Having just finally snapped (as I promised my company I would) and abandoned the XDA I was given, because it was the "supported" platform and set up my Tungsten again I find myself reflecting on the experience of switching from the Palm to the Windows platform.I have been a pretty die hard Palm OS proponent for many years and it was only when the company gave me an XDA and my T's stylus started falling out that I gave in and switched (fixed with the heatshrink fix I found online).
I have nothing truly positive to say about the XDA, from form factor to HMI and application support/development etc etc it is a singularly uninspiring device to interface with. It is hard to fault it from many technical perspectives - sync works fine, backups can be sorted fairly easily, apps are available etc etc but the experience is uninspiring and dull, the lack of free and shareware variety of apps is dismal and the battery life is hopeless.
I found it too big to use as a phone (yes the mini is probably ok if its battery is better) and if the battery went down you couldn't even get to your address book to use a landline!! Anyway after being asked by a colleague to review the XDA (knowing me as an old palm evangalist) I snapped - sent him the XDA to "evaluate" and got my T going.
Overall it has been a great transition. Intellisync is handling my whole Lotus experience flawlessly and that it seems is the only reason the company only supports the Windows platform - because they only know about active sync and mNotes (both of which work well).
I am sorry to be reading of the confusion and doubt surrounding the future of the PalmOS and am out of touch of what has been happening.
Anyway, I have resolved to research my next handheld very thoroughly and will use the T until I know I am ready to make the next step and I seriously doubt it will be a Windows product.
I am impressed with the Symbian on my SE Phone (I still maintain a separate phone) but would much prefer to see an OpenSource project undertake to establish a worldwide community that could leverage existing hardware and possibly Palm software technologies.
I read about Linux and PalmSource and various developments along these lines.
I hope it is not a topic done to death but could I invite you to comment on the futures of Palm (and what is inspiring about these platforms) with respect to long term improvement and OpenSource type support and development.
(Yes, I have been out of the loop for a while and have many questions - so this was really by way of introduction and getting re-oriented
) so anyway g'day and I hope to hear from you guys
Regards,
*.*\x\!\\_