I bought a Sharp Zaurus on ebay because I wanted a PDA and I knew that the Sharp ran Linux. After having a look at the Sharp supplied Operating System, (nothing wrong with it, but not exactly what I wanted) I decided that I ought to find a Free replacement. Open Zaurus (Opie) is a fork (variant) of Trolltech's excellent Qtopia desktop supplied with the Sharp machine. The Operating System is derived from Debian, one of the major Linux distributions. If you're already a Linux user, all the familliar applications are available for you. (Note Korganizer in the screenshot). You just download the latest stable version, transfer the two files to a CF card, re-boot and enjoy. The web sites have full details of what to do.

The machine has handwriting recognition, a choice of software keyboards and a real (but very small) keyboard that is protected by a sliding cover. Mine didn't come with any Windows software, (I wouldn't use it anyway) but it's easy enough to use ssh and sftp (like telnet and ftp) to transfer files when it's in the supplied USB cradle. It has slots for both SD and Compact Flash cards and IR is built in too. The whole thing is a good package, made even better by the ready availability of a growing range of on-line free and commercial applications. It can act as an mp3 player, but there isn't a built-in speaker, you'll have to use headphones.

The picture shows the machine with the keyboard exposed. The silver bottom part slides to cover and protect it. I've pasted a screenshot (taken with the Zaurus) on to the photo I took, the screen had a lot of refection from the camera's flash.

I'm really impressed with the machine. If you want a PDA and prefer Linux in your pocket, then the Zaurus is well worth having.

If you buy a brand new one, they come with Hancom Office (writes MS Word, Powerpoint and Excel files) and software to synchronise with Windows Outlook etc. but nothing to use with Linux (hint: download everything you need). Sharp also sell a carmera and wireless lan attachments to fit in the Compact flash slot.