On Thu, 10 Jul 2003, Price Technology wrote: > I'd like recommendations from folks who are actually using them, > including any hoops they had to jump through to make them work, features > that still don't work, little annoyances, etc. Well, there are essentially three kinds of PDAs - PalmOS based units, Wince/PocketPC/Windows_for_mobile_devices based units, and others (the latter includes Linux). PalmOS based units are by far in the majority - all told more than 70% market share (these include units from Palm itself, plus licencees like Sony and other big names). They are also the best supported under Linux (make that "non-Windows" since they work well with OS X and other platforms as well). Apps like Jpilot (shipped with Shrike), kpilot (ditto), Evolution (ditto) all let you use a PalmOS based PDA just as you would under Windows - and often much better.[1] Microsoft's PDA OS offerings haven't done too well in the market, with something like 15% market share. As you can expect, they are unsupported under anything other than Windows. Units from HP, Dell and Toshiba run these OSs. Unlike PalmOS, different incarnations of MS' PDA OS offerings are incompatible with each other as well. Linux and several otehr players bring up the rear, but at this time they are really in the minority, with a miniscule market share. This may have its reasons [2], and the situation may improve over time. Ironically, Linux-based PDAs like the Zaurus actually work better with Windows than with Linux - in the sense that synchronization support is better under Windows. I am a Linux-only user on my desktop, and have been for years, but my PDAs since 1998 have all been PalmOS based, and I have had no reason to regret this. Hope this helps. Atul [1] http://atulchitnis.net/writings/palm-ppp.php [2] http://atulchitnis.net/writings/pdaos.php -- ------------------------------------------- Atul Chitnis | achitnis@xxxxxxxxxxx Exocore Consulting | http://www.exocore.com Bangalore, India | +91 (80) 344-0397 -------------------------------------------
