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JeffLewis · 09-15-03, 10:51 PM

Little more to the middle (as always, I guess). I have a Handspring (the original Deluxe), a Palm m505 and of course, the Dell Axim X5.

I jumped ship from PalmOS for a simple reason: while Palm's core utilities were great for basic stuff - as soon as you wanted to get into more complex tasks things sort of bogged down. Also, as a programmer, I found programming PalmOS either expensive or unnecessarily complicated. The multimedia capabilites of PPC simply have no good parallel in PalmOS when you consider how easy it is to make movies and music for PPC using WMEncoder - even easier in PPC2K3. I regularily take 5 hour bus trips and now I can watch movies and TV shows on it without having to lug about a heavy laptop - this is exactly what I've always wanted.

I'm not sure precisely what 'productivity' gains CorwinB was expecting - and why PPC 2002 didn't give them to him. In almost every way that counts, I find PPC 2002 vastly more powerful and flexible, but part of that means learning to find the right utilities to do what you want.

I find the complaint that you have to use 3rd party apps a liability for PPC odd when almost everyone I know who has a Palm device immediately adds a replacement launcher - usually one with plug ins.. or HackMaster or some similar basic system modifying utility.

PalmOS is a fine system up to a point and it's amazing what people have done with it, but when it comes to things like GPS applications or serious database work, sorry - PocketPC simply stomps all over PalmOS.

On the flip side, one things PocketPC could learn from PalmOS is how to simplify the user experience. I've long thought about porting the core PalmOS utilities to PocketPC just to offer a simpler to use set of core apps and then throw in a good Launcher utility as well.

As for the SD issue - check out HappyCheeseCake's site and you'll see it's not a PocketPC specific problem - and definitely not an Axim specific issue (although Dell really should do something to fix their driver and possible make the problem go away). Even digital cameras have been known to have this problem.

Would I go back to PalmOS? Well - I have sort of... My Axim is still my main powerhouse.. but there are a number of very basic tasks that the m505 does better - like being an alarm clock (very important for me) and being a remote control. But there are very few such tasks. I also want to make beaming work between PalmOS and PPC, so I need a test device.

But would I give up my Axim? Well, more accurately - would I give up my PocketPC? No. Dell - well, I'm having issues with Dell - but not with PocketPC and I can't wait for WM2004 (which is about when the WM2003 upgrade for the Axim should ship... just kidding... :)

09-15-03, 10:51 PM	#41 (permalink)
JeffLewis Aximsite Minor League Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Canada Posts: 206 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Little more to the middle (as always, I guess). I have a Handspring (the original Deluxe), a Palm m505 and of course, the Dell Axim X5. I jumped ship from PalmOS for a simple reason: while Palm's core utilities were great for basic stuff - as soon as you wanted to get into more complex tasks things sort of bogged down. Also, as a programmer, I found programming PalmOS either expensive or unnecessarily complicated. The multimedia capabilites of PPC simply have no good parallel in PalmOS when you consider how easy it is to make movies and music for PPC using WMEncoder - even easier in PPC2K3. I regularily take 5 hour bus trips and now I can watch movies and TV shows on it without having to lug about a heavy laptop - this is exactly what I've always wanted. I'm not sure precisely what 'productivity' gains CorwinB was expecting - and why PPC 2002 didn't give them to him. In almost every way that counts, I find PPC 2002 vastly more powerful and flexible, but part of that means learning to find the right utilities to do what you want. I find the complaint that you have to use 3rd party apps a liability for PPC odd when almost everyone I know who has a Palm device immediately adds a replacement launcher - usually one with plug ins.. or HackMaster or some similar basic system modifying utility. PalmOS is a fine system up to a point and it's amazing what people have done with it, but when it comes to things like GPS applications or serious database work, sorry - PocketPC simply stomps all over PalmOS. On the flip side, one things PocketPC could learn from PalmOS is how to simplify the user experience. I've long thought about porting the core PalmOS utilities to PocketPC just to offer a simpler to use set of core apps and then throw in a good Launcher utility as well. As for the SD issue - check out HappyCheeseCake's site and you'll see it's not a PocketPC specific problem - and definitely not an Axim specific issue (although Dell really should do something to fix their driver and possible make the problem go away). Even digital cameras have been known to have this problem. Would I go back to PalmOS? Well - I have sort of... My Axim is still my main powerhouse.. but there are a number of very basic tasks that the m505 does better - like being an alarm clock (very important for me) and being a remote control. But there are very few such tasks. I also want to make beaming work between PalmOS and PPC, so I need a test device. But would I give up my Axim? Well, more accurately - would I give up my PocketPC? No. Dell - well, I'm having issues with Dell - but not with PocketPC and I can't wait for WM2004 (which is about when the WM2003 upgrade for the Axim should ship... just kidding... :)