Sharp has always been an innovator with the Zaurus line of PDAs and the newest member of that family is no exception. The Zaurus SL-C3000 takes the utility of previous generations and extends it even further. The C3000 is a clamshell device that resembles a miniature laptop when opened and has a bright vivid screen that is wonderful to work with.
Sharp Zaurus SL-C3000 Review
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Nice machine, but truthfully, the lack of WiFi is a real issue.
This machine is really nice and you can even run openbsd on it:
http://www.openbsd.com/images/zaurus-c3000.jpg
Looks like a nice machine, but imo overpriced, especially considering the lack of wifi.
Does anybody know if there is a project to get the Zaurus PDAs
sybcing with evolution or kontact … kind of strange that a linux pda should not sync with a linux desktop
Hmmm it just seems too weird seeing a shell prompt on a handhald. I think although feature-rich, my personal opinion is that this is more suitable to Unix-knowledgeable people. For anyone else, I will recommend Palm or iPAQ and iPAQ like devices such as the Toshiba ones etc. However, I am impressed.
imagine that, a company network protected by a firewall/router running on a sharp zaurus!
Why would anyone want to buy an expensive, underfeatured (seriously, no wifi, no bluetooth) device, that the manufacturer doesn’t want to sell and support outside of Japan ? And it won’t readily sync with Linux ….
Peeple should check this
http://www.archos.com/products/overview/pma_400.html
instead. Not out yet, but at least, will be supported.
Yeah this Archos thingy is great..but have you checked the price tag? It’s in a different category, so maybe it’s not fair to compare with poor Zaurus…
Price is not on that page but I’ve seen somewhere that it should be at around 800 EUR so that’s in the same range than what dynamism is asking for the Zaurus ($819)
Wow, the Zaurus costs that much? Sorry then, my bad.
I thought it was in the ~$500 price range.
Well, I don’t have money for either, so… :
The Archos is nice, but appears to lack a keyboard.
It’s more of a walkman than a PDA really.
why don’t you buy a laptop instead?
Or a Desktop? 😉
An 802.11b CF wi-fi card was $45, the $250 XGA card did seem a bit steep but is such a cool feature I popped for it anyway. Support shmort.
What’s with the big wing hanging off the archos dingus, is that a scratch cover? Looks like a big ugly afterthought.
>why don’t you buy a laptop instead?
>Or a Desktop? 😉
…probably because some have those already, and wants to have something that fits in a pocket?
I would love to put my hands on one of those Archos units..looks great
I really like my 5500SL. If you didn’t know better you would never know it was a linux PDA. But if your a linux user you’ll really see the benefits. I like the fact that I can download just about any linux software and compile it on, or cross compile, for my handheld. Its really well made, and the screen was light years ahead of other PDAs of its time. I would love to upgrade to a C3000, but the price is way out there unless I was looking for a really thin-n-light notebook.
BTW I never, and would never, use WiFi. Defeats the purpose of using a pretty secure OS.
BTW I never, and would never, use WiFi. Defeats the purpose of using a pretty secure OS.
i’m not sure i understand what you’re saying. having a wifi enabled device doesn’t mean having an unprotected device. they’re not one in the same. the only thing you’re risking by running wireless is someone snooping on your communication and at worst grabbing unencrypted passwords. as long as you firewall all your machines and use openssh, you’re fine. paranoia is both good and bad. too much paranoia get’s you to the point of not doing anything useful. live a little and use opera on that derned device, it looks good
oh, don’t run as root like openzaurus does by default and immediately enable a password for root which is blank on a fresh install.
btw, my 5500 is hooked up to my stereo and network (via wifi) running ESD (enlightenment sound daemon). i can pipe audio to the stereo from any other device in my home that supports ESD output (xmms). pretty cool stuff indeed.
the only thing you’re risking by running wireless is someone snooping on your communication and at worst grabbing unencrypted passwords. as long as you firewall all your machines and use openssh
‘Snooping’ is not really a problem. Use SSH to auth (e.g. pf_auth, preferably with OTP) then use IPsec. Everything between those 2 lines is then definetely secure. As for securing an AP… different story.