I have a ericsson P900 (basically same as P910 without thumb keyboard) and putty is a pita without the flipdown keyboard that is on the 910, although the text is legible (just). The main prob is that the on screen keyboard always overlaps the display.

All the flips on these P series phones are vulnerable (although now much better than P800 ones) The nokia looks to be the better bet as it is more robust and the display would be great, and you will be less likely to leave it somewhere accidentally (no one used to lose their motorola 8500 bricks did they?)

NO Question - Blackberry

I use a TMobile 7230 - they are pretty inexpensive now. Combine with Idokorro Mobile SSH is extremely handy. Much more so than any of the TREO, Ipq etc I have used for remote admin. What sets the BlackBerry apart is the keyboard and special character handling. I have found it simply much easier to enter text into the BB. It really seems as though the Blackberry devices were designed as remote admin tools.

  Prior to the BB I used an Ipaq 4550 (the one with a keyboard) with bluetooth and a seperate phone. This worked ok, and was convenient, but it seems that WinCe was designed solely for GUI use. There is no concept of an "escape" key, which limits terminal applications.

To be fail the Treo I used was the old BW model when they first came out with the keyboard. It was actually not too bad, but sill nothing compared to the BB. Compared to the newer Treo's the 7230 lacks the multimedia features, and linux syncronization. I cannot believe there is not more Linux software for this neat little machine, but I fully expect it to come eventually).

The killer features for me are the keyboard, durability (I have dropped in 3-4 feet onto concrete without damage - I dare you to try that with a $500 Treo), battery life (I go 2+ days with out charging. In short i have found this device to be great, I definately see how they earned the nickname crackberry.

-MS2k

I can only recommend the Nokia 9300 [nokia.co.uk] - almost identical to the 9500 [nokia.co.uk] in spec, except without wi-fi and a camera. In exchange for these features it is far smaller and much more friendly to carry - it is not much bigger than the Nokia 6310 [nokia.co.uk], but a bit chunkier and heavier.

There is an excellent implementation of PuTTY [google.com] for the phone, and I use it daily. As long as you feel that most connections will be over GRPS instead of needing wi-fi there is no reason to go for the excessive bulk of the Nokia 9500.

-- Pete.

I agree- something like the HTC Universal, or iMate Jasjar, or XDA professional, or whatever they're calling it these days.

I have one, and it is *not* too large to carry round with you, unless you habitually work in a bikini. A full suite of sysadmin-level tools are available third party, and you're rocking.

The 9300 is smaller, true, but not that much smaller, and while losing the camera is no great shakes, the Wi-Fi is mandatory. Having the higher bandwidth available in a coffeeshop, or just around work or site, for that matter, is something you'd miss if you didn't have it.

These things aren't called communicators for nothing, and don't forget you get a PDA and Office-type apps, too.

I've been a loyal fan of the genre for years, and can't get on with anything that doesn't have a keyboard for fat fingers like mine. I don't do handwriting recognition, either.

It's the *only* choice, my friend, and lucky for you, it is a *damn* good one.

I have a Treo650, and previously i had a Treo180. I have used both for ssh.

The keyboard and screen is clearly not as good as a real computer, but i can manage. Even to type pipe, esc, ... If you want, there is even a portable keyboard for the treo 650.
Otterbox made something that can protect your device, i use that when i ride my horse.

I go 3-5 days on my treo650, depending on how much i call. But one thing that REALLY bugs me, is that i can not use SSH while i am talking to a client. This is really annoying. Activating SSH drops the call. This is bad, so have this in mind. I dont know if other phones does this. Maybe other SSH applications does not have this problem.

If you can carry a small bag, get a real small laptop with a 8" or 10" display. Maybe a widescreen, because then it is not so big on one side, and may more easily fit a pocket in a jacket.

I wanted bluetooth, so getting the Nokia 9x00 was not an option. I also have a stereo headset which makes it much easier to hear people in noisy places.

The Blackberry CAN have a phone conversation and remain connected via SSH. In fact it can have multiple network app open. in one case I had someone on IM with the terminal open while talking on the phone.

The blackberry really is a great communication device. You can leave the terminal app open all day, so if you are just "monitoring" a server via top or something, you don't have to keep logging in.

With th treo,the network apyou turn the deviceoff. The blackberry really doe not turn "off" it is more like a regularI have left the terminal application connect for 8+ hours, and bttery life was barely dented. YOu cannot do that with the TREO.

My dad and brother have the Treo 650, my other brother has a 600 so I am pretty familiar with those devices also (and having this discussion :). The Treo's truely are great devices. And if your are a careful person who takes good care of things, and like multi-media, it can do everything the blackberry can do and more.

But they are simply NOT better than the blackberry for remote administration tasks (though they are absolutely are better if you judge by theoverall cabilities of the device)

If you tend to be a bit rougher on your devices, and need to have it with you everywhere, need to be able to reliably nd easily get online, and you need to get emails and IMs I think the BB will serve you better.

If you are like my brothers and dd and mainly want to listen to music, and watch movies and occassionally get some email(with fancy ring tones), the Treo has all the bells and whistles (literally) that you will need.

Amen. But what about MIDPSSH http://xk72.com/midpssh/ [xk72.com]. Why pay for SSH on your Blackberry when you can get it for free? Third party software, especially of this simplicity should not cost money. Granted Ikodorro is reliable, MIDPSSH has caught up, and since it's open source anyone can modify it and improve it..

BEWARE M2ST: this app is a commercial 'rip off' of MIDPSSH and is otherwise the same app. Also they have not posted source code and might be violating the GPL.

http://www.netcreativemind.com/m2st/ [netcreativemind.com]

Note: anyone reading this, MIDPSSH works on *MANY* phones, not just blackberries.. give it a shot..

Same. I have a P800 (virtually the same as the P900) and it's really no good for ssh, special characters are a particular pain.

I also have a 9500 which is superb for ssh, and has a 640*240 version of Opera too which is nice.

For most other internet use I'd recommend the Px0x, but for anything typing heavy the 9500 is a no-brainer.

My previous boss got me a Treo 650 and I loved it. The only fault I could find with it was sometimes Sprint's service was slow and the keyboard was almost too small. But I had a good freeware SSH client for it and used it for emergency server repair on more than one occasion.

My current boss bought me a Blackberry 7520. At first I didn't like it as much because the treo's screen is a bit better/brighter and the Treo could do more because it was Palm OS based. However, after carrying the blackberry for a month now, I've got to say that I do like it better. The SSH client I've got for it is as good or better and the service is almost always better than the Treo's. (Faster, more coverage and more stable) The keyboard is much easier to use. In fact the only 2 things I miss from my Treo are the camera and Verichat. (But I don't chat as much as I used to so that's really no great loss)

So if you've got to pick between the two...go Blackberry.

=C=

If you use zsh you can create a global alias for the pipe symbol. e.g.

alias -g PIPE=\|

You can then enter PIPE wherever you would formerly have used a pipe symbol. Global aliases are just like standard aliases, except that they are expanded wherever they appear in the command, not just at the start.

The benefit of the Treo IMO is its commonality as a platform; there are multiple options for Palm SSH clients. I currently use TuSSH, which is SSH2 compliant, supports identity files, and special characters, and has display modes up to 40x12.

I use a Treo 650 with the free "pssh". Works great. Has a 320px wide screen and fits comfortably in a front pocket.