Zaurus PDA 5600?

[Greg Kedrovsky]

On Tue, Nov 04, 2003 at 11:00:15PM -0600, Bradley Miller wrote:
> Does anyone have an experience or feelings on the Zaurus 5600's?

I bought a 5600 about a month ago. My first week's experience with it
was a stinkin nightmare! I'm getting used it to, though, and like it
overall. But do your homework first...

1. The USB cradle is weird. It uses TCP/IP to communicate with your
computer and sync with a desktop program (like Qtopia - but make sure
you can get Qtopia installed on your machine first). The drivers that
come with the Z are for Windows and Mac. I dual boot and the Win98
drivers work without a hitch. However, the story in Linux is very
different. I cannot get it to sync in Linux using the USB cradle. I run
RH8.0, standard kernel 2.4.18-14. I applied patches and tweeked drivers
and could NOT get the thing to even be recognized in Linux (as usb0 in
ifconfig -a). Supposedly the 2.4.22 kernel has an experimental Z driver
built in. I got a copy of Slack 9.1 to install (one of these days when I
have free time...) on a spare partition to see if it works. All my
googling has turned up the same answer: IF you can get the usb cradle
recognized, the syncing is shotty at best. My next solution to the
problem is a CompactFlash ethernet card and hooking it up to my LAN here
in my SOHO. It should hang off the LAN as a standard IP address and sync
with qtopiaDesktop. Since I live outta the States, I had to buy it on
the net and have it shipped here. So, I don't know if it's gonna work or
not. I'm still waiting on the southbound mule to deliver it.

That's "number one" on my list. Make sure this hang-up in drivers isn't
going to hose what you wanna do with the unit. I need a PIM and wanted a
geek gadget, too. I got the geek gadget but my PIM capabilities are
sorely lacking. I need to do all my PIM stuff on my desktop computer
while I'm driving my desk. When I have appointments, meetings, etc. I
need to sync quickly and be able to haul my info around with me in my
"palm." Can't do that yet with my Z. Hopefully the CF will solve that.

2. The PIM software that comes with the Z is NOT the best out there.
Address book. Calendar. To-do list. Memos (text docs, etc.). Check
around and play with the other options out there. I heard the new Palms
have an outstanding PIM package, well developed. Now, to its credit, the
Z is very flexible. One of the things on my to-do list for the thing is
to see if there are any other (better) PIM packages out there. But, all
this really boils down to personal preference. 

So, that's my input. For what it's worth.  :-)

-Greg

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