SWITCHABLE LINUX MOBILE OPERATING SYSTEM FOR PDA

[From Ronald Abadi, Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia] Have you ever looked at your PDA and wished you see something different? I am not talking about themes, or skins, or other cosmetic effects. I am talking about the Operating System. Have you ever wished your PDA have something other than Windows Mobile? Something better? I know I do. Have you ever wished you can have Linux on your PDA, albeit it is designed as a Windows Mobile device? I do.

Imagine you can really have Linux Mobile Operating System on your PDA. But imagine deeper. Imagine you can have it pre-installed, so that you do not have to get your hands dirty playing with it (although actually that is the excellent, fine and fun points of having Linux, if I may say so). Imagine you do not have to buy new PDA with Linux Mobile Operating System pre-installed, you can just have it in your current Windows Mobile-designed PDA. Imagine you can have it already pre-installed on the SD Card you can buy. Imagine that. Imagine you can walk to a store, see a range of SD Card or MMC, or what have you, all already pre-installed with different flavour of Linux Mobile Operating System. You can just buy the card, plug it in your PDA, restart, and... voila, you have a Linux Mobile Operating System.

Say you can have one with Ubuntu Mobile this month. After several months down the road if you are bored, you can buy another card with PCLinuxOS Mobile instead. Then again the next month switch to Slackware Mobile, Puppy Linux Mobile, Fedora Mobile and so on. Imagine you do not even have to buy a new card. The store will provide services to install a Linux Mobile Operating System flavour of your choice (complete with Desktop Environment and Window Manager of your choice, be it GNOME, KDE, Xfce, Fluxbox, of what have you). And if you want to reset to your old Windows Mobile Operating System, you can just unplug the card.

Moreover, since most of Linux are open source and free, the cost of the cards pre-installed with Linux Mobile Operating System should not be much more expensive than ordinary cards. When you want to have the card installed with another flavour of Linux Mobile Operating System, you only pay for the installation service, not for the operating system itself since it is free. Would not that be wonderful? Of course for now these are just my imagination (well, I figure these are not just my imagination, I am sure some people out there have already thought of this as well long before me). There are no PCLinuxOS Mobile, Slackware Mobile, Puppy Linux Mobile, and Fedora Mobile yet, as far as I know. There will be Ubuntu Mobile, but it is not ready yet. But who knows maybe in the future these will not be just an imagination anymore?