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Pen-Based Linux Computing?

Posted by Cliff on from the mightier-than-the-sword dept.

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?

4 of 25 comments (clear)

  1. macs? by littlerubberfeet · · Score: 2, Informative

    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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  2. Aquapad by NotoriousQ · · Score: 2, Informative

    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.

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  3. Need more input (with apologies to Johnny 5) by ninewands · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

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  4. better search examples by joshuac · · Score: 2, Informative

    ---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.