Linux on Hand Held Computers?

["John C. Peterson" <jaypee@netcom.com>]

   The list appears to have "taken off" (pun intended). I just
checked and there are now 56 subscribers to linux-aviation from
all over the world: Australia, Canada, Europe and the US. Welcome to
everyone, please feel free to post questions and ideas!

   Let me throw out a topic of personal interest for discussion, namely
"What will the future hold for Linux and Hand Held Aviation related
computing???"  I'm most interested in the smaller devices that will fit
in a shirt pocket, can easily be mounted on the yoke, panel or perhaps
a small "knee board", and has reasonable battery life.  Here's some
things to reflect on;

  1) What are the most promising platforms for Hand Held Aviation
     Computing??? The 3Com Palm devices are obvious candidates: there
     is already a good interface between Linux and PalmOS, small size,
     good battery life, large existing user base, etc.

  2) What is the long term prospect of running Linux itself on such
     devices???  I know there is a already a project that is taking on
     the task of porting Linux to small memory environments. Check out
     the uCLinux web web site at;

	http://ryeham.ee.ryerson.ca/uClinux/ (Main, US Site)
	http://humbolt.geo.uu.nl/~riel/uClinux/ (Mirror, Europe)

  3) What would be the major advantage of running Linux itself on these
     devices, or is it better to just stick with the native environments
     (e.g.  PalmOS)???  What about developing code in Java? For example,
     see

	http://www.hewgill.com/pilot/jump/index.html (Jump)
	http://www.cs.utah.edu/~mcdirmid/ghost/ (Ghost)
	http://www.wabasoft.com/overview.html (Waba)

  4) Potential applications??? Here's a few:

       o Weight and Balance
       o E6B "like" calculations (Density Altitude, etc).
       o Moving Map for use with GPS
       o Speed to Fly (for gliders)

Best Regards, John

-- 
 ___|___  | John C. Peterson, KD6EKQ | The box said; "requires Windows NT
  -(*)-   | mailto:jaypee@netcom.com | 4.0 or better", so I installed Linux.
  o/ \o   | San Diego, CA   U.S.A    | See http://www.linux.org/ for info.
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