> about you but I spend most of my time communicating with my Linux
> systems via the keyboard.

No, you're exactly right.  That's how I work too, and how I'm thinking of 
going anyway.  PalmOS is designed for the platform, and while Linux will run 
on it, I don't think it's the most appropriate.

Now to beat up on the budget and find the cash.

Thanks for the comments.