With Zipit, Who Needs A Netbook?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_LrI2g2VT8]

[Hunter Davis] keeps rolling out the hacks for the Zipit. In the past he showed us how to run DOSbox, and then how to get NES emulation working on this tiny device. Now he’s got Linux kernel 2.6.29 running Fluxbox with mouse (newly added), audio, and WiFi functionality. Follow his step-by-step flashing instructions to load the kernel into the Zipit. Once flashed, a partitioned microSD card servers as the filesystem and swap.

Who needs a 10.1 inch screen or an Atom processor when you can get this 2.8″ QVGA beauty with an XScale processor for around $40?

[Thanks Matt]

88 thoughts on “With Zipit, Who Needs A Netbook?

  1. @”Why does anyone give a damn about Android? It sucks the big one.”
    Iphone sucks too, arduino suck, Obama suck…
    but there always big hype around, people just like crap, something we didnt lose in evolution

  2. why does therian hate everything. He is jealous because he doesn’t know how to work with any of these platforms because he has commitment issues
    stop digging when your already 10ft under.

  3. @ode
    which platform ? arduino , why would I if I have plenty of bare uC and know C and some asm, which other platform ? iphone ? no way I will touch that thing which limit you more than strip-jacket, no thank you, I rather program my ppc

  4. @justdance

    Yep, and between that, the tellymate (http://www.batsocks.co.uk/products/Other/TellyMate.htm), and the old $25 monocular HUD from Wild Planet (pics/discussion http://jakehildebrandt.com/2007/09/30/25-head-mounted-display/) – you could have yourself a simple wearable computing platfor for less than $75.

    Admittedly, the HUD part would be monochome and text, but a twitter feed + other IM notiications doesn’t need anything more.

  5. I just got mine from the link in here.
    Looking forward to it.
    Is it possible to run a IM client inside the linux hack. Just the dosbox makes it worth 49.99 and they did not make me sign up for a plan or anything.

  6. WINDOWS 3.1 IS THE FUTURE!
    lol it would be awesome to run windows 3.1 with wiFi. that would free up so much hard drive space, go back to simpler times.
    I want to run Linux on my SGH-a877 (samsung impression) and since it doesnt have wifi and i dont have a data plan, figure out how to access my wired network via the USB cable or Bluetooth, to surf the internet from my phone, using my DSL connection.

  7. @Andrew

    “Hackaday’s color scheme is just fine.”

    I agree with you, this website is one of the most appeasing to my ocular devices as opposed to say, engadget or hackedgadgets.

  8. Re: Hackaday’s color scheme.

    Build a bookmark, label it “ZapColors”,
    and put the following code in the url tag, and load the bookmark in your bookmarks toolbar. When you click on the link, the current page will go to black text on white background.

    javascript:(function(){var%20url=window.location.href;%20if(url.indexOf(%22mail.google.com%22)<1){var%20newSS,%20styles='*%20{%20background:%20white%20!%20important;%20color:%20black%20!important%20}%20:link,%20:link%20*%20{%20color:%20#0000EE%20!important%20}%20:visited,%20:visited%20*%20{%20color:%20#551A8B%20!important%20}';if(document.createStyleSheet){document.createStyleSheet(%22javascript:'%22+styles+%22'%22);%20}%20else%20{%20newSS=document.createElement('link');%20newSS.rel='stylesheet';%20newSS.href='data:text/css,'+escape(styles);%20document.getElementsByTagName(%22head%22)[0].appendChild(newSS);}}})();

  9. @Samantha
    Curious, I just tried it again in Firefox 3.5.7, copying the text straight from my comment above. At first I loaded it into the sidebar, and it only popped up a side window; then I redid it without loading into sidebar, and it worked fine.

    It’s Javascript (obviously), so it shouldn’t be browser-specific.

    Go here:
    http://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/zap.html
    to grab the bookmarklet and drop-&-drag it directly into your browser bookmark bar. My version simply removed the confirmation popup.

    HTH.

  10. I meant the arm version. I KNOW the full version would not work. I had heard they got Ubuntu on this though and bt5 is based on that. I bet you could run it through a remote desktop connection though.

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