James Emmrich

As a Linux user, I guess you come to expect a certain amount of FREEDOM. And I think when you get a taste of it, you only want more, and more until you are at the point of being considered spoiled I guess ha!

The HTC Titan

Well I have a Windows Mobile (pocket pc) cell phone. It’s a Telus HTC P4000 (aka Titan/Mogul). Like many cell phone manufacturers, HTC builds cellphones which are then rebranded for each cellphone company, hence the shitty name Telus gave it. The P4000.

On to the real issue though. Windows Mobile. If there are two things that drives me nuts the most, they would be:

1. Lack of flexibility (freedom)
2. Networking issues (in two forms, dropped/missed calls and router/ip/ether issues)

I consider myself a power user, and the gadgets that I buy are used for specific reasons and get used every single day until they break. The reason I chose this phone was for a couple of reasons:

1. Full slide out keyboard for ease of typing (possibly programming on the go if absolutely needed)
2. Provides the ability to ssh into servers from wherever I am using the Cellular network or using the built-in Wifi
3. The remote possibility it will eventually run Linux

Now, I moved from Windows to Linux quite a few years ago, mostly due to extreme frustration, and I did not take purchasing this phone lightly. I was worried that buying a Windows Mobile phone could be a big mistake. After having it now for almost a year, I must say it has been awesome.

The Price

The source of frustration is the model that the Windows Operating System is built around. The OS provides basic hardware to software functionality. Alone its useless, but with software it can make things easy and fun.

However, buying software sucks.

When I was younger, the whole idea and process of cracking and pirating software was cool and fun, but realistically, it is a pain in the ass, and when more people realize that free software does not always mean crap software, prices will go down or disappear and we will all be thankful for it.

My rant is continuing on far too long here, and I am sorry. What I am trying to get at is this:

It is absolutely frustrating to come from a Linux operating system and go to a Windows Mobile based device and suddenly realize that I do not have software to do the things I need.

The Freedom

Running Linux on this phone, and future phones is right around the corner, unfortunately, it is not coming fast enough.

From what I understand, Googles Android is extremely close to running on the phone (boots into Android), a huge success considering the amount of information provided by HTC to get it to work (zip-nadda-zilch!). However I do not want Android, I do not want a “pretty” phone. I do not want the Iphone.

I want a functional phone and that means I want:

• Access to a terminal/command prompt
• ssh functionality without having to use purchase-ware
• For god sakes, an internet enabled phone must come utilities to debug networking issues such as the simple command ping.
  

I do not want to spend my days searching for software to help make my Windows Operating System functional. I am a web developer, and Linux does this [functionality] right out of the box. Literally.

In conclusion, I will be adding a page about the phone some time in the future. There has been some real cool stuff you can do with it after flashing and doing some upgrades that happily void your warranty. It’s real cool stuff and makes the phone a lot more fun to use.