Debian and PDAs.

[Erin Lewy <elewy@slc.edu>]

Okay, well the taking on of a potentially huge project has kind of clued 
me in to the fact that I would probably benefit hugely from a 
laptop-type aparatus. Problem is (just trust me on this one), carrying 
around a laptop is less than optimal.  Having an additional shoulder bag 
is at this point not really an option, and I could never, ever, ever 
leave the thing sitting somewhere, so I'd be basically chained to it if 
bringing it somewhere...

So the thought occurred to me that I could get a PDA with a stow-away 
keyoard and basically use that in laptop capacity, as a few of my 
friends are doing.

So here arises my prolem: probably the best deal for me, OS aside, would 
be a Handspring model PDA because they are highly expandable moreso than 
Palm PDAs, and if I'm basically utilizing this as a laptop, well, I'm 
sure there is some kind of module/upgrade thing that I'd want down the 
line which I wouldn't be able to find for a Palm but the Handspring 
people have tons of different little gadgets you can get--which is at 
once evil and yet cool.  So, in an ideal world, I would get a 
Handspring.

Of course, in this ideal world, I'd also have to be using Windows, 
because all of the synching and other packages I am seeing on Debian's 
servers seem to ME to be specific for Palms.  As I am VERY new to this 
whole idea, I thought that before assuming one or the other way I ought 
to consult with some people who are more likely than I to know this 
answer. I.E.: you guys.

So-- does anyone here have a PDA and if so what kind and how has your 
luck been as far as being able to synch it and whatnot?  

I've looked at the Linux-specific PDAs but they're either too built up 
(with lots of graphicy-related stuff) or too bare bones. So as much as 
I'd in theory like to have an open-source PDA or whatnot, well, it's not 
really going to happen at the moment.

Mainly I want a highly portable bit of electronics capable of creating 
wordprocessing documents,, possibly with the ability to check e-mail, 
which I wouldn't have to synch by rebooting into Windows all the time.

Any help appreciated!
Erin