Hello all!

I just downloaded the Blackberry messenger version 5... It is sweet and a recommended update!

I looked at the rules of this forums and don't think this will break any (if it does sorry, didn't mean to)

Anyway, I started a Linux user group for Blackberry users! If you are interested in joining you can scan this barcode

http://govnut.com/pics/Linuxusergrou...6-_barcode.png

Really?

No Blackberry users out there? We got 7 members so far and slowly growing. Come join the fun!

Not yet, but thinking about it if it's sufficiently Linux friendly. I'd rather go open source, but that seems impractical and prohibitively expensive right now, so it's either a BB or iPhone for the next phone/PDA replacement combo. I'd like to run a simple database program like JFile and be able to sync (including to third party web sites for some programs on the Web) and backup without any use of Windows. Any experiences you can share with your BB would be most welcome.

One of the reasons I went with BlackBerry (Verizon Curve 8330 and upgrading to a Tour at the end of the year) is that the OS is Java-based. Not quite Android but good enough for me, write the code in Eclipse with the BB plugin. The device simulator is only a Windoze exe unfortunately but it may run in WINE/X-Over (there's an orphaned review for it in the WINE AppDB) and I run a VM server already anyway.

I've yet to have time to write anything for it but I'm finishing up a grad-school Java class and I have a few ideas I want to try.

I was hoping for native support. WINE would be OK, but I'm afraid the manufacturer will "upgrade" itself and make it unreliable (as Palm did so many times). As for the VM, well, I'm trying to get away from Windows even in the VM.

I hear ya there; it's actually why I started my site (in my sig), like so many others who would like to get sufficient numbers to convince vendors that there is more than one viable OS (or even two; RIM just announced Mac support for the Blackberry Media Manager). WINE started out being really promising but has become a method of last resort over the last couple of years, Google's help with CodeWeavers notwithstanding.

Linus Torvalds makes an interesting point though; though he feels open-source is the only "right" way to do things, he also believes in using the best tool for the job, even if it's proprietary (source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XpnKHJAok8). As a grad student, I get freebies at MSDN Academic Alliance; I don't know if that means I necessarily "pay" for my copy of Windows 7 but my tuition would be paid anyway and I'm not paying a retail dime for anything MS makes. Never have, never will. I've gotten to the point where I consider Windows as just another application, using it only when necessary and shutting it off when I'm done. Not that I have to force myself or anything.