Sharp Zaurus 5500/5600?

[t3h]

This was originally accidentially posted in "Roll Call" by mistake - I had a whole heap of tabs open and thinking one was redundant, closed it and used the wrong one to post. Had I not been tired and busy with other stuff, I would probably have spotted the mistake.

I am beginning to get really annoyed with my Palm T|E, and am certainly not going to get another palm, now that they made the most stupid move ever of going to Windows Mobile.

That aside, I want a Linux PDA. I have decided to go with a Zaurus. I really want a 6000, but they are so hard to get. So I decided to go with a Zaurus. I then thought about the 5500, but I hear it has really poor battery life, and the 5600 is recommended instead - it's apparently more stable and more "finished", and faster, as well as having double to triple the battery life. Do any of you have a zaurus? Are you all happy with them?

The problem is, there are only 5500s on eBay at the moment. I haven't seen a single 5600 in the last month. Do any of you want to sell one?

I'd really love one to be able to have ethereal, nmap and all those tools in my pocket. My 12" Powerbook is small, but not small enough :P.

I have a 1GB card from my T|E, I imagine that will work on a Zaurus, it's fat32, I don't see why not. I'd like to get a CF wifi card for it too, any reccommendations?

I had been considering one for a while, but when I saw http://www.irongeek.com/i.php?submen...rus/zaurusmain , and after Palm relinquished PalmOS, that made my decision.

[Tim_axe]

I have a SL-5500. The battery life, to sum it up, stinks. And the screen is from the dinosaur ages. If you turn the backlight off, it can live for a while being on with something like Wellenreiter, but don't expect the battery to last much if you forget to charge it in 2 days.


I wanted to use it as a replacement to my Sony Clie NX80V, but it turns out the Clie NX80V is the better PDA for me. Too bad my battery died, and its CF drivers only accept a propitary WiFi card.

With Linux, the SL-5500 can do some fun things. I liked the VNC client. But I can't get OpenZaurus 3.5.3 or 3.5.2 to run very well on my SL-5500. So I'm on theKompany.rom because I need a web browser and I can't get it working on the OZ/Opie rom... Though there is a bit of software I wish I could use that I can't get working under the Sharp/hacked roms, such as any e-mail client. My SL-5500 just seems to have issues...

Oh, and the SL-5500 is *s-l-o-w*. While Palm apps open instantly, anything on the SL-5500 takes a few seconds to begin responding, including when you turn it on / bring it out of sleep and it polls the hardware to see if anything changed.


I wouldn't pay more than $100 for a SL-5500 that comes with 128MB SD & WiFi Card. No idea about the SL-5600 though.


I think Palm lost it a long time ago, and noticed a decline before Sony pulled their Clié line of handhelds. The Clié was an innovative PDA in my opinion, though I didn't like how Sony didn't open the API to anyone so software developers could really make use of its powerful hardware.

[t3h]

Apparently I hear the SL-5600 has these problems fixed - the battery life is better and the unit doesn't lag as much. Those problems remind me of the Palm LifeDrive.

I thought Palm had been screwing up since the Tungsten T days - great idea to put faster chips in, but not so great idea to keep everything 68k and just emulate most of the apps. Then make it very hard to have native ARM apps, so most developers don't bother. Then use the full 320x320 of the screen very poorly - it tends to show the same amount of data that 160x160 showed a while ago.

But where the hell do I get a 5600...

It seems the only decent Linux PDA.

The Zaurii do remind me a bit of the Newtons though... although for some reason, Newtons actually seem easier to get...

I imagine that the Linux PDA market will grow though, now that Palm just made their most stupid mistake ever. Maybe we'll see something from Apple, that would be REALLY cool.

Now where do I get a 5600? There seem to be very few around.