I was part of a project that helped bring a usable Linux distribution on this line of palmtops -- JLime (you can find references on the net, but the main site has since gone dark). This includes the 620LX, 660LX, 680 and 690 (based on SH-3 processors), as well as the 710 and 720 (based on ARM processors).<p>I personally had the 690, which was suprisingly usable (and probably still is), even with its 133MHz CPU and 32MB of RAM. Finding and porting software was, even in ~2006, especially hard, given the hardware constraints and unique screen aspect ratio (640x240 resolution).<p>I still have the page for the distribution up here[0], and a software repository set up here[1], in case the author (if they see this) or anyone else that has any of these machines stashed away is feeling adventurous...<p>[0]: <a href="https://deuill.org/code/jlime-vargtass/" rel="nofollow">https://deuill.org/code/jlime-vargtass/</a>
[1]: <a href="https://repository.deuill.org/hp6xx/vargtass/" rel="nofollow">https://repository.deuill.org/hp6xx/vargtass/</a>
For those of you who want a modern machine along these lines there is the Gemini. It fits a useable keyboard into a pocketable Linux and Android machine.<p>It is modeled on a Psion 5mx with updated insides, and has some of the original team members from Psion working on it.<p><a href="https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/gemini-pda-1" rel="nofollow">https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/gemini-pda-1</a>
I have an affection for Windows CE devices, particularly those wide-screen clamshell models. The keyboard without wasted bezel space around is deeply satisfying to my sense of aesthetics. It's a shame the DSTN screens are so unpleasant to use.
I don’t have any experience with it, but NetBSD still supports these machines (although the 660LX isn’t listed in the support table, not sure why)<p><a href="http://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/hpcsh/" rel="nofollow">http://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/hpcsh/</a>
> I searched all around my office and dug through my big box of (mostly useless) cables, but still no luck.<p>> Just when I gave up (of course) I found it!! Yay!!<p>There has to be a name for this phenomenon or a 'law'. There is a whole world of emotions that goes with it, from starting out with expectation of failure to the 'yay' exhilaration of having found it. If it is found it will be in the last placed searched, not anywhere else.
I used to run NetBSD/hpcarm and JLime Linux on an HP Jornada 728 in high school.<p>Those were cool, but in retrospect they did not make sense at all.<p>Someone was developing a flashrom board for the Jornada 728 that would have greatly improved GNU/Linux support -- including real sleep and truly long battery life. Sadly they never delivered.
I ported Nethack to Windows CE back in the days. I think I used exactly this machine then.<p>Funny thing is, someone asked me about it only some years ago.
"Sadly… or not so sadly… the world has moved to HTTPS and to stronger protocols than what lowly Pocket Explorer supports. Thus, most of the web is entirely inaccessible on the device."<p>This is what proxies are for. Assuming it supports proxies. It would of course be wholly untrustworthy as it's likely vulnerable to a whole host of functional middling exploits.
Heh, I got a 620LX around somewhere. I believe someone managed to port Linux to it as well as write a bootloader that booted Linux from inside of Windows CE.