Posted on 11/04/2005 6:15:02 AM PST by PissAndVinegar
Nokia has begun shipping its Linux-based Nokia 770, the so-called "Internet tablet", according to the Finnish giant's direct-sales website.
The device lacks the usual Nokia mobile phone technology, relying instead on Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) and Bluetooth to connect it to a broadband connectivity host. The 770 is pitched at consumers who want to access the Internet for emailing and web browsing anywhere in their home.
(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.co.uk ...
For the tech ping..
How do you mean?
Just a joke...there's a bunch of Freepers who feel open source software is communist for some reason.
That's what I thought but I didn't know if you were from the dark side or not... ;)
I am neither an MS or Linux basher but know that, as a system admin, I will take Win2K and XP over ANY UX system as a general rule.
I use RedHat/Fedora and Suse Linux daily. (also HPUX and Solaris) Though they have their niche for some systems/apps, like MS OS's, their shortcomings are numerous:
1. Linux is not nearly as stable as most UX "cheerleaders" claim. I have to reboot most of my UX systems many more times than I do my Win2K Server and WinXP Pro systems.
2. They aren't free and most Linux-based solutions cost more than MS solutions in the long run. Our estimated labor hours to support a Linux system is TRIPLE that of our MS systems. This is a truly amazing stat as it does seem that we have to patch our MS systems many times a year. Bear in mind that our system admins average around 65K a year - their time is valuable and costly. Patching Windows and troubleshooting UX boxes are both time consuming but MS actually takes less time.
3. Linux is still not a true replacement for Windows for the end user. If you don't believe this, you don't know the "technical proficiency" of our end users.
4. End user applications for Linux just aren't available as a general rule. Yes, you can find substititions for many Windows programs but just look at your favorite software store and compare shelf space. Not even close.
Windows and *UX each have their benefits and their costs. However, if an application can run on either platform, I say from experience - give me the Windows version.
If you want a Google GMail account, FReepmail me.
I reboot my Linux servers four times a year for scheduled kernel patches. Out side of that I can count on one hand the number of times I have had to reboot any of my production state Linux boxes over the past 3 years... Linux is as stable as you build it to be, vanilla out of the box it has issues like *any* vanilla out of the box os.
Linux? we have two Linux admins and Windows admins for a similar number of production boxes of which the big database servers are Linux..
Windows and *UX each have their benefits and their costs. However, if an application can run on either platform, I say from experience - give me the Windows version.
I think *you're* experience is just as anecdotal as the *NIX "Cheerleaders" you claim make outrageous claims and your claims are just as based in your bias.. Which is better *NIX or Windows depends on so many factors anything but an individual TCO per server makes no sense..
1. Linux is not nearly as stable as most UX "cheerleaders" claim. I have to reboot most of my UX systems many more times than I do my Win2K Server and WinXP Pro systems.
Not in my experience. Win2K Server is much more stable than say WinNT 4.0 but doesn't come close to the stability of a properly configured Linux system. Many of the problems that I come across with the Windows systems is the constant "reboot to update the system" for security and system patches (which come out constantly).
2. They aren't free and most Linux-based solutions cost more than MS solutions in the long run. Our estimated labor hours to support a Linux system is TRIPLE that of our MS systems. This is a truly amazing stat as it does seem that we have to patch our MS systems many times a year. Bear in mind that our system admins average around 65K a year - their time is valuable and costly. Patching Windows and troubleshooting UX boxes are both time consuming but MS actually takes less time.
This I believe it red-herring. Yes, Linux and *NIX administrators require a steeper learning curve and that translates into dollars of training and salary but the trade off is the stability of the product. I cannot tell you how many extra hours of pay or comptime that has been paid out in my experience with people jerking around with Windows boxes that have crashed or are hung and need to be rebuilt.
3. Linux is still not a true replacement for Windows for the end user. If you don't believe this, you don't know the "technical proficiency" of our end users.
It has made a marked progress in the arena. I believe has more and more to do with users not wanting to change, which is a very strong human trait, that with the lack of software available to do their everyday tasks. But that is my opinion.
4. End user applications for Linux just aren't available as a general rule. Yes, you can find substitutions for many Windows programs but just look at your favorite software store and compare shelf space. Not even close.
This is not where many of these end-user apps reside. The vast majority are open-source software available for free download and use. You will not find them at Electronics Boutique or CompUSA. Never the less, they work.
I just wanna know how much this little jewel is gonna run me
Got one of these on order - should be with me early next week. I'll post some piccies of it displaying FR...
OSS PING
If you are interested in the OSS ping list please mail me
Surely, Fascism and Socialism must follow.
This is quite odd as I only reboot mine maybe twice a year for cleaning and what-not. Out of the sixty or so that I manage, none have required a "three-fingered salute" to solve problems.
I use RedHat/Fedora and Suse Linux daily.
The former might explain your difficulties. Fedora can be *very* quirky. Not so sure about SuSE as I haven't used it in a number of years.
2. They aren't free and most Linux-based solutions cost more than MS solutions in the long run. Our estimated labor hours to support a Linux system is TRIPLE that of our MS systems....
Nothing is free. Your labor hours *shouldn't* be quite that high, though. I mean no offense, but, it indicates to me an IT staff that isn't very *nix savvy. If you are coming from a 100% MS network, this is to be expected. After a while, administering *nix boxes is almost effortless.
