Re: [tlug] Zauruses

[David Santinoli <marauder@example.com>]

On Fri, Oct 14, 2005 at 09:16:52AM +0900, Ian Wells wrote:
> I know several people have a Zaurus and I was pondering buying one.
> 
> 1. Which models are worth having? (We're talking clamshell here.)

The SL-C3000 is IMHO the best compromise between coolness and price.
I bought mine in Akihabara one month ago, in a Sofmap second-hand PDA
shop, for 47800 yen (~360 euro).  They have quite a broad assortment of
used Zaurii.

> 3. Which ROM do people use? I see there are Qtopia and X based ROMs
> out there; I have to say, I like the idea of running Firefox but I
> suspect X is a bit heavyweight (and I assume it's a requirement).
> Naturally, I'm too much of a geek to leave it untampered with...

I use OpenZaurus on my SL-5500 and like it a lot.  I intend to give it a
try on the C3000 (OPIE, GPE, or both) as soon as I get some spare time,
but at the same time am reluctant to abandon the wealth of Japanese
facilities provided by the Sharp ROM (esp. the input method, since
alternative ROMs seem to be lagging behind in this area).

> 4. Which (wifi) network cards work?

The best choice (in terms of support and power consumption) appears to
be the Linksys WCF-12, but I couldn't find it anywhere in Akiba, and
bought a Planex GW-CF11X instead.  It requires a driver from the
manufacturer's website for the Sharp ROM but it's supported out-of-the
box by OpenZaurus.

Cheers,
 David
-- 
 David Santinoli, Milano             +   <david@example.com>
 Independent Linux/Unix consultant   +   http://www.santinoli.com