Issue #37
February 28, 2005
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Technology The Sharp Zaurus PDA by David Katz To the two major types of PDAs, those running Palm OS and those running Microsoft's Windows CE, there has now been added a third choice: Linux-powered PDAs. The most widely distributed of these is the Sharp Zaurus. How does this new choice stack up against Palm and Microsoft?
As a piece of hardware, the Zaurus competes well against its competition. Thin and light, it is very pocketable, an important consideration for a PDA, whose main virtue is that you always have it with you. The screen is clear, with good visibility under all lighting conditions. The built-in keyboard, which is exposed by sliding the control button section away from the screen section, is surprisingly usable for a high-speed hunt and peck typist,but might prove frustrating to a touch-typist.
Two expansion slots (compact flash and Secure Digital) allow for additional storage, and a number of CF-based devices such as a 1GB microdrive and modems and wireless access cards are supported as well. At this time, SD-based devices are not supported, just memory.
It is the software that is notable about the Zaurus, however. The operating system is Linux, suitably modified to fit the PDA hardware. Linux is a far more powerful operating system than either Palm OS or Windows CE, potentially allowing theZaurus to perform many functions impossible for other PDAs. In principal, it should be possible to turn the Zaurus into a fully-functional pocket-sized computer. Alas, this is not quite the case at present.
The PDA utilities included with the Zaurus are of mixed quality. Mail and a real word processor, spreadsheet and presentation builder are Zaurus built-ins that are not provided on the Palm. They are superior in quality to the third-party Palm offerings, and are at least as good as the MS Office Lite programs available for Windows CE machines. The browser, a version of the popular Opera browser, is likewise superior to the browsers available for non-Linux PDAs.
The basic PDA functions of Address Book, Calendar, ToDo and Memo are not nearly as well thought out as their Palm OS equivalents, which are simple, efficient and nearly intuitive to use. In general, they require many more pokes and clicks than the corresponding Palm programs, whose user interfaces set the standard for ease of use. The Zaurus apps have no increased functionality to compensate for their awkwardness of use.
The Linux implementation itself, which should be tthe Zaurus' strongest feature for techies, is likewise disappointing. While Linux itself seems to work well, several decisions betray a lack of real Linux/UNIX background at Sharp. Files that control Linux functions are put in non-standard places. The basic setup assumes the user is running as root (a big no no). Many commands are brain-damaged; that is, they do not have full functionality. Plus, the whole Documents concept (a useless and ridiculous one to begin with) in which the software searches documents folders in RAM, compact flash and SD storage for "documents" and displays a list for selection without providing any clue as to the physical location of the file, needs to be abandoned, or at least implemented intelligently.
In sum, the Zaurus is a disappointing device with terrific potentional. It is adequate (though not outstanding) as a PDA, and enough of a real computer that I can develop and test web pages on it, write and run programs in Perl and other languages, and communicate with other computers and the internet. The hardware is good, and I expect the software shortcomings to be quickly corrected by the Open Source community. Now if only the USB port could act as a host as well as a client....
New York Stringer is published by NYStringer.com. For all communications, contact David Katz, Editor and Publisher, at david@nystringer.com
All content copyright 2005 by nystringer.com
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