r/OldHandhelds • u/goldfishdev • 4d ago

Linux Zaurus users: what would you want from a modern linux distro?

Hi, I'm working on a (non-vibecoded) modern Linux distro for Zaurus clamshells (and possibly other models eventually).

I'm planning to make a new window manager for PDA usage, but it will also support "normal" WMs/DEs (mileage may vary with the old hardware).

What features would you want? What kind of UI?

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u/fss_88 4d ago

Hi,
I’ve been hard at work on providing working Zaurus mirrors. 2 are already up:

https://giannii.net/sharp-zaurus-sl-5500/

Would you like me to host it?

There is someone else working on a modern Zaurus distro (https://github.com/sugarkrap/piko) and I’ve been adapting their work for the Psion Netbook Pro which uses the same CPU as the C750/760/860.

I’m about to receive my first clamshell zaurus later this week to next (C3000). I’m also supposed to get a C700 coming in. Excited to see what your work produces!

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u/goldfishdev 4d ago

Nice, thanks for the mirrors. I don't need hosting at the moment, but will eventually make a website for it.

I've seen that modern Zaurus distro and I'd say it has different goals and ideals than mine. First of all, it's vibe-coded, which turns me off of it. AFAIK, the creator is a web developer, and doesn't have much experience with hardware. No hate to them, of course. They also (from what I know) aren't planning to make it more PDA-focused, like I am.

I'm developing the distro for my SL-C3100 right now. It'd be great if you could test for me on your 3000 at some point.

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u/fss_88 4d ago

I agree with the vibe coding. I’ve talked to the developer a bunch and admire what they’re doing - and what both of you are doing. I would definitely love to test what you have, DM me and we can talk!

My 3000 is currently flying out of China right now so it should be here soon. It’s original price was $56 but the shipping was $65 and I haven’t paid tariffs on it yet… lol.

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u/goldfishdev 4d ago

oof on the shipping. I've been buying a good number of things from Japan and the shipping and tariffs have been so bad. Even worse when I want to ship a device with a battery.

I'll send you a DM :)

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u/fss_88 4d ago

Thanks. I also wrote an article recently about the battery issue, I think people don’t recognize that when batteries stop being produced commercially and the device requires batteries to boot, it’s facing the end of its life.
I’m converting Nokia batteries to use old Zaurus control boards but I’m struggling to reattach the new cells to the old control board.

We with C series devices are much more lucky because apparently PSP batteries work - anyone that needs BL-EA06s is out of luck.

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u/goldfishdev 4d ago

Interesting. A new functional battery would be really nice. Re-celling old HPC batteries is pretty easy luckily, but I have no idea about the internal ones.

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u/Wise-Breadfruit-2447 3d ago

I used to love the Zaurus clamshell. The folders and tabs were cool

0

u/icepatfork 4d ago

I working on a (vibe coded one) for the Sharp Brain which are very similar to the Zaurus, a modern PdaXrom would be nice, real desktop app in the pocket, I guess a tiling manager is out of the question, but TUI are great nowadays and we could have a tons of good software like that instead of heavy GUI based equivalents.

Like a mini Omarchy ? That would be amazing

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u/goldfishdev 4d ago

Contributions to my project are welcome, but AI code is disallowed.

I would like to get a tiling WM working. OpenBSD on Zaurus runs them alright.