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Linux On Your Tablet PC
tyman writes "Michael Rolig has created a Debian-based linux package for your Tablet PC. The support for various tablet features is limited by the features on the tablet Rolig owns, such as the "half-working" pen button features. One important missing feature is the screen-swivel buttons common with most tablets. However this is a good start for the development of linux for Tablet PCs."
All the negative comments crack me up. It's projects like this that push invention, not just on the Linux side but also on the Microsoft side. So while the project might not be at 100% usability, it's certainly enough to get others involved, excited ect, and turn the development process from one of just development into one of hyper-development.
I'm feeling cynical about so much news of Linux stuff maybe happening. Starting. Beginning. Someone is working on X. We'll soon have Y
Even some of the better distros at hardware detection like SuSE, Mandrake and Yellowdog have community forums filled with regulars who love using the OS, yet still don't have everything working. USB2 controllers only working at 1.0 speeds, ethernet not working, many with no sound and most without accelerated graphics.
I love my linux computer, and I left Windows years ago... but when are we going to FINISH some of this stuff we started? I feel like I'm living in a world of workarounds.
I never really saw any reason to own a Tablet PC, what does it have over a labtop?
First is the lack of hardware support. If you happen to have a TC1000 then this guy has the drivers for you. If you happen to have an M200 (like I do), then he doesn't have the drivers for you.
Second is the lack of handwriting recognition. That's essential for using a tablet in, you know, tablet mode. Without it, even choosing to visit www.slashdot.com is a chore, and you can forget about word processing or email in the comfortable tablet form factor while riding the bus.
Third is the lack of applications. There are a few well chosen applications that support handwriting as a first class input mechanism. When scratching and scribbling on things it is comforting to have circles and lines, and even my messy handwriting, be the same as I put them in.
It would be nice to have Linux working well on my tablet, but the tablet PC is a new hardware and software platform. Microsoft doesn't have a great and polished interface for it yet, only one that is good enough. Still, every little bit of that new platform that Microsoft and others provide for Windows XP on a tablet is a little bit that Linux doesn't have yet at all.
Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult;
whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse.
--Proverbs 9:7
Yes, out of date. The bottom of the page says "Copyright 2003 Michael Rolig", and the TC1000 isn't bleeding edge either.
And I don't know if Windows users should be lured into Linux on the TabletPC. Unless you want to scare the off, that is. ATM you'd just lose what's making the Tablet special (handwritting, OneNote, and so on), and if that was your first meeting with Linux, you'd never come back.
Open source allows a freedom that makes them intrinsically better indeede and more people are finally getting this
A lot of open source developers get paid and next to that there's more than direct financial pay.
Read up on http://steltenpower.com/OS4entrepreneurs.pdf
Mor
Why do I want to run Linux on a tablet PC. It all comes down to being able to do what I want to do with my machine not being able to do what Microsoft wants me to do with it...
In the years I've spent working with linux systems, I've come to the conclusion that only half of the problem is insufficient development on the linux side of things.
More often, I've found myself upset that the hardware manufacturers fail to support linux, either by implementing MS-specific functions, using MS-specific standards, or by not open-sourcing drivers.
In this regard, often the linux developers are more than happy to implement hardware drivers or interfaces, and are very successful at what they do, but spend a great deal of time working around all of the obstacles that the hardware developers put up for them.
Wireless support is a good example of this. If you have a card that uses open-sourced drivers, wireless support is very good in linux. If you don't, however, you're screwed. You're not screwed because there aren't people working on wireless support on the linux side, but because the hardware developers implement their systems using a Windows specific driver API (ndis), and don't provide linux drivers or open source their code. So people have to start whole projects (e.g., ndiswrapper) just to implement a linux wrapper to a Windows API.
I'm not saying that there aren't problems with linux usability, and I agree that some of this has to do with linux developers. However, I've come to the conclusion that the linux developers themselves are only a part of the problem--the other part of the problem is that they are disadvantaged by hardware manufacturers to begin with. Not only do they have to catch up with MS and Apple in terms of usability (although less and less so now), they have to do so while simultaneously not having much of the support of hardware manufacturers.