The Zaurus Linux , or Zaurus series SSL , is a Personal assistant of the manufacturer Japan board Sharp. It is the first personal assistant sold with the Operating system Linux which is a great success. Indeed, its predecessor, the Agenda VR3 had known only one short career.

This apparatus has only the name of commun run with the precedents Zaurus de Sharp; it is indeed of a material architecture and a completely different operating system. Sharp replaces thus its operating system owner by a free system which avoids to him joining with Palm OS or with Windows CE.

Various models

It there of several, by chronological order of appearance:

• Fine 2001: Zaurus SL-5000D. Officially intended for the developers but distributed by the traditional circuits of distribution, it is equipped with a StrongARM processor to 200  MHz and of 32  Me of random access memory (of which 16  Me is reserved for the data storage of the user and 16  Me like workspace of the applications). The system is stored on a ROMANIAN Flash of 16  Me. It is equipped with an extractable keyboard, a port CompactFlash and a port SD Card. It is sold mainly in the United States.
• Beginning 2002: Zaurus SL-5500. It is the version general public; the memory was increased to reach 64Mo and certain physical elements (as the stylet) were improved. It is sold mainly in the United States, in Great Britain and Germany.
• August 2002: Zaurus SL-A300. It is physically very different from models SL-5X00 since it has neither keyboard nor CompactFlash port (it is possible to add an external hull for this last): Sharp preferred to make some smallest of the personal assistants rather than to keep these two elements. The microprocessor is XScale from Intel. This model is sold exclusively in Japan.
• December 2002: Zaurus SL-B500 is an evolution of the SL-5500, equipped with a processor Intel xscale 400  MHz and of the more recent versions of software. This model is sold under this name only in Japan
• December 2002: Zaurus SL-C700 is very different from the other models. It is equipped with a keyboard, and opens like a laptop. It is possible to swivel the screen to fold back it on the keyboard and to have thus a position close to the SL-A300. It is equipped with a processor Intel xscale with 400  MHz, of a CompactFlash port and a port SD Card. It is first Zaurus with being equipped with a screen of 640x480 pixels.
• Unspecified date: Zaurus SL-5600 is the American version of the SL-B500.
• March 2004: Zaurus SL-C6000 takes again the characteristics of the SL-860, with this close which it is with format SL-5000 and that it lays out, in-house, of a connection WiFi or BlueTooth
• November 2004: Zaurus SL-C3000 regains the shape of the SSL-C7x0 but has microdrive of 4  Integrated Go. It also has a new version of processor X-SCALE from Intel, the PXA-270, given rhythm with 416 MHz. Autonomy is also increased thanks to a stronger battery (1800  milliamperes)
• March 2005: Zaurus SL-C1000 is an alternative of the SL-C3000 without internal hard drive, but with 128  Mo of memory flash.
• June 2005: Zaurus SL-C3100 is a mixture of SL-C3000 and SL-C1000. It has a memory flash of 128  Mo instead of 16  Mo and it has an hard drive interns 4  Go. Moreover, the SL-C3100 is first Zaurus equipped with a transformer 100-240  V instead of 100  V only (Japan). This machine is solid and can fall one meter on concrete (in day before and screen closed again on the keyboard) without a scratch or a problem with the hard drive (personal experience).
• March 2006: Zaurus SL-C3200 identical to the SL-C3100 but with a disc interns 6  Go.
• February 2007: SHARP puts an end to the production of Zaurus. The fanatics continue to adapt systems and software for Zaurus.

Software

Zaurus SSL are delivered with:

• Embeddix, embarked version of Linux (license LPG),
• Qtopia, graphical interface by Trolltech (license LPG),
• Jeode, virtual Machine Java by Insigna,
• Hancom Office, office automation continuation by Hancom (software owner and paying),
• Opera, Navigator Web by the company éponyme.
• Killefiz: A site which gathers much software for Zaurus

One can also note the presence of the distribution openzaurus, maintained by impassioned and under LPG, it functions on all the models of Zaurus. It is resulting from the distribution for PDA " Familiar Linux " and under two form exists:

• the first " OPIE " approaches much the interface of origin of Sharp, it is based on the technology of FrameBuffer
• the second " GPE " adopt a completely original approach by using technology XWindow more often reserved for the computers " classiques"

External bonds

• OpenZaurus : Romanian alternative
• ZaurusFR: The French-speaking Community of the users of free PDA
• PdaXrom: PdaXrom is Romanian for zaurus based on a system X11
• Cacko: Romanian alternative based on the Romanian one of Sharp