Zaurus is better than Clie! Or is it??

[lino-man]

I have been reading up a bit on the Zaurus as well as following the latest on what Sony is releasing. I must admit that I get preturbed at Sony for releasing a new PDA every two months with minimal changes each time. So their poor customer support as well as customer care and loyalty is driving me away from purchasing a new Clie to replace my 610. I've spent less than 5 minutes actually using a Zaurus, but I know from this website that many of you have spent considerable time actually using the Zaurus on a daily basis.

:confused: So what are the arguments for and against switching to Zaurus? What do you like about the Zaurus, but miss about the Clie? Please, don't hold back from telling your experience with both.

[wellsjs]

Zaurus? Them's fightin' words around here! :D

[utahjazz85]

Please welcome our first guest,

nevardeath!!!!


APPLAUSE

[rhart00]

Originally posted by lino-man
:confused: So what are the arguments for and against switching to Zaurus? What do you like about the Zaurus, but miss about the Clie? Please, don't hold back from telling your experience with both.

arguments against switching to Zaurus: pocket pc, no hires+, not made by Sony (they may have bad customer service, but they make damn good stuff) just to name a few

[Pyogenes]

Originally posted by rhart00


arguments against switching to Zaurus: pocket pc, no hires+, not made by Sony (they may have bad customer service, but they make damn good stuff) just to name a few

Pocket PC? You obviously aren't familiar with the product.

[ZPayne]

lino-man, if you are interested I have a Zaurus for sale. It looks brand new. My dad got it from a guy he works with and since he already has a Clie, he gave it to me. Drop me a line if interested.

[aaronchow]

Which model is it? Is it the developer version or the retail version?

I'm actually interested in the new flip-screen one (when it comes out).

[lino-man]

Thanks Zpayne, line has been sent!

Ack! Did I hear PocketPC? <cough, gasp, wheeze>

I am still hoping that someone will tell me that they went to perform some task on their Zaurus and were shocked to find out it didn't exist and they realized they should've stuck with palm. Of course, if that never happened, i spose I'll never hear about it!

[ZPayne]

aaronchow,
The model I have is the SL-5500. The one you are talking about is the C700?, I think. It will not be released in the US. We get the Sl-5600.

[arinvolvo]

Zaurus is actually a linux based system...and the only thing that is holding it back are availability of Apps for that particular OS..

Palm OS's strongest feature is the vast array of both freeware and shareware apps that are available for it.

[Clie_Tek]

Originally posted by arinvolvo
Palm OS's strongest feature is the vast array of both freeware and shareware apps that are available for it.

&nbsp;

The problem is they broke alot of them with the move to OS5 and OS6 will probably be worse. They have to do this however to stave off the assault by M$ and PPC

[turcic.com]

Another problem with the Zaurus is a bad Contuit software I've heard.... Syncronization problems....

[lpnalda]

Hehe from what I've read on the Zaurus, it almost looks like it's easier to sync a palm device to linux and the Z "runs" linux. hehe.

Good idea but I think it's got to mature a little.

[Eric S]

Originally posted by Clie_Tek
The problem is they broke alot of them with the move to OS5 and OS6 will probably be worse. They have to do this however to stave off the assault by M$ and PPC

I wouldn't say alot. So far, I've encountered few programs that won't run on my NX.

The first kind of programs to break are programs that bypass the OS to do things. The programmer's docs are pretty clear about what you aren't supposed to do, but people do it anyway, and are surprised when their programs break.

The second kind are programs written using one of the (brain glitch, can't remember the term, CASLpro, SuperWaba, AppForge Booster, etc) but those break because often the runtime is bypassing the OS.

Then there's programs written by programmers that misread the programming docs or are going about something the wrong way. Some programs look for explicit versions of the OS, and bomb out if they don't find it.

Aside from hacks, I haven't found anything that breaks under OS5 that wasn't written incorrectly in the first place. Sure, it ran under earlier OS, but that's just because the errors weren't flagged as fatal under the earlier OS. How many programmers take the time to run their programs against DEBUG ROMs under POSE with all the warnings turned on? Until the last year or so, getting the DEBUG ROMs for POSE were rather difficult outside the US, so it didn't happen very often.

I'm not saying that programs had to be written according to the PalmOS5 Reference. I've got programs I wrote against the PalmOS3 Reference that work fine, but that's because I did everything by the book and didn't try to get tricky.

I've helped a few programmers get their programs working under OS5 who had thrown out the standard PilotMain loop thinking they knew better.

All in all, the only way PalmOS could have ensured that they didn't break anything was to not change anything, including the OS version number. Given the amount of the internals that were changed, it's amazing that the problem isn't quite a bit more significant.

Also, I don't think the jump to OS6 is going to be as bad as the one to OS5. OS5 has done two things. First, it made it a little more obvious that doing an end run on the OS may have short-term benefits, but it will more than likely hurt in the long run. Second, it's harder to do an end run on the OS under PalmOS5.

[Orion]

the main factor is the OS... i say palm Os is great and so is windows CE.... but linux for pda just ain't alll that great... IMO

[lino-man]

Hey, good responses! I took them all into consideration and still decided that I would pick up a Zaurus used to see if I like it or not. I won't Ebay my 610 until I determine if I can live with the Zaurus or not. Then again, maybe I'll just hang on to it to play the latest color palm pilot games.