Newton OS running on Linux PDA

Old hardware may brick and die, but good software will live on forever. As if the growing MAME community weren't enough to prove this aphorism, news coming out of the 2006 Worldwide Newton Conference (yes, you read that right) indicates that a stable emulation of the good old Newton OS is just around the corner for Linux PDAs. On the first day of the conference, Einstein (a Newton emulator for OS X) developer Paul Guyot showed off his successful port of the still-kicking OS on a Linux-powered Sharp Zaurus. While this project is still in super-beta mode, the Einstein-for-Linux app is currently available for public download--for those who want to downgrade their device's already-poor handwriting recognition.

[Thanks, Sammy]

[7of7 @ Jan 15th 2006 3:52PM]

Why in god's name would you ever want to even be anywhere near a piece of hardware running Newton. Newton is up there with MS BOB in terms of crapoliciousness.

[strider_mt2k @ Jan 15th 2006 4:00PM]

EAT UP MARTHA

[Squire @ Jan 15th 2006 4:32PM]

Do these PDA's also run Winxp embedded?

[scott @ Jan 15th 2006 5:02PM]

But can it Play Doom?

[Mike @ Jan 15th 2006 6:35PM]

This would be great to port to the GP2X. Newton may have been crap for users, but it was a developer's dream. NewtonScript and the Newton Toolkit were the best development systems ever.

[Rich @ Jan 15th 2006 7:10PM]

The Newton's handwriting recognition was -- at the time of its demise --- actually really excellent. It actually learned and got better the more you used it, understood cursive, and made suggestions to help quikly fix mistakes. Try that with your crapola PalmOS device and worst-of-breed Graffitti "handwriting recognition."

[Brian @ Jan 15th 2006 7:16PM]

How about a port to the Nokia 770? That would rock!

[Nairanvac @ Jan 15th 2006 7:19PM]

My question is why would anyone ever want to take Linux OFF a device? Aren't we usually attempting to put it on a device?

[Jody @ Jan 15th 2006 7:27PM]

I actually liked the Newton and I still have one. They are great PDAs and they had features way before PALM devices did. The operating system is great, and finally you can run it on other hardware.



To answer a question:

I do remember seeing a version of QUAKE avaliable to download on a Newton. I don't know about Doom though.

[icruise @ Jan 15th 2006 7:42PM]

First of all, as was already pointed out, the Newton had *excellent* handwriting recognition by the time the last models came out. The Zaurus actually has none to speak of (at least my Japanese Zaurus can only do letter-by-letter recognition of English).



Secondly, this doesn't involve taking Linux off of the device. As I understand it, it runs within XQT.



I'd pay good money for a modern PDA that run the Newton OS (with a few changes). By and large the people who bash it never used one.

[Rob @ Jan 15th 2006 8:52PM]

I just made a horrible mess in my pants.



My Messagepad 2000 is like a beloved childhood pet. I miss it dearly.

[Scott @ Jan 15th 2006 9:27PM]

Gee, kinda a throw back to the old Sharp Expert Pad (PI-7000)



http://tmurai-web.hp.infoseek.co.jp/computers/freeware/newton/newtons/expertpad/



I still have one of these and it works (of course except for the handwriting recognition....)

[SeeBee @ Jan 15th 2006 10:20PM]

1. : Either you; a) owned and original MessagePad and never tried an 130 or MP 2X00 running NOS 2.X, b) put too much faith in what you read, or c) are a Doonesbury fanboy. (c;



Yes... I am a NOS fanboy and would love if you could show me a better handheld OS than the Newton... and the Palm OS doesn't count, since it's a severely 'dumbed down' derivative of NOS.

[PodMonkeys @ Jan 15th 2006 11:14PM]

This on rather brought up my spirits. I personally liked the Newton OS, and its handwriting recognition was the best I'd seen at the time. I think it's too bad there isn't a modern Newton. A small, fast device with Newton Handwriting recognition would be the Bee's knees!

[Helge @ Jan 16th 2006 4:10AM]

DOWNGRADE your handwriting recognition??



I don't know if this emulator works correctly, but it's no secret that the handwriting recognition of a Newton MessagePad 2000 was unbelievably much better than the Zaurus handwriting recognition.

[markie @ Jan 16th 2006 4:21AM]

>Old hardware may brick and die



Indeed... my Classic II started acting funny lately(...) and yesterday I took this eMate 300 to fulfill the task as a serial terminal :-) (something I used the Classic II for until now...)



http://geektechnique.org/blog/575/



Anyways, on a more serious note, I've put quite some time into these old eMates lately and imho the Newton OS is pretty excellent. With a little more cpu-grunt it would still be up for PDA-tasks for 95% of the people, I'm sure.

[zorg @ Jan 16th 2006 8:25AM]

Jeez, I didn't realize the League of Sourapple Earsplitting Rattlebrains, or LOSER, still had Newton haters in its ranks. These members specialized in loud recitations of the Doonesbury comic strip about Newton years ago, but I thought that all of them had gone back to chanting "One Button Mouse! One Button Mouse!" or "The Mac is Only for Graphic Designers" or "I'm sorry the Mac's market share has fallen below Other. They'll probably go out of business before long."



Hearing their plaintive cries of "The original Newton had bad handwriting recognition" gives me hope for endangered species everywhere.

[Jonathan Wise @ Jan 16th 2006 9:02AM]

Ya for real, have you nay-sayers ever even used a Newton? I have yet to see better handwriting recognition anywhere (save for in Mac OS X, but that's just the Newton engine shoe-horned into place).



The Green Machine inside some new hardware would make me very happy. Kudos to Paul for again doing what we all thought was impossible.

[Feneric @ Jan 16th 2006 9:47AM]

The Newton has a lot to offer even in this day and age, as most people who've actually used one tend to agree.



I've written a bit about why this is so, but it's too long to repeat here.



http://feneric.blogspot.com/2006/01/newton-technology-in-2006.html

[Tmo @ Jan 16th 2006 10:38AM]

This article should be changed by someone who has actually used a late model Newton device. I got one from a relative and was amazed at its ability to read my handwriting. It is better than anything on the PalmOS and can do tricks like being able to write "Lunch on Thursday with Bob" that will schedule a lunch date in your calendar for 12-1 with Bob from your address book.