For a while now, I’ve had an old HP Jornada 565 PDA just to test and have some fun cracking it. I’ve tried to put linux on it, specially the Familiar distro, but the results where far from satisfactory. This is because the PDA is kinda old and the support was bad (no sound, bad screen tapping, etc…).
So, I’m running the default Windows CE now. I’ve been using more and more as I realize it is actually of great use. For instance, I’ve installed the Compact .Net Framework and developed a few utility application with Visual Studio. The development it self is fast and the only problem so far is that the deployment process and debugging is kinda slow. This is due to the fact of the serial connection (I don’t have the usb crandle) but the emulator that comes with Visual Studio is not faster either.
I’ve tested some applications to be able to see my job application code and I’ve been using to do some documentation while on the Cafe, train, whatever. I’m also using it to read my RSS feeds on the walk.
Yet, the most useful thing I found so far, is to read ebooks. That is like having a full library at my hand. Pretty cool.
My only desire was to be able to really deploy Linux and Mono on it. That would really make my day!
