I bought a Sharp Zaurus (SL-C3000) back in March. It's basically a tiny laptop that runs Linux. The software Sharp supplies it very much geared up toward it being a PDA, and although I want to use the PDA functionality I also want other bits like a decent ssh client and possibly various network diagnose tools or whatever. Oh, and games, though there are some for the Sharp ROM.

OpenZaurus is a much more complete linux environment for the Zaurus, using OpenEmbedded as its core. However when I got my Zaurus it wasn't yet supported. So I ended up spending some time trying to work out the various differences between my Zaurus and the supported models. This meant it wasn't usable for several weeks, which I found frustrating; almost to the point of putting the Sharp ROM back on it. However I got there in the end, and now it mostly works.

However, I'm still not using it that much. I think part of the reason is that I work from home and don't attend many meetings or similar, so I always tend to have a real computer to hand. But the other reason is that there are still a bunch of niggling loose ends that I need to tie up, and unlike my laptop I expect a PDA like device to handle the mainline cases well. My current list of gripes includes:

  • No seemless bluetooth. Although I've got a CF bluetooth card and have got communications working between my phone and the Z, I haven't actually ever had a PPP session up and running. I'm pretty sure I know what I need to do, but it's just too fiddly for frequent use. I want to be able to pull the Z out of my pocket with the BT card in it, hit a "Connect" button and be able to check my email.
  • Email. There's a client in OPIE which claims to be able to do SSL IMAP, but it doesn't seem to want to work with the. I've no idea what the issue is; I quite possibly need to do some connection snooping.
  • Multiple location support. My home network has a WEP key; I don't pretend this makes it secure, but it at least stops casual attacks. However when I'm out and about I'll want to use public hotspots. The OpenZaurus code doesn't currently have an easy way to indicate different locations (or even better detect them automatically). The Sharp ROM did at least let you easily select where you were and alter settings based on that.
  • Calendar/address book syncing. This isn't actually Zaurus specific. I have a work Mozilla calendar that has various bits of information in it, as well as my personal stuff, and what Kathy's up to. I want to be able to edit this on my Z, or my desktop, or my phone, and have it automatically reflect everywhere else. I'm sure this isn't a unique request. I even started writing some code for this, but currently am bogged down in timezone issues with Mozilla. sigh. I'm sure there must be a decent lightweight calendar for Linux with iCal support out there. Please? I've found myself almost installing Evolution several times.

Some of these I can probably solve easily myself (like the email issue), but it just seems like a lot of hassle. Are my requirements that non-standard?