Pioneers in Linux Mobility

Linux has been the OS choice for many PDA manufactures for quite sometime, but never came under the public spotlight until recent introduction of a series of Sharp PDAs. In this article, we try to introduce two most respected PDAs running a version of Linux kernel.

Before we discuss about the devices, let’s have a look at the differences between the Windows Pocket PC / Windows Mobile operating systems and Linux based operating systems for PDAs. The most prominent difference is the cost. For Windows operating systems, you may have to spend money and the Linux based PDA OS is free as always. Although Windows PDA operating systems have a fixed set of features and no extra feature will be available until the next major release, Linux based operating systems would have frequent releases with additional features developed collectively by a group of communities. I’m not trying to say one is better than the other but to show the advantages of using non-proprietary software.

Sharp Zaurus 5500D was the first PDA to have attached a lot of public attention for a Linux based PDA. Lots of users fell in love with this device as this introduced some features where they were considered “hot” at the time the device was released. Apart from that, OS offered lot of eye candy with changeable themes, extra applications etc. Also this device is one of the first PDAs to have a sliding QWERTY keyboard integrated where it comes in handy when writing an email or a document. Most of all typing could be done singlehanded. The Linux based PDA OS called Opie was one of the popular operating systems used by Zaurus users. It was just a matter of “flashing” the ROM to get the operating system installed.

Zaurus 5500D was followed by Zaurus 5600, the enhanced version of the earlier version. The design of the device had changed including the specifications. This version included a processor with more power while RAM/ROM was also upgraded. But it lacked the feel of touch provided by 5500 and there were disappointed users due to the same reason. Anyway, let’s simply say that these two cousins were the first revolution that made a mark in the general public for Linux PDAs.