The thread on Installing Linux on PDA's inspired me to go searching and my research started with Three's advert for the Motorola A920, I was interested in what it was running since it's looks like it's got almost all of my check points for features I want in a portable device. (see http://www.three.com.au/index.cfm?section=Explore&pid=450&pageid=481&sid=854 ) They still don't provide a TV remote <grrr!>
Turns out it's an OS called Symbian (see www.symbian.com) which is backed by most of the phone manufacturers and has an open API (whatever that means) if not the complete OS source code. This is often combined with Java & Macromedia Flash to get access the now numerous mobile apps. My research led me to the Motorola A760 which runs Linux (see www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS4504156025.html ) and was targeted for the Asian market. One possible reason is the wholesale dumping of Microsoft by the Chinese government in favour of Linux. Motorola's playing the sensible card here hedging their bets. With the networking features these things are packing it's possible we won't need mobile towers in well populated areas because traffic could route between phones. I reckon by the end of the decade we'll be using fully functional Star-trek tricorders & comm badges thus proving once again Science Fiction can become reality. ---<GRiP>--- -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