3. Linux is still not a true replacement for Windows for the end user. If you don't believe this, you don't know the "technical proficiency" of our end users.
Now this I agree with 100%. There is a learning curve that can be rather steep in some cases. Most end-users do not want to fool with it.
I say from experience - give me the Windows version.
I say from my experience, don't place that cumbersome kludge anywhere near my private systems ;) Okay..I do boot into it on occasion to play HalfLife 2.
Mrs. F & I were wondering that last night. The specs make no mention of it.
I also wonder what it'll cost when it is available for sale. $pendy, I bet.
My last division manager called me up a couple nights ago. He wants to resurrect the door to door navigation that I built in 2003. This time I'm going for MapPoint on the backend and putting the action on the smart phone. Last time the PDA was just GPS/display/voice. This time it can have a live network connection.
What do my comments have to do with the article? Nokia has barely caught up to the HP5555. Late to the party. Linux doesn't have anything nearly as good and portable as the Compact .Net framework. My Samsung sch-i730 has 802.11b WiFi, Bluetooth, 1XEV-DO and MS2003 Mobile OS. The 1 GB SD card carts my MP3 music. It has Word and Excel onboard, so my project manager can send me appropriate docs. The Internet Explorer is bunches better than the "Blazer" offered on the Treo 650. E-mail via SMTP/POP3 using the Verizon Wireless servers. Full motion video over the net too. It does have a couple lame aspects that could be fixed. Notably, the lack of mapping of custom ringtones to a given caller id. The Windows Media Player needs to be upgraded to play iPod AAC format so I can use my iTunes library on the phone or iPod.
Here's what I'm going to have to replace - originally made by Franklin - its only two credit cards thick, holds 5000 + names, apptmts, etc. but is no longer available. Also I found a great program called OsaSynch that synchs Outlook between my laptop and desktop. Unfortunately it seems to mess up the RexPro synch ... sigh.
So where's the phone? There's plenty of other devices that do what this does, and more. The fact it was delayed means it's even further behind than orginally planned.
Thanks for your comments! Interesting stuff, indeed!
Which is why you are using Linux even as we type--FR runs on Linux. If it were running on Windows, this site would be down daily.
I don't expect that to happen, but I don't know why anyone would really want an iPod or limited Linux device like this when the MS and Palm smartphones offer a whole lot more in the same basic size. You can watch TV, run terminal server, stream audio/video from the web or even your own home, plus of course the cell phone. Anything less, is uncivilized!
I did buy an iPod Shuffle in 512MB version. It holds just enough music to keep me entertained on my frequent cross country flights. That is also the only time I have time to enjoy it. It is a pretty good fit for a very narrow purpose. My wife has a 40 GB iPod. It is loaded with over 2800 of her favorite songs. She takes it to work for background music while dispatching at the police department. Her boss doesn't permit bringing anything else in the office to fill "dead time".
Sad! The Treo's are excellent hardware, I too had the initial O/S instability problems but ironed them out with 2 third party products: Uninstall Manager and BackupMan. Now it's doing a great job, especially as a phone which is typically weak on PDA models. I'm even using a hacked version of Web Pro from the Treo 600 instead of Blazer, which works a lot better. I'm considering the new 700W Treo, with MS Pocket O/S, but more likely the new PPC-6700 if I end up adding a MS device which has EV-DO and 802.11b. I already have a Blackberry for work, which I may upgrade to the EDGE version when it comes out next month, and another Java flipphone that is still my primary device due to the small size and great features, except for the WAP browser.
The Treo 650 or 700W will probably become my "small" take everywhere phone and I'll get the PPC-6700 or other landscape type phone like the upcoming Apache to use when I need to seriously use terminal server or MS apps. I think I told you have a few NEC Handheld PC's that I run TS on now around the house, but it doesn't have all the multimedia features of these new phones and doesn't work outside the wifi range. I'm sure I'll keep upgrading each time a new technology converges into a new generation, right now my favorite time killer is watching CNBC stock reports live via MobilTV on my phones, made a killing here this last quarter. MobiTV isn't available on MS mobilephones but I've heard about a service available on some models called "smartvideo" that carries CNBC as well, ever heard of it? That's probably the main thing I'm waiting to find out about before I invest into the MS phones, it's the killer app of the day to my way of thinking.
Last week we needed a printer pretty bad in the field. Someone whipped out an HP InkJet, but no driver. I was able to go to the HP support site, download the driver to the SD card in my phone, then move it to the laptop that was hosting the printer. We had no other connectivity for the project at the time. It was pretty useful that time.
Roger that on the laptop, my current one has the 17" screen and it normally doesn't leave the house. The Treo has a Java engine from IBM available for running local apps, along with 3rd party TS (MobileTS) and MS office compatible (MobiSystems Office) apps so it seemed to give me the most flexibility which is why I bought it, althought that was of course an additional expense. The main thing it's lacking is the ability to steam Windows Media sites natively, which I'm so far doing without. That and a bigger screen, since I'm spending so much time staring at it.
If you have a terminal server host somewhere you should be able to login with your Samsung and run Java apps through the full IE client within the remote session. You could even use a Windows XP client for it if you turned on Remote Desktop and opened a hole in your firewall for your incoming requests. Good luck, GE out.
It's got less style sense than my old, clunky, but trustworthy, 2110.
Some of us prefer different devices for different tasks. I had a Palm, I had a nice cell phone. Then I got a Palm/cell combo and it doesn't do either as well as the original.
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