[plug] Agenda VR3

[Simon Scott]

	>A "massively alpha release"???  You paid $600 to do alpha testing
for
	>them?  And, btw, it's not meant to be an alpha or beta or
"developers
	>unit" release.  They're actually selling this lemon!

	Im speaking software.... obviously the company dropped the ball, but
its still cool hardware...

	Supposedly its a developers edition, it even says so on the cover,
but I know what you mean... they way they are going there never will be a
full public release, and they will be happy selling a few units to linux
geeks.


	>Have you used a Palm handheld?  You don't *need* multitasking!  You
can
	>be doing something in one app, change to another and then change
back to
	>the previous app and be back in exactly the same place you were
before.
	>The change takes (on my IIIc which is supposedly not the fastest
Palm)
	>on the order of 0.5 seconds.  Based on the review of the VR3, it
takes
	>longer to than this to change between apps that are already open!
So,
	>the answer to your question is obvious: 1 app at a time is better
and,
	>on a Palm, all you need.

	Yes, I have used a Palm :) Theyre pretty good. Have you used a VR3?

	Again, I have to point out that the software is very Alpha. Things
are slow, but not that bad really. I think their choice of WM needs to be
reviewed. It doesnt do much, but supposedly its pretty heavyweight. Just
because its based on FLTK wasnt really a good enough reason to use it. 

	Remember 1 thing - neither the kernel, X, nor apps have been changed
for performance on this kit...... that will come later... Supposedly current
developers reckon that there is LOTS of room for improvement and it shouldnt
be too hard to make the thing fly.

	Apps and FLTK and WM aside, its a fast little handheld running linux
and X. You can put anything you want on it. Ill probably code in Xlib due to
it being very light-weight (obviously) and the libs are built in. Coding
productivity apps doesnt grab me, but maybe Ill dabble in it. Hell, if we
all get really sick of linux and X on it you could install another OS if you
could be bothered.

	You want a full-featured handheld thats fast and rock-solid, so go
with Palm. I want a linux based PDA with heaps of room to develop, so I went
Agenda. Even if I bought a Palm, Id still wanna sit down and learn PalmOS
development.


	>> 	The hardware specs are impressive: 66Mhz, 16M flash, 8M RAM,
8M ROM
	>> etc..... for the price its a nice, powerful (enough) unit.

	>This is much more powerful than a Palms but the Palms still run
faster!

	See above.

	>What matters is not raw specs but the actual running speed and
	>efficiency of the OS and applications.  This is why I wonder about

	See above.

	>people who want to put Linux onto a handheld as anything more than
a
	>cool hack.  Why not use an operating system that has been designed
from
	>the ground up to work on this sort of hardware?  Handhelds are not
meant
	>to be tiny PCs.  Palm knows this which is why they've been so
	>successful.

	I dont see why not. Do you expect hand-held tech to stand still?
Will we all be using PalmOS and the same apps in 10 years? Even if the vr3
goes nowhere, its still pushing the envelope, which is cool, and more than
enough reason for it to exist. And besides, Linux is a cool embedded OS. It
has already proven to be so with the Tivo et al. It just takes time to scale
it down.

	Yes, it is a nifty hack, but I think it has virtue. Ill remember you
said that when I telnet into my Agenda tonight :) 




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