There are several GUIs for Linux on desktop computers: KDE, GNOME, … On handheld computers, the most famous ones are GPE and OPIE.

Today we’ll have a look at GPE. The Palm-Linux development is very young, so there aren’t many devices which support GPE at the moment. But on the GPE project page (http://gpe.handhelds.org/) there is some information and screenshots where we can look at.

To see the applications of GPE, click on Projects. There you can read about PIM apps, multimedia apps and so on.

Documentation contains useful information about GPE and its apps. There are many screenshots.

Now, let’s look at some screenshots (http://handhelds.org/~gpe/gallery/:

port 16036 Linux on a Palm   GPE quick review
port 22058 Linux on a Palm   GPE quick review
html.cgi?fn=land.7696 Linux on a Palm   GPE quick review
PIM apps

port 9639 Linux on a Palm   GPE quick review
port 23279 Linux on a Palm   GPE quick review
file management

port 22574 Linux on a Palm   GPE quick review
multimedia apps

port 7530 Linux on a Palm   GPE quick review
wireless card recognized Linux on a Palm   GPE quick review
gpe mini browser2 Linux on a Palm   GPE quick review
gpe mail1 thumb Linux on a Palm   GPE quick review
networking

port 7204 Linux on a Palm   GPE quick review
port 22016 001 Linux on a Palm   GPE quick review
several themes

port 22733 Linux on a Palm   GPE quick review
port 21468 Linux on a Palm   GPE quick review
port 13649 Linux on a Palm   GPE quick review
port 22570 Linux on a Palm   GPE quick review
land 6043 Linux on a Palm   GPE quick review
well-known apps running on GPE: GPSDrive – Minimo – VideoLAN – GNumeric

To type letters, Rosetta (handwriting recognition) and a virtual keyboard is used.

So, what do you think of GPE?

Related posts:

  1. A quick overview of Linux
  2. Palm OS and Linux
  3. Linux for Palm OS
  4. Palm Linux development finished soon?
  5. Where Linux runs…

5 Responses to “Linux on a Palm – GPE quick review”

  1. It’s nice. Let’s hope Linux over PalmOS will have clear advantages over native PalmOS.

  2. The previous poster raised a valuable point….

    This is Linux running ON TOP OF Palm OS, not Linux sitting natively on the Palm Hardware.

    While this project is interesting, it will only capture my attention fully when I can flash my device with a new Linux ROM image getting rid of the Palm OS altogether. That is a tougher proposition.

  3. False, Linux is NOT running on top of the Palm OS, but replacing the Palm OS.

    Flashing the ROM is dangerous, so It is just not done.

  4. Fair enough, I plead my ignorance…

    Can you explain to me how the bootloader works? I thought it was a .prc file which is executed under PalmOS. This presumably then loads the ROM image off an SD card. At what stage is the Palm OS completely unloaded from memory. Maybe I was wrong in saying that Linux is sitting on top of the Palm OS but it is at the very least sitting alongside it.

    I agree about flashing the ROM though.

  5. I stand corrected, I read the dev. guide. Rather interesting stuff.

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