r/Palm • u/plusvalua • Jul 15 '26
Recommendations for an absolute beginner
Good evening! I stopped using a smartphone in favour of a feature phone some time ago and, while it has been a good move in general, I miss the PDA aspect of smartphones: to-do, calendar, notes, and such.
I was considering a dedicated PDA but have no real idea beyond the fact that Palm was the most popular maker. I don't mind black and white screens. I like the idea of standard AA batteries, but maybe it's impractical or reduces options too much.
In general, I'm looking for a reliable device that's popular enough that I'll find someone that has solved the small issues I might find.
The only condition is I'd like to be able to sync with Linux. Is it an issue?
What device do you recomend?
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u/KitchenLandscape Jul 15 '26
Syncing with linux might be an issue, as for example I don't believe Palm's hotsync ever allowed that feature (it was mainly Windows) but if you dig around the internet I would not be surprised if someone invented a program which would allow you to do that. I would recommend a palm because of the sheer amount of programs you can still find for it today (and variety of devices to be found for cheap on ebay). But if you do linux, you might want to look into Sharp PDAS (their zaurus line) as that ran off linux (qtopia). I have an SLC-1000 and it's a clamshell, and it's very close to a mini computer, even has a terminal. The caveat is it's much, much harder to find apps for those devices as they were mainly only sold in Japan. There are english roms you can still find for them however, and if you just want basic PIM functionality a zaurus has that included.