I recently ran across this article while researching pads/tablets, following the progression toward these devices being able to support full versions of Linux. While I didn't see much progress toward that end, only promises and future release dates, I did find this article interesting..

It really makes you wonder where all this is heading and how computing might change over the next decade.

There are some really cheap tablet in India, I don't know if they can be modified.
http://trak.in/tags/business/2012/04/24 ... ets-india/

I just found this: At the Google Play there are Ubuntu and Debian attempts at running with Android.
https://play.google.com/

I own a Raspberry Pi myself, a computer for $25. I thought that was what this topic was about when reading the heading.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/
.
Griatch

I thought about snatching one up myself - but I can't think of a use for it.

Neither do the designers A very cheap "computer" with more practical uses is an Arduino board.

Everybody's buying up tablets, I just don't think I want one. It looks, unless I'm wrong, that they have to have special software and I can't just install any Windows stuff on them unless it's specifically made for tablets.

I think what caught my attention about this article was the price point. What we have here is really a revolution of low cost, disposable computers, which could represent a major paradigm shift in the way people purchase and use computers.

You do make an interesting point, Gms. Windows 8 is supposed to bridge the gap between the pad and the desktop. In the future, once a Windows application supports the UI (gestures and such), you should be able to run the package on multiple hardware platform that supports Windows, be it a pad, tablet or laptop/desktop.

Android OS is basically a bastardized version of Linux created by Google. Windows 8 and the "Surface" is Microsoft trying to catch up with Google, lest they get left in the dust.

What we see now are efforts by Linux Desktop Environment developers (Gnome & KDE) who are also working toward an interface which would support the various hardware platforms. Gnome devs have met with much resistance to their efforts with their Gnome3 offering.

I would consider purchasing a pad device that supports the various Linux distributions available but I'm not that interested in MS, Android or Apple's proprietary offerings.

I think tablets, especially at such a low price, give access to the WWW to so many who would not otherwise be able to use it. Low income families in many areas may never own a computer as the price is out of their reach. If they could afford a tablet instead, they could access a whole world of information for all sorts of reasons..without the huge cost involved...

I think you're being a bit too hard on Android. Sure it has its problems but when you compare to the competition (iOS, WinRT) it's lightyears better and more open platform. And I might be mistaken about this, but I think the kernel devs are already pulling up the android-specific changes to the mainline kernel, which means the next major version of Android (5.0 or such) could be running a fully-compatible standard linux kernel. That should make it easier to port linux software to it.

Google is kind of a mixed blessing in my opinion, I don't approve of a lot of the things they do, but at least they balance it by doing some good things for linux and other open source software.

In the meanwhile, if you want a tablet that can run linux programs...

http://pengpod.com/about-us/pengpod

It's a tablet that dual boots linux and android, which is kind of cool. Of course it's ARM-based so there might be some compatibility issues on some software designed to run on x86 but most software should run ok on it I think. I wonder if anyone has compiled GIMP for an ARM platform yet?

Well, I don't think I'm too hard on Google. While you're right that they do some good things, they've also engaged in enough censorship and spying to make Orwell shake his head. Their android devices, browsers, desktops and search engines all call home to report everything you do, not to mention what they allow their app developers to get away with. They treat their adsense clients like dirt and have broken their "Do no evil" motto long ago.

Still, I might consider purchasing an Android based pad for $35.00.

The Pengpod (seems Pengpad would be a better name) is nothing but a promise at this point. They are so broke they are having to solicit donations and presale nonexistent devices so they can come up with enough cash to make an initial manufacturing run.

There is also the Vivaldi (formerly Spark), as well as a so called "Ubuntu" for tablets. All of these are expensive "pie in the sky" devices at this point. I'm sure we will eventually see inexpensive FOSS tablets but I'm not holding my breath waiting.

I can attest to that.

Yes, that's why I said they're a mixed blessing. Still, I'd take google over apple/microsoft if I had to choose between them.

As for android, the good thing about it is that it's open, if you don't like the standard android, there's 3rd-party alternatives like Replicant which allow you greater control over your device.




Well, that's crowd funding for you. I think crowdfunding/crowdsourcing can actually be a viable business model even for hardware manufacturers in the future. You know, with 3d printers and other new tech making it easier for small startups to start production, we could soon see lots of similar ventures.

Remains to be seen whether pengpod will be succesful, although I hope so as it does seem like a really cool project.

Also, apparently not just a promise anymore:

http://liliputing.com/2012/11/pengpod-r ... -soon.html

Yes. I saw where they had reached their 50k to start production. At $200 for the 10" version, you get android firmware with the ability to boot Linux from SD.

It's not the fast and inexpensive pad (with Linux firmware) that would attract my attention, but it's a start.

There was a recent discussion of the Pengod on slash dot, where some interesting observations were made about the product.

Actually, there has been impressive progress in reverse engineering the Mali GPU implementation and creating an open source driver. Also, Mali is owned by ARM, which has traditionally been pretty friendly towards openness (contrasted with Broadcom, for example, whose reputation in this regard is abysmal).

Yeah I agree the $200 price is too much for me too, I wouldn't buy that either. I just think it's cool someone's doing this work to create really open tablets. I think we need more tablets that are built more like pc:s (traditional ones, not the crappy uefi ones).

What I'd really want to see, is a tablet computer that was made in cooperation with wacom. One you could use for serious drawing, but also as a computer. Until that happens, tablets don't really have much appeal for me - I could go for a really cheap one, if it was like 40€, just to play around with it, but other than that I don't really have much use for the current tablets. You can't do any serious work with them, and I don't really need the internet when I'm outside that much (if I do I can use my phone anyway).


I also have an idea for building your own tablet. You'd take a really thin OLED screen, glue it on top of a wacom bamboo (or why not intuos) tablet, making sure you align it really carefully to the tablet surface, then attach a raspberry pi on the bottom side to control the screen and connect the bamboo to it, maybe build some casing around it. Voila - a real drawing tablet. Just load GIMP, Mypaint & Krita on it and you're good to go.

So hey anyone heard about this one? Seems pretty cool, like a Raspberry PI on steroids...

http://www.parallella.org/2012/09/27/pa ... -everyone/

If you haven't seen it before, this might interest you: http://www.bongofish.co.uk/wacom/wacom_pt1.html
And here is a commercial kit for converting your tablet to a cintiq: http://tabletmod.com/
.
Griatch

That is awesome.