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Pen Based Operating Systems On The Net?

Posted by Cliff on from the does-this-exist? dept.

Kyudosha asks: "I have just purchased an IBM tablet thinkpad 730T. My main intention in buying this computer was to take real-time notes in my classes, and drawing embedded pictures within these notes (sort of like in Word). Unfortunately, the Pen Point os has been wiped off for resale reasons. Searching for a free pen-based O/S on the Web yielded nothing. I would very much like to see this computer in operation, and I have heard rumors of Linux-based pen o/s's or non-commercial o/s's in the same vein, but I cannot find any information. I have pleanty of PCMCIA hard drives, and a laptop capable of placing software on them, but like I've said...nothing. Can ANYONE help me?"

4 comments

  1. pretty slim so far by djweis · · Score: 1

    I had win95 on mine. I really liked their pen input extensions. I'm currently writing a pen input method for X that uses a system of clicking and dragging on a small graphic divided into 9 sections. Have you gotten Linux to boot on yours yet? I've had no luck with the PCcard hard drive.

  2. win95 pen services 2.0 by Zurk · · Score: 1

    is here http://penwin.com/ibm/
    linux pen drivers are here :
    http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/~pfeiffer/#pen ..although this seems to be for a compaq device.

  3. I have a 730T by ecloud · · Score: 2

    About all I can say about Linux is that so far, it won't work because it doesn't like the PCMCIA hard drive. I used a DOS-based distro that loads via LoadLin to avoid the LILO issues, and the kernel loads, then times out while trying to access hdc1 (why is it hdc1 instead of hda1? Weird.) I bought and tried 3 different brands and sizes of hard drives too, so it's probably not because of a specific PCMCIA implementation. And I tried several different vintages of kernels. And I tried the "old disk-only driver" for IDE. Was going to start asking around on the kernel-dev list since I've asked everywhere else I can think of and haven't gotten a satisfactory answer; but haven't gotten around to it.

    I have Windows for Pen (based on 3.1) on my Dauphin DTR-1, and I'm loathe to actually use that, but I bet it'd work. Drivers for the pen are available... I saw that somewhere.

    Others have suggested GeoWorks, that old competitor to Windows that died miserably... except they got bought and it's now part of a package called New Deal Office. There's some stuff here.

    Gem would also be interesting.

    General 730T links:
    • GlobalMonitor 730T page - these guys sold me my 730T on ebay, they sell quite a few, and they have been helpful in setting up a means to exchange info among their customers. But they still haven't posted my comments yet.
    • Dan's IBM ThinkPad 730 pages - this is a link that I found on the GlobalMonitor page
    • What the heck, I think it's time I started a page but there's no info there yet...
    1. Re:I have a 730T by djweis · · Score: 1
      Since they have put the pcmcia into the kernel, I built a 2.3.99 something kernel with the pcmcia drivers built in and passed hdc=noprobe hdd=noprobe so the kernel wouldn't see the hd until it was activated properly. That half-way worked a little bit.

      You've inspired me to make my own thing at http://www.sjdjweis.com/linux/730t/