Re: [jornada] Jornada 720 vs Sharp Zaurus

Hello, Andy!

> [...] and that one day I could replace WinCE with Linux or NetBSD.

This was my primary reason for buying a Jornada 710 (which is the
720 without the internal modem). So far, I am primarily using it
as a paperweight and as a platform for experiments, but things are
slowly getting better.

The current state is that I have GNU/Linux/X11 up and running with
- latest news! - PCMCIA support and a custom (German) keyboard
layout. Using a PCMCIA network adapter, I can `ssh' from and to the
Jornada, including `scp' for file transfer. (FTP, NFS, etc would be
possible, but I prefer `scp'.) (Thanks again, Viktor!:-)

The main obstacle is missing power management. It seems to be
impossible to get the Jornada back from sleep mode without a
replacement ROM from HP - which I do not have. :-(Hmm... is it
possible to burn such a thing by oneself? Any hardware hackers
around here?)

My hope is that there will be, in the future, at least a possibility
to reduce power consumption by switching off the display - which
would enable me to use the Jornada for the intended purpose as an
organizer (with `vim', `bc', `cal', etc).

> I'm now looking enviously at the Sharp Zaurus [...]
> But what's the keyboard really
> like to use? It seems tiny compared with the 720's - this is very important
> to me as a mainly shell user and one reason why I chose the 720 over, say,
> the iPaq.

Same here. Exactly.

I did not try it by myself, but a German computer magazine reported
that some people have succeeded to type with ten fingers on its
keyboard. However: My hands are comparatively small, and I find the
Jornada's keyboard to be the smallest one that I can use with ten
fingers for more than just experiments.

There is another device called "Yopi" which comes with Linux
pre-installed and which has a keyboard of reasonable size with five
keys in a row, Y U I O P located below Z X C V B. I can imagine that
it can be reasonably used with one or both hands, using a 5- or
10-finger system. Unfortunately I did not succeed to find it in a
hardware shop.

My opinion: There is nothing which can replace the hardware of
the Jornada 710/720. It's a pity that it makes so much trouble
to install GNU/Linux on it. IMO, HP's decision to install Microsoft
Windows CE on it was a mistake: Those who prefer the Jornada 710/720
over an ordinary PDA are the same people who prefer a shell over a
GUI - and thus the typical Unix/GNU/Linux users.

In case HP decides to sell those replacement ROMs I would be one of
the first to order one.

    Peter

-- 
Peter Gerwinski - http://www.peter.gerwinski.de
G-N-U GmbH - IT Services - http://www.g-n-u.de
Free Software Foundation Europe - http://fsfeurope.org
Stop software patents! - http://swpat.ffii.org