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Linux Based Tablets Are Coming
CrypticSpawn writes "Read some good news on Diracian; there will be a Linux tablet coming out running Lycoris's Linux distribution, Lycoris Desktop/LX Tablet Edition. What's great is the tablet is the Protege by Toshiba, so you get a laptop and a tablet wrapped up into one. I guess I am a gadget fanatic, I love my Zaurus, now I want this. They even have pictures of it here. Also found another reference of this tablet on PC World, without the pics."
so you get a Laptop and a Tablet wrapped up into one
That's a bad thing. People either want a Tablet or a Laptop or a Tablet and a seperate laptop, a mixture of the two just means missing out on the convenience of both.
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Right now one of the things it is lacking that it really needs is handwritting recognition, which they say will be in the next release.
Did I tell you I'm just about to submit my perpetual motion machine to manufacturing? Motion will be in the next release, though.
But seriously... I hope they're talking about the "next release" as in "the version that will go onto the tablet when it ships." A Tablet Pc is just an expensive doodle pad without the handwriting recognition.
It all goes downhill from first post
I want a tablet with 512MB of RAM and a Centrino 1.4Mhz processor, minimum. This Pentium III Mobile shit has got to stop. Oh, and since we're running Linux on it, NVidia graphics.
Let me just make sure I understand this correctly:
/. ramblings...
Windows Tablet PC == Bad
Linux Tablet PC == Good
Ok, continue on with the mindless
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the
Too bad no one cares about them anyways, Linux or otherwise.
Pete
Windows Tablet PC == Enormous licencing costs that bite into already razor thin margins
Tablet PC sales have been disapointing, and I understand that Microsoft made a deal with one of the manufacturers (I forget which one) that bundles the handwriting recognition software free with the OS while everyone else has to shell out for both. That's gotta be pissing the rest of 'em off.
Once the handwriting app's written, this'll be a perfect market for linux to make some headway in. I only hope they're not boneheaded enough to release the thing without handwriting recognition (maybe banking on the ability to use it as a laptop instead).
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I mean. It's not a laptop. You can't type on it.
It's not a PDA. You can't put it in your pocket.
It relies on recognizing your handwriting with this pen.
I dunno about the rest of the geeks out there, but I would *much* rather type than write. Typing is faster and more accurate (vs recognition).
Even though I work with a bunch of MS consultants who all carry these, I'm yet to see the killer use for tablet PCs that actually makes them more useful than a laptop PC. While laptop vs. tablet remains largely a matter of personal preference, tablets just won't sell.
I can see several potential vertical markets for tablet PCs, but they lack the following:
- a killer app or suite of apps for any one vertical market
- a distinctly "better" interface than laptop PCs for any market
- a new group of users; ones that wouldn't use laptop PCs, but would use one of these
- a cost point that makes them a worthwhile investment. In particular, the Windows OS+tablet interface and the hardware requirements to run them blows the cost out too much
- a much simpler interface. Current tablets are too complex for current non-PC users to use; manufacturers should be looking to *remove* stuff from tablets to make them simpler to use and cheaper to purchase in bulk. Something like an X-terminal with local storage and the ability to sync to central servers makes more sense than an all-singing-dancing laptop-like thing; the only people likely to buy the current crop of tablets are current laptop owners
However...
If the price of the hardware came down, and the tablet was reasonably rugged, I could see some opportunities for schools to take these up. I'm talking primary/secondary schools, or K-12 in US-speak. Take out the price of the Windows licence, and they're suddenly a lot more attractive.
Most schools are having their budgets slashed, so IT spending is very low, but imagine taking a bunch of these and hooking them to something like an LTSP server:
- teachers could use them to mark attendance; most current teachers are hopeless with a keyboard, and prefer writing. I'm inclined to think that a full-screen app that looks just like an attendance book, which has the names of all the students and check boxes next to their names, would go down very well with teachers, particularly if they could enter a "tick" or "cross" with a pen rather than typing stuff in or using a mouse. Laptops just aren't working out for most non-maths/science teachers who have them, in my experience
- teachers grading assignments, particularly if they could take the tablets home, enter their data then do a seamless sync back to the central server
- kids using them in test environments; imagine entering all your answers on the tablet, having the handwriting recognition neaten up the answers, then (for some subjects) getting your results at the end of the class. The marks could immediately go into a central database, and be exposed to parents over the Web; lots of possibilities here...
- learning tools for specific, visual/factual subjects (e.g. geography; imagine all those maps coming to life when you point to them...)
In particular, using LTSP, there's no need for every kid to have one; they could be tied to a class or classroom rather than an individual kid. Maybe physically lock them to desks somehow, or use RFIDs to track their whereabouts - I don't know, ask a hardware guy...
I'd say this could be an interesting opportunity for a vertical market in education.
BTW, IANAT (...teacher), but I have a mother who's an English teacher, and who constantly complains about using laptops because they're just too complicated.
But I'm sure Apple won't be entering the tablet market until it's more stable, they don't need to try anything new right now as they're making money on iPods.
I think for many applications the ability to draw directly onto the screen is much more intuitive than drawing on an off-screen tablet. Getting used to a wacom tablet is like learning to use a mouse for the first time. I don't think the two approaches are equally comparable.
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I want it cheap and lightweight, and I mean 'lightweight' two ways.
The tablet should barely be able to run an OS. It should have minimal RAM, a really small harddrive, and no keyboard, but come with the fastest wireless networking hardware available. For me, a useful tablet is one that I can leave laying around my house and pick up just to wander around and read an email, or browse a website, or read a paper or something. I have a desktop computer for all the hard stuff. If I needed proper portable computing, I'd buy a Powerbook.
I figure this would be most useful for business, too. You install a good wireless network in the building, and people bring the tablets to meetings, or wander the hallways reading whatever it is they think they need to read so urgently. Checklists and meeting notes are sync'd to your PC automatically and wirelessly, so you can just sit down at your computer and do work when you get back to your desk. Forget doing work while walking...nobody does that very well right now with pen and paper anyway.
Because the specs for the machine would be so low, it would be a lot cheaper. You don't have to pay the price of making things really small like a PDA, and you don't have to pay the price of making things powerful, like a good laptop, so you should be able to come up with something farily reasonable.