Re: [iPAQ] Hello

On Saturday 19 June 2004 22:56, Marco Cecconi quoth thusly:
> First of all, what are the risks of installing linux

Probably the riskiest part of the whole process is flashing the new
bootloader using the BootBlaster program. If this step goes wrong, your
iPAQ will be a brick. Fortunately, you only have to do this once
(unless you later decide to upgrade to a newer bootloader) and
BootBlaster seems to work very reliably (despite having to run under
Windoze).

> and the chances of reinstalling windows after it if something goes
> wrong (or whatever reason)?

Restoring Windoze is a fairly simple matter, but again it requires
re-flashing the bootloader (back to the Windoze one), except this time
you'd do it from within the CRL bootloader.

> Secondly, how is hardware support for the ipaq5550?

I don't know the details since I don't have one of these myself, but
judging from messages on this list and the Familiar list I would say
it's working pretty well now. You will want to install an "unstable"
image to get the latest bug fixes for the 5550.

http://handhelds.org/~pb/unstable

> Which distribution

Familiar

> skins etc would you suggest for it?

I'm not sure what you mean by "skins", but if you are talking about
GUI's it depends what you want to do with your iPAQ. For example, Opie
has very good PIM apps, but no X server; GPE maybe a bit lagging in the
bells and whistles, but it runs under X so you can run all sorts of
"third-party" GUI apps.
There is also a kind of "third alternative" in the Pocket Workstation
project, but you need a lot of external storage and I don't know if it
will work on a 5550 anyway.

> How will I sync the ipaq with a windows or linux pc afterwards?

This also depends on which GUI you go with. If sync'ing is a big deal
for you then it's likely that you'd be best off going with Opie and
using QtopiaDesktop. I don't know much about this. I would suggest
asking about this area on each of the GUI's own mailing lists
(opie_at_handhelds.org and gpe_at_handhelds.org).

> In general, do you feel that linux on ipaq is "ready for work", or
> are we still in a "hack" phase?

Again, it depends what you want to do with it. Many people seem to be
using it as a basic PIM device fairly successfully. On the other hand
Familiar is still version 0.x, so don't expect it to be a "finished
product" because it clearly isn't.

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