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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."
These Linux-based tablets lack many features of their Windows-based counterparts including handwriting recognition. Furthermore, these tablets limit you to use of KDE and GTK-based programs just won't work. That's right, if you want to use the touchscreen features, you have to use KDE and KDE apps. I, personally, have found the KDE apps to be inferior to GNOME apps. If I can't use things like openoffice, I think I'll stick to Windows.
Linux isn't ready for the desktop, and it's not even close to being ready for use in tablet PCs.
what's great is the Tablet is the Protege by Toshiba
Actually it's a Portege - we have one at work. I really like it quite a lot. There are a few software enhancements that need to be made to XP Tablet, but for a kick-start it's really quite nice. I could even go for one that is a bit thinner, has no keyboard, no hard drive, and 802.11G. Basically a thin client tablet that connects to a server and does everything "Terminal" or X-Server style. That way you additionally wouldn't have to lug around the processor and cooling. You'd get killer awesome battery life too. It would still need a simple 'cradle' style charger, though.
Tables are cool - they just need a little work.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
Well, I guess I'm not people then. This is exactly what I want in a laptop. Tablets suck because of the lack of keyboard and I don't want one at all. Laptops suck because of the form, I want to be able to hold it flat and hold it like a book or clipboard when I'm reading text, or just scanning data. Throw in a little stand and it even functions as an electronic picture frame.
This looks just about right.
The Linux part is good. Linux on my desktop, Linux on my laptop.
Lycoris. Oh man. Icky poo! Linux for Windows users for dummies. Who is the intended market for this thing?
Who woulda thunk that they'd make a computer with Linux preloaded that the first thing you had to do was wipe the drive so you could install Linux?
KFG
If somebody would design a tablet device that uses 802.11b, is simple to network config (easy WEP interface, DHCP), and costs ~$200, they will rule the world.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
Why on earth doesn't their website have more details about the Tablet specific technology that's been integrated into this thing?
They have no details about the character recognition technology at all. I'm also curious about the type of stylus they use. Windows TablePC's use an electromagnetic type detection of the point of the stylus so that you can wrest your hand on the screen without accidentally pushing window controls. In other words, its NOT really a "touchscreen." In this Lycoris tablet, they do call it a "touchscreen." But if this is the same Toshiba then it too must have the same type of LCD right... maybe not necessarily?
In any case, their site is very short on details.
That post is a trap for all of us. It is the SAME SAME POST ever posted on previous article or two on slashdot.org. So ignore it entirely or remove it if Admins can do that though. This post I ever recongized is the same. so it is a troll anyway
Nope, it's a good thing.
As a Toshiba TabletPC user for the last year or so, I've had numerous times where I've needed to switch between tablet and laptop in a matter of minutes. As a freelance developer, there's no way I'm taking a tablet and a laptop to a clients, that's just nuts.
I tend to use the Toshiba in slate form at meetings - typing can be distracting and too time consuming, whereas with a slate I get to show my notes around and have others annotate them - it's much more natural. When I'm coding, it goes back into laptop mode because there's no way I'm using the handwriting recognition to do that!
Now I'd agree that a traditional laptop with pen input (Acer makes one I believe?) is a bit of a waste of time, but the Toshiba screen swivels around and lies face up on top of the keyboard which gives you a very useable tablet. To this extent, it does give you the advantages of both form factors in one package.
The other issue is market acceptability. Your market is much smaller if you release pure tablets. Making hybrids means that people are willing to try out the tablet features if it means spending a little more than they'd splash out for a laptop, rather than blowing thousands on something they might grow tired of after a month or so.
So to sum up, hybrid tablet/laptops are a good thing and in my opinion, they couldn't have chosen a better hardware platform for the Linux tablet.
Not really. I have a tablet running XP Tablet PC edition which has excellent handwriting recognition, and I find myself using this feature rarely. Mostly because I can type about 50X faster, and it's so easy to flip out the keyboard and type instead of writing.
Instead, the main advantage of the tablet PC in my eyes is form factor / comfort for passive applications such as web browsing.
A tablet PC is not something you can really understand until you've used one extensively. Before I began using it, I had also thought that the handwriting recognition would/should be an important feature. It is not.
One of the major complaints of Tablet PC manufacturers is the licensing fee that Microsoft charges:
0 01 147,39155730,00.htm
http://asia.cnet.com/newstech/personaltech/0,39
Could this presage competition for Microsoft, forcing it to bring down it's prices for Windows Tablet Edition, and thus, tablet PCs in general? One of my major concerns with the tablet pc is the fact that it costs so much more than it's laptop equivalent - even though it costs incrementally more to produce.
And I desperately hope that nobody spends more than about $700 on a new laptop for school (preferably less for a refurbished one). Whatever you buy now will be obsolete by the time you've graduated, and the more expensive it is now the more expensive it will be to replace or repair when dropped or stolen.
You should only really spend just enough to make sure that the damn thing can do all you want (word processing most likely), is suited to your needs and has a fairly good build quality.
Oh, and a professional artist won't want a tablet PC either. Your hand and stylus get in the way of your work and the screen picks up dirt from your hands very quickly. There's actually no advantage using them compared to a regular graphics tablet and screen (besides mobility).
The only people winning out of all of this are the hardware manufacturers. And those that buy struggle with unusable machines.
I finally was able to use a tablet computer running Windows XP tablet edition.
I was distinctly underwhelmed.
I can certainly see why it would be interesting for vertical applications where it is in essense a replacement for a clipboard. But as a general purpose computing tool? Its clunky, the interface is bad, the software feels prototype-ish.
And while I like the newest toys, I couldn't think of a single practical use for it. I wonder how Microsoft managed to talk companies into building this thing, because I can't believe they'll sell more than a handful.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
What I was saying was that if the Tablet PC manufacturer had the tablet/pen portion of their hardware use the Wacom protocol (and I can't think of any reason why they couldn't), then drivers already exist.
--
The Banias CPU, now known as the Pentium M, forced Intel to come face to face with the Megahertz Myth. It was an extension of the Pentium III, this is quite true. Banias is also faster, megahertz for megahertz, than a similar speed Pentium 4. This proved to be such an embarrassment to Intel that they decided not to create a desktop chipset for it as once planned.
I suspect that Pentium M will show up in blade servers and 1U servers eventually, but alas, I will never see a Banias desktop.
Oh yeah...the Pentium III is still pretty damn powerful too, MHz for MHz, and it sucks way less power too. Banias is proof that PIII still had room to scale.
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