Agenda VR3

The Agenda VR3 was the name of the first "pure Linux" Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) [ [http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT4992223978.html "Agenda's agenda -- a Linux-based "Open PDA""] , LinuxDevices.com, retrieved July 17, 2008] , released in May 2001 by Agenda Computing, Inc. of Irvine, California. [ [http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS4842494669.html "Agenda begins delivering its VR3 Linux-PDAs (finally!)"] , LinuxDevices.com, retrieved July 17, 2008]

History

The VR3 was unveiled at LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in August 2000 [ [http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS5929563761.html "Linux-based PDA unveiled at LinuxWorld"] , LinuxDevices.com, retrieved July 17, 2008] by Agenda Computing, which was at the time "a wholly owned subsidiary of the publicly traded electronics manufacturing giant, Kessel International Holdings, based in Hong Kong." A developer model, the VR3d, was available by December. [ [http://tuxmobil.org/pda_linux_agenda.html "Linux on the Agenda VR3"] , TuxMobil, retrieved July 18, 2008]

By late 2001, the VR3's price dropped from $249 to $119 at some US retailers, which caused some to wonder whether the promised VR5 (a color handheld) was to be released, or Agenda Computing was closing shop. [ [http://lugod.org/mailinglists/archives/vox/2001-11/msg00030.html "Agenda VR3 $119 at Fry's"] Linux Users' Group of Davis mailing list post]

In April 2002, after the demise of Agenda Computing [ [http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS7083659590.html "What's up with Agenda and the VR3 Linux PDA?"] , LinuxDevices.com, retrieved July 17, 2008] , the Softfield Vr3 became available from Softfield Technologies of Tortonto, Canada. [ [http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS7102045194.html "Agenda VR3 compatible Linux PDA to sell for $105"] , LinuxDevices.com, retrieved July 17, 2008] . As of July 2008, the device is still available from SoftField. [ [http://www.softfield.com/vr3.html "VR3 Linux PDA Specifications" page] at Softfield.com, retrieved July 18, 2008]

Hardware

The VR3 was 4.5"x3.0"x0.8". It included a 2.25"x3.25", 160x240 pixel, monochrome, backlit LCD touchscreen. It utilized a 66MHz MIPS CPU with 8MB of RAM and 16MB of built-in Flash memory for storage.

For input, it included push buttons for actions (such as Page-Up and Down, and Left and Right), stylus-activated power on/off, on-screen hard buttons for launching applications and a built-in microphone jack.

It also included a notification buzzer, an LED notification light, an IrDA port and an RS232 port. It was powered by two AAA batteries, and connected to PCs via an RS232 cable, or a docking station that the cable connected to. Both contained a button for activating sync software.

Software

The VR3 came with a 2.4.0 version of the Linux kernel, XFree86, the Rxvt terminal emulator, the Bash shell [ [http://linuxmednews.com/989776753/index_html "Review: Agenda VR3 Linux powered PDA"] , LinuxMedNews, retrieved July 18, 2008] , and a user interface based on the FLTK GUI library [ [http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT7436904154.html "A developer's perspective on Agenda's VR3 Linux PDA"] , LinuxDevices.com, retrieved July 18, 2008] . It included on-screen keyboard and handwriting recognition software, a number of personal information management (PIM) applications (including an expense tracker, e-mail, to-do list, contacts list, and schedule), games, and other tools.

It is possible to telnet, FTP [ [http://www.linux.com/feature/4877 "Linux palmtop revolution on its way"] , Linux.com, retrieved July 18, 2008] and make remote X connections to the device.

Numerous applications were created by third-party developers, with the [http://www.agendawiki.com/cgi-bin/asr.pl Agenda Software Repository] listing nearly 200 titles by the end of 2003. [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20031003140037/http://agendawiki.com/cgi-bin/asr.pl Agenda Software Repository at agendawiki.com] , retrieved via [Internet Archive#Wayback Machine|the Internet Archive Wayback Machine] ]

References

* [http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2001/05/18/agenda_pda.html The Agenda VR3: Real Linux in a PDA] at O'Reilly Media's [http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/ linuxdevcenter.com]