[PLUG] PDA Linux or otherwise

Preston Crawford prestonc at crawfordsolutions.com
Sat Jul 27 03:19:33 UTC 2002


On 26 Jul 2002, Doug Davis wrote:

> On Fri, 2002-07-26 at 18:10, ptkwt at aracnet.com wrote:
>
> >
> > So you're saying that they're $299 now instead of $399? (for the non-developer
> > version that has 64MB? - they had a developer version that had only 32MB)
> >
> > Phil
> >
> The original list price for the 64 MB version was $499. I got mine for
> in the $470 range the week after it came out. They now list for $399,
> but you can find them as low as $320 ( esp at BestBuy since they are not
> going to carry them any longer. They signed a limited unit contract)

Actually, Fry's had them for $313 last weekend. Maybe check there
(assuming you're in the Portland Metro Area).

> To be fair, the unit has gotten some bad reviews esp for syncing issues
> and lack of third party software. Most of those reviewers ignored the
> quantity of open Source software available. I really enjoy that it has
> OpenSSH and I can admin my systems as well as a lot of other neat
> features only a geek could love ( tcpdump, a port scanner, nmap, VNC,
> samba, nfs. perl, python ...the list goes on.)

Yep. The people giving it bad reviews (Gartner piled on today because
apparantly Pocket PC is better for enterprise apps and Sharp should just
put out a Pocket PC, according to them) aren't technical and thus don't
appreciate the upside to the Zaurus. And the upside is huge. Lineo did an
AWESOME job with the Kernel and TrollTech did a great job with Qtopia. The
Zaurus is VERY fast when stacked up against a Pocket PC and it does many
of the things a Linux desktop can.

> I never regretted for a second getting mine even though I paid close to
> full price. I don't think it will ever be mainstream but for a true
> techie its hard to beat.

Yep. I'm thinking of buying a second one while they're still cheap and
while the 5500 is still in production. Just seal it away for a rainy day.
I can't imagine using another palmtop.

Preston





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