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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."
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
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.
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.