Thread: Sharp IS01: the Zaurus is back, sort of...
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2010-03-31 , 09:00
Posts: 2,853 | Thanked: 968 times | Joined on Nov 2005
#22
Originally Posted by nilchak View Post
Wow nice to see Sharp back in the game - after they quit with the Zaurus line and went back to the edictionarries only for quite some time.
I guess this is where most companies falter - the software side.
Sharp had great hardware in the Zaurus (for its time) , but on the software side while Qtopia was good - they couldnt carry it forward.
Indeed. Either they didn't "get" the open source and community-building side of things, or they didn't have the will to make it corporate policy, like Nokia did.

Now with Android all these companies (Motorola included) are getting a new lease of life - since they dont have to worry about the software side.
Unfortunately, Android is a very ambiguous beast where openness is concerned, IMHO.

And this is where I applaud Nokia - in pushing an open source Mobile OS forward - it is a difficult task - the Zaurus being a testatment to that.
And if the new Sharp devices can run Maemo / MeeGo some day - all the more a sweet victory. I loved the Zauruses in its time (still have my Zaurus C750) and Maemo now.
That is my hope, yes. The commercial impact would probably be marginal, as Sharp usually doesn't market theses devices outside Japan. But it would be a tangible signal of what Meego is all about, and would send a strong signal to others...

Oh that news about oesf.org being down and out is bad news. They were the last standing champions of the Zaurus.
Well, there was no advance warning, so it's still not clear to me if it has been shut down intentionally or if it's a problem with the lease on the domain name having expired (it's happened before :-). Maybe there's a chance it will reappear...
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