[SATLUG] [OT]Sony personal communicator

[Brad Knowles]

On 10/29/07, Brad Knowles wrote:

>>   Now if this was about openmoko & Neo1973 then yea, you
>>   could say I'm "hating" because I havent bought it yet.
>
>  Do your homework on OpenMoko and the company behind the Neo 1973.

Besides, take a look at the history of Linux on handheld devices.  In 
recent times, one of the best support platforms was the iPaq hx4700, 
who did receive real support from both Compaq and HP.  This was the 
first handheld device with both built-in WiFi and a 640x480 screen, 
and supports both CompactFlash and SecureDigital media.

Have you heard of any other person in the entire state of Texas who's 
talked about the hx4700 in the last couple of years, except possibly 
me?  I now own three or four of these devices, and I've intentionally 
put them into the hands of Linux kernel developers around the world, 
because I actively want to support this kind of effort?  Just exactly 
how successful would you claim that this project is?


Without direct, large scale support and funding from a hardware 
developer that is 100% committed to the platform, just how successful 
do you think that *any* Linux-on-handheld project is going to be?

These things aren't like developing for PCs.  These are like 
developing for all the proprietary hardware platforms that existed 
twenty or thirty years ago.  Even models from the same manufacturer 
are actually radically different inside, and they all come with 
massive NDA requirements from the various chip manufacturers, and 
it's virtually impossible to get any drivers for any of the 
proprietary chips involved, so you end up having to re-develop those 
from scratch in a blackbox environment.

How much time do you think that kind of process takes?

How long do you think it is before the hardware manufacturer decides 
to actively kill that platform, and move everyone onto the next 
Microsoft-fueled gravy train?

-- 
Brad Knowles <brad at shub-internet.org>
LinkedIn Profile: <http://tinyurl.com/y8kpxu>