Sharp's Zaurus PDA suffers security holes (News.com)

[Posted July 11, 2002 by cook]

News.com reports on some security vulnerabilities in Sharp's Linux based Zaurus PDAs. "Linux is an open-source operating system, giving developers equal access to the code. Many consider that an advantage in a situation like this, as security flaws are found quickly and fixes and other software improvements can be added by a whole community of programmers, not just those employed by a particular company. However, Sharp has not released the source code for the Zaurus' particular operating system to the open-source community, nor has it integrated any community updates to its OS, choosing instead to go a more proprietary route."

""Sharp committed to Linux and the open-source community, but they've realized that they don't want to live the lifestyle," said a source familiar with the company's plans."