Re: Linux Beer Hike

[Will Newton <nospam [at] misconception.org.uk>]

"Alex Hudson" <eah106 [at] york.ac.uk> tapped some keys and produced:
> 
> Hmm, but we're into laptop territory no, aren't we? The 5 just about 
> cuts it in terms of portability, tho' it is a little bulky. Yopy? No 
> idea, but looks about the same size as a Pilot, so prolly. isn't that 
> big. Psion 7 / Netbook (Netbook is more similar to Yopy - 190MHz SA, 
> more memory, etc.) is basically a laptop, so that doesn't count ;)) If I 
> wanted something big & bulky I'd buy a Jordana (actually, no I wouldn't, 
> they're awful!)

Bulky? Hmmm, not too sure about that. ENIAC, know that was bulky...
I want battery life over anything else, and Psion are hard to beat.
(No Wince machines beat it AFAIK)
 
> As for EPOC vs. Linux - hmm, difficult to say. They come from completely 
> different points of view - EPOC, for example, is completely (almost) 
> written in C++ (which kind of puts paid to the idea that C++ is 
> bloated!), and has a lot of portability stuff built right in. The 
> problem with EPOC is more about proprietryness - you can't get PsiLinux, 
> for example, so you're stuffed unless you run Windows (well, no, not 
> completely, I'm probably exaggerating a little, but you know what I 
> mean!). I would be much happier if EPOC was open source (as in Raymond 
> open-source, not necessarily GNU/EPOC ;), because there's only so much 
> the Symbian guys can do, and they seem fairly slow in development terms 
> (of course, they're not, but it *seems* like they are,
> compared with the Linux market).

Linux is simply too big for a handheld IMO. You don't need loads of
networking, filesystems and whatnot in a machine like a Psion. EPOC
isn't really a "proper" OS (well R5 is closer) but it's small.
EPOC v. WinCE. Heh.
 
> Linux is being aimed directly at palmtops+ now, so it'll be interesting 
> to see what happens to EPOC, PalmOS, PocketPC et al. PalmOS won't 
> survive at all, IMHO, because it's basically a shell. PocketPC stinks, 
> as did Wince before it, so I don't think that's gonna be a goer either, 
> so it's pretty much a straight fight between EPOC and Linux. I 
> personally think Linux will win out eventually, but I'm sure other 
> people have their own ideas!!

I can't see the point in Linux on something with a screen that small.
(I'll qualify that statement now :)
You can't do REAL work, you need something convenient and foolproof just
to do email/contacts/and maybe a few little bits of text processing. It
really annoys me that the only new laptops you can buy are 300MHz plus
machines. My desktop is 266MHz and I still haven't found anything other than
games that would make me want to upgrade in the near future.
Psion has Word, Email and Addressbook. That's about all I need, why bother
having a proper OS? It's not like I'll be running a web server on it.


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H 3@H 3@

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