Status of Linux on the Latest Tablet PCs?

AmbushBug asks: "The new Tablet PCs have been out for a while now and I was wondering if anyone has had any luck running GNU/Linux on them? I've found that its running on the Pacebooks and there seems to be some success with the Compaq TC1000. Has anyone tried running it on the Motion Computing, Toshiba, Gateway, or others?"

Comments

Not yet..

[PeekabooCaribou]

But I'll happily accept donation machines to get the ball rolling. ;)

Runs great

[PD]

It runs well and does everything a tablet PC is supposed to. One small hitch: you need to have a keyboard hooked up to it.

Re:Runs great

[eht]

how the cheese is this insightful?

at least 75% of the point of a tablet pc is not dragging around a keyboard

this machine therefore doesn't do anywhere nearly enough to qualify for "does everything a tablet PC is supposed to."

Re:Runs great

[MonMotha]

Looks to me like all the hardware is supported. This means that you don't really need a keyboard attached, but you need one if you want a decent input method.

Here's the problem. Good handwriting recognition isn't easy to code. There's some projects, like xstroke (which is what is commonly used on ipaqs and other Pocket PCs running Linux with X11, not QTopia), but that's just a single stroke recognizer. It recognizes things very similar to Palm's Graffiti.

Basically, what he was trying to say was that it works great save the textual input functionality, which is still pretty much limited to external keyboard (you could also use an on screen keyboard, but then you give up valuable screen realestate).

Re:Runs great

[PD]

Actually, I was just making a joke and not even trying to troll. I'm as mystified by the +1 mod as the other guy is, since a table computer that needs a keyboard is just goofy.

Re:Runs great

[mrolig]

I'm on a TC1000 right now, and xstroke works great, better than M$'s graffiti.

Re:Runs great

[drewbradford]

I have a Frontpath Progear (now owned by Sonic Blue). It uses a 400MHz Crusoe processor. They haven't made them in the last year or two, but you can still pick them up for a few hundred dollars on Ebay (I paid a little under $400 for mine about a year ago). Many of them came preinstalled with Slackware, so getting Linux to run on them isn't an issue.

Linux on the Acer TravelMate C100

[bassomatic]

I've had pretty good sucess installing Debianon the Acer TravelMate C100. I've put up a page here. You'll find there a quick and dirty touch screen driver that I wrote. There's also the linux wacom page which hopefully be the final home for the touchscreen driver.

Re:Why run GNU/Linux?

[Cokelee]

A successful and profitable Linux software company comes around that actually has a financial statement that doesn't make them look like a lemonade stand and Slashdot commenters repeatedly bash them. I don't understand it. Does Computer Science and Economics just not mix well in this crowd. Is everyone secretly against Linux being deployed?

Are tablet PCs hard to swallow?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've heard of a little camera pill like that, but why a PC?

Re:Are tablet PCs hard to swallow?

[dacarr]

Well, it's certainly easier than swallowing your Palm.

Why people run Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep, you have stumbled upon the cold hard truth. Most Linux users are in fact, 13 - 16 years of age. They don't gain any sense of productivity from using Linux, they get a feeling of "coolness" from being different from others. After suffering for weeks trying to install drivers, setup x-windows, and what-not, they then brag to all of their friend's and anyone who will listen about how much better it is than M1cr0$0f+, and how "windoze" users are l0zers. Having no social life to speak of, this is only way these sad, dirty children can express their rebellion. Down with commercial software and Micro$oft! And I'm so cool because I use this rare obscure software.

I say, whatever.

Re:Why people run Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

i am 32 years old, and a linux user. i have built 3 very well known million-hits-per day web magazines on it. hardly a kid's toy, my friend.

Re:Why people run Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

Most Linux users are in fact, 13 - 16 years of age.

Yeah, the 13 year olds that manage Motorola, Sony, and IBM, as well as the startups and web companies that deploy Linux boxes by the thousands, get a real kick out of bragging to their little buddies how cool they are because they are using Linux in more and more of their products.

And I'm so cool because I use this rare obscure software.

Well, you can be even cooler by using an even rarer and more obscure piece of software called "Macintosh OS X", which has even fewer users than Linux.

Correct me if I'm wrong...

[schon]

The new Tablet PCs have been out for a while now

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if they've been out for awhile, wouldn't that make them "the old" tablet PCs?

Re:Why run GNU/Linux?

[g4dget]

It's nice when companies happen to be successful with Linux-based products or GNU-based products. But commercial success (or even widespread acceptance in the marketplace) have little relevance to the central goals of free software. So, basically, to many open source software developers, it basically doesn't matter whether Linux companies are profitable or not.