Linux On iPAQ 3600 Handheld

wruji writes: "Linux on Compaq's upcoming iPAQ PocketPC. handhelds.org has more info including install instructions" Cute little box.

iMarketing

Have you seen the junk on their announcment page. This alone is enough to make me not want one:

Find it Fast
Be Prepared for Anything
Fit in, Standout
See it all Clearly
Touch it, Feel it, Believe it
Take it Easy

Does any of that actually make sense? I especially like "Touch it, Feel it, Believe it". Reminds me of the fake commercials in the robocop movies.

Amusing Contradiction

From the iPAQ site:

"With the Compaq iPAQ, you will:

...

Fit in, Stand out"

How do they pull that one off? Maybe by day, the iPAQ makes you a mild-mannered reporter, but by night... it makes you a grouchy, irritable reporter... (with superhuman crankiness).

Re:Why not...

The new Compaq iPaq is the only WinCE handheld with it's OS on a Flashable ROM.

Remember the April Fools Webserver?

With the hardware built to take advantage of a full installation of Windows Pocket PC, many real applications would come up for these things with a much smaller Linux installed.

I'm using a Jornada 548. The thing as as much RAM and a more powerful processor than the desktop computer I was using 5 years ago. Forget for a moment about the battery life (I know, we're entering the "willing suspension of disbelief" zone). You should be able to run just about anything with a specific installation of Linux on this.

As for the people who ask "Why would you want to?" I can only say because you can. Most technological improvements were developed that way, and then other people quickly found applications for them. Heck, most people didn't see a use for portable phones not too long ago...

And, if nothing else, it gives people one more option. And that is always a good thing.

Re:Why would you install Linux?

Linux is actually a kernel. The command line you are talking about is really bash or csh or whatever. The ability to run Linux on a handheld is cool because you can write your own programs to control it. That's why I would want to run Linux on it, so that I could make my own clean, tight graphical interface. Installing Linux on it right now might not be terribly useful, but it gives you power and flexibility. You aren't locked in to WinCE or some other fixed, non-customisable OS.

nojw

Re:Compaq=Trustworthy? Hardly

Read up before you post... I just got done reading the specs for the iPAQ and was very surprised. Compaq has all of the memory locations, interrupts, and info on what all of the chips inside are to be able to at least get a good deal of systems level programming working with this... Even cooler though, is if you look at where on the internet handhelds.org is... Traceroute:

14 189.ATM11-0-0.BR1.PAO1.ALTER.NET (146.188.148.105) 89.412 ms 83.671 ms 88.646 ms

15 paix-gw1.pa-x.dec.com (198.32.176.241) 85.998 ms 85.690 ms 86.407 ms
16 core-gw1.pa-x.dec.com (204.123.1.1) 83.715 ms 83.005 ms 89.361 ms
17 h0.handhelds.org (204.123.13.90) 84.044 ms 84.175 ms 83.859 ms

That's right folks, compaq isn't just giving out buttloads of specs, they're also hosting the site putting linux on this little thing. Reading further it talks about how they have quite a few people researching this sort of thing for them.

Now that Compaq, IBM, and SGI seem to be making a big effort to get Linux on whole new types of machines (Compaq: handhelds, IBM: mainframes, SGI: supercomputers) the only real issue is going to be taking advantage of these corporations' help as much as possible.

Sigh... Seems like Linux, Solaris, and NT are going to be all that's left for non-desktop boxen RSN. It'll be interesting to see what happens if Linux is able to do something similar on the desktop and get corporate designers working on a better UI.

deathb

Unclear

What the man is trying to say is, you can install Linux on one of these things.

NOT that Compaq can do it for you. Do-it-yourself.

Shouldn't be too hard, as it runs on a StrongArm...
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [ncsu.edu].

Why would you install Linux?

Before I get bashed or moderated down here, I need to say I love Linux. I exclusively run Linux on both my laptops even though I sacrifice sound to do so *damn A3D*

I must ask WHY you would want to install Linux on a hand-held device?? I mean, yeah, it's COOL. It's fun, you can impress your friends, but it doesn't seem very efficient. Linux is powerful as hell, but the interface is still done mostly through command line. This is a good thing. I think (and a lot of people might agree) that the command line is the most efficient way to work. On a handheld device like this, however, command line interface becomes a chore.

Linux is also powerful becuase it's a true multi-user environment. Runlevel 3 ceases to be important in a small device like this (I would think). And what are you going to install on it? Somehow I'm guessing tons of stuff would refuse to compile.

I mean, yeah, it's cool and all, but unless someone writes a distro of Linux designed to be fully graphical etc and perform like WinCE (without the instability and Microsoft patronage) I just don't really understand the usefullness of installing Linux on this thing.

Except, of course, for the coolness value =)

DranoK



That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons even death may die.

What iHate

iThink that these people should stop with all of these i's. iHope that they do before iWhack [userfriendly.org] one of them upside the head.