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Pen-Based Linux Computing?
geekindustries asks: "Looking around auction sites I have seen a fair amount of old pen-based computers for really cheap. These machines usually run a pen-based version of DOS, Windows 3.1, or Windows 95a. However, I feel that these machines would be much better off running Linux as opposed to a bulky Microsoft OS. Has anyone heard of pen-based Linux solutions and how to get them working on old hardware?" Larger than a PDA, but smaller than a laptop, these resemble webpads or Star Trek like PADDs. They've been around for a while, but hasn't quite broken into the consumer market, yet. Which pen-based platforms, old and new, work best with Linux?
will -that- make you happy?
There were these things for disabled mac users. They were clear plastic that went over the monitor that you could use to control the cursor. They had standard ADB input, so drivers weren't an issue, you just set the cursor speed to 'tablet' in the mouse contol panel, in other words, a one to one movement ratio. Easy to do in Linux, right?
Now, if you can find one of these, you could concievably get an adapter to hook the ADB to USB and use a G4.
Now you have a touchscreen/pen based Linux/BSD box.
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If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
This cool little device showed a lot of promise and was not expensive. Aquapad.
I have not heard it in the news for a while though.
badness 10000
If you mean something on the lines of the IBM 730T I found when I searched ebay I don't see any reason why not. I appears to run Win95 which indicates that it's at least a 386 processor. It uses a Cirrus graphics chip, so getting X to work on the thing might be dicey. My advice would be to do your own research before spending any money unless you make writing device drivers your hobby.
As for anything older than the 730T, I think your probably going to run into problems like sub-32 bit processors that will stop you.
utter rubbish
Sonic Blue is clearancing their Pro Gear 1050 web tablets. They run linux on a TMTA processor, 128 MB of RAM, and a 5 gig hard drive They also have 802.11b cards and a PCMCIA slot. I had never heard of them prior to seeing the clearance sale, so I can't say anything about using it but it looks like it was a pretty nice little pad. The price is 599 USD while they last, when iniatally created they were 2800 USD.
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
The Aquapad is ready to go today. It uses the Crusoe processor and runs Midori Linux or Windows CE. I don't know if the touch-screen code can be ported to your favorite distro.
I periodically look at this url: Fujitsu 510 on eBay
To see what the current prices are like. Rumours amoung the handhelds.org group suggest that linux works fairly well on these devices.
Step 1: Remove pen from tablet.
Step 2: Drop trow.
Step 3: Insert pen in your "Open source"
Step 4: Waddle around like a penguin with your pants around your ankles.
The Labs has a section on internet appliances, including home-brew refurbishing of older pen-based PCs. They have advice for loading Linux and BSD on the Fujistu Stylistic 1000 and 1200. Both models can be found on eBay.
Dull tools are useless. Sharp tools are dangerous. Never use the sharp end as the handle.
---snip
A search of eBay [ebay.com] for "pen-based computer" [ebay.com] turns up nothing. Care to specify the exact make and model you're looking at? (also, how much are they going for?)
---snip
replace the "-" with a space (you were filtering out all hits that _included_ "based") and you get one hit. Take out the entire word "based", and it gets you 13 hits. Use look at the terminology used for these devices, and I'm sure you'll get even more.
...but the latest Linux kernel is gonna be just as godawful slow and bulky on an ancient pen-based tablet as an old version of DOS or Windows will be, perhaps even slower.
I've got an old 486 laptop that I got from work (it's been replaced several times over) that I thought would be a decent candidate for Linux. And I guess it was -- if you enjoyed being able to watch the screen refresh itself in X, or listening to the hard drive chatter as it slowly ran out of physical RAM and ate into swap -- and all I was doing was running X in 8 bit color with an "aterm" open!
You're going to be using a machine without a keyboard, which pretty much necessitates X windows (and a newer version at that!) and a newer kernel. If you don't want to get any use out of your tablet PC, then, by all means, use Linux! It'll run "xscreensaver" really nice, as long as you only use "life" or "rotor" mode.
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
I have a Stylistic 1000 pen notebook running linux with the pen tools installed.
486-100
16mb Ram
340mb PCMCIA Hard Drive.
Neat little box - I've had a variety of Linux installs on it over the years. (I used PLIP for networking when I first got it - couldn't afford an ethernet card for it.)
Installing was a bit of a pain - I didn't have a floppy drive or a bootable CD-ROM drive. Latest install is Redhat 5.something, with XFree86 3.something, running the xf86fpit drivers for the pen, and Xscribble for handwriting recogition, both from http://www.linuxslate.org/software.html
Works well enough. Takes several minutes to boot, but once you're in and running netscape it isn't too bad. Having to switch between 'Mouse-mode' and 'Keyboard-mode' for the pen is annoying, as are the more obscure gestures that leave you in control character mode or something. I seem to recall that it was a bit of a pain finding the documentation on what characters do what.
Kahm
Touch screen tech, modern processor, etc.
You mean I can have a computer in my pen? Interesting...
If you're religishitty, KILL YOURSELF!