Mobile Computing in an Open Source World

It's a mobile world that we live in, sometimes more so than we would like. But those who travel on business a lot, like myself, as well as those who travel for pleasure, understand the necessity of staying in touch. Some people do this by phone, and others with postcards from distant places, but more and more, we stay in contact with laptops, PDAs, and Web-enabled phones. As users begin to migrate from Windows to the newer worlds of open source and Linux, there are transitions to be made. The software you need is still available, but the applications will have different names, and sometimes it is harder to find what you are looking for.

This article will take you through the five basic problems that the mobile user, or road warrior, encounters. These are hardware selection, software selection, synchronization with your desktop computer, and overseas travel. In this article, I'll share my experiences in mobile computing and make recommendations, and it will hopefully give you a starting point and some ideas. My contact information is at the end of this article and I hope you will give me feedback and better ideas. Prior to moving on, I should let you know that I am an employee of MandrakeSoft Inc. and all of the software that I mention is a part of the standard Mandrake 7.2 release. Most of it can be found in other distributions, as well, but it may be in different places and on different CDs. So, without more discussion, let's move on to the good stuff.

Hardware Selection

When I travel, I take a laptop, my Palm IIIc handheld, my Web cam, and my cell phone. With these four devices, I am never out of touch with my office and am able to be fully functional where ever I am. Since I work in a virtual world, no one needs to know if I'm working while relaxing on a beach in Key West, or skiing in northern Vermont. (I hope no one at work is reading this). The key to everything is compatibility and planning. Let's talk about the most key piece of equipment first: the laptop.

For the most part, laptops have been notoriously difficult to get working under Linux. The reason is always the video chip that is built into the system board. Once you get that working, everything else works. The source of the problem is that the computer manufacturers are constantly changing this chip. As soon as the developers reverse-engineer it to get it working, it is changed again. Therefore, the older the laptop, the better your chances are that everything will work. The easiest way to deal with this is to take a look at the hardware compatibility page on www.linux.org and find the list of supported laptops. The harder way is to buy the laptop that you like the best, (you know, the newer model with all the bells and whistles) and make that work. Both approaches are good. If you select the second one, I recommend looking in the /usr/src/linux/Documentation/fb directory on your Linux install and reading the Frame Buffer documentation. Did you know that all video chips will work in Frame Buffer mode? Frame Buffer mode is a part of the kernel, and is not a part of the X-Window install. For this reason, you need to install lilo as the bootloader, rather than the "Grub" alternative. This allows you to run X-Window on almost any machine, even if the video card is not directly supported. During X-Window installation you may need to choose to install Xfree86 -3.3.x rather than the newer 4.0.1, as the video drivers have not all been converted yet. Before anyone asks, I run the Hewlett Packard Pavilion N5195, which I purchased at my local CompUSA. The machine has a 20 gig hard drive, a DVD drive, 256 MB of RAM, and more neat stuff than I could ever use.

The second most important piece of hardware is a cell phone. I chose a phone that is data-capable. It can be used to browse the Web, and I can plug it into my serial port. The cable cost me an extra $60, and you don't need the CD if you are using Linux, but it was well worth it. Find a cellular service that is nationwide and make sure you have a decent rate plan. I use the Verizon Wireless Single Rate plan. This gives me a monthly minute allotment with no additional charges for roaming and data usage nationwide. The phone I have is the Motorola StarTAC.

Next is my Palm IIIc. Actually, any Palm or Handspring PDA will work. Just make sure you have a serial port connection. For the moment, USB connects are still rather buggy and do not always work properly. You won't need any additional software, but save everything that comes in the box anyway. The Palm IIIc is neat because you can download Web pages and actually see them in color. The Palm V is nice, as it is very slick and it's a little smaller. The key is it should support e-mail and allow e-mail to be exchanged with a host computer.

My Web cam comes next. As more companies switch over to a virtual office, seeing people face to face is sometimes very important. A Web cam makes this possible. As you are shop for Web cams, make sure the one you purchase supports the cpia data standard. If you don't have support for this standard, you may have problems getting your camera to work properly. I also suggest a getting a USB camera, since this will free up your laptop serial ports for more important things, such as your cell phone connection.

The final part of my setup is the mobile power supply. I chose to purchase the 12-volt DC to 120-volt AC converter from Radio Shack. You can find these anywhere for under $100. It has a cigarette lighter on one end, a fuse, and a 110- or 120-volt outlet on the other end. The reason? First, it's nice to be able to charge your laptop while driving from one customer to another. The second is that most major airlines are putting power outlets under the seats on airplaines. American Airlines, for example, has outfitted most of their domestic fleet with these plugs and has started on their international fleet. With this power converter, you can do away with all those extra batteries that you used to carry. There is one catch, though; the ticket agents and travel agents have no way to tell you which rows have these outlets. For example, American Airlines S80's don't have outlets for the seats in even-numbered rows-- only in odd-numbered rows, up to row 23. So sometimes you have to beg and plead a little to get one of those seats. Believe me, I am not above a little bribery to get to one of those plugs.

Author's typical mobile work area.

As you can see, this is not a lot of equipment, and will fit into the standard laptop bag.