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Here Come the Linux iPad Clones

Posted by Soulskill on from the send-in-the-clones dept.

CWmike writes "You can now pre-order an Apple iPad; but do you really want to, asks Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols. 'I mean, I get why you'd want an iPad. I'd like one too,' he writes. 'But,' he says, 'when I consider that there are soon going to be literally dozens of cheaper, Linux-powered iPad devices on the market, I find it a lot easier to resist putting $499 on my credit card. On top of that, Apple will be including DRM on some eBooks and other iPad content. I really, really hate DRM. All that said, I agree the iPad is really cool. I predict with absolute faith that the iPad and its clones are going to kill off single purpose devices like dedicated eReaders such as Amazon's Kindle and GPS devices within the next three years. How can it not work out this way? For the same price as a high-end dedicated device you can get a tablet that will do everything they can do and far more. But, and this is the important bit, you don't have to buy an Apple iPad to get all of the iPad's goodies. ARM, a mobile microprocessor power, is predicting that we'll see no less than 50 ARM-processor-powered iPad clones by year's end. And, what will they be running? These ARM-powered entertainment tablets will all be running Linux.'"

32 of 584 comments (clear)

  1. No iPad for me by Pojut · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What with all the other tablets coming out that let me install whatever the hell I want on them, I see no reason to be stuck with the programs Apple deems "appropriate" for me.

    Obviously, this is just my opinion and only applies to myself.

    --
    Living With a Nerd
    1. Re:No iPad for me by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What with all the other tablets coming out that let me install whatever the hell I want on them, I see no reason to be stuck with the programs Apple deems "appropriate" for me.

      Obviously, this is just my opinion and only applies to myself.

      You grasp something that a lot of people in these arguments fail to understand - that there are opinions that differ from yours (gasp!). The worst "offenders" seem to be some of the folks who basically wanted an OS X-based clone of the typical Windows Tablet PC. The only pre-release poll I knew about the "rumored Apple device" fell pretty decidedly in favor of an iPhone-like interface instead of a OS X-like interface - it was something like 2/3 to 1/3.

      For me, as an iPod Touch owner, the Apple restrictions have not been a perceived problem - and the larger screen an iPad offers may very well eventually lead me to purchase an iPad (AFTER the first generation!). But obviously there are people like you that want the absolute freedom they perceive in a Linux-based tablet device, and who chafe at the restrictions they see in the Apple offering. Having options is always better, no matter which camp you fall into; and the market will eventually settle all these questions we seem to love endlessly debating on Slashdot.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    2. Re:No iPad for me by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 5, Funny

      but at this point, the average person has a basic understanding of how to use a computer, and shouldn't be pandered to with watered down offerings

      You clearly have not done a lot of tech support. The "average person" deserves treatment only slightly better than being beaten with rubber hoses. Since that won't clear marketing, they'll get the iPad instead.

      --
      Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
    3. Re:No iPad for me by timeOday · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You clearly have not done a lot of tech support. The "average person" deserves treatment only slightly better than being beaten with rubber hoses.

      On the other hand, the average tech support call is from somebody who calls tech support more often than the average person.

    4. Re:No iPad for me by darjen · · Score: 5, Insightful

      do you really think everyone else wouldn't want to surf the web while listening to Pandora?

    5. Re:No iPad for me by natehoy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How many netbook models are out there today? 100? 200? That can't be good for any one of them. Yet it is. Competition means multiple companies all trying to make the best device for each user, at the best price. It worked with desktops, it worked with laptops, it worked with netbooks, and guess what? It'll work with tablets.

      When netbooks became "the hot thing" as a format for casual computing, companies crawled out of the woodwork to make 'em, but they all used the same basic components, just configured a little differently. Asus has at least 6 current models of the eee, Dell has a generous handful of netbooks, and plenty of other companies make them. Yet most of them can run your choice of Windows or Linux (you just have to install Linux yourself on a lot of them). Most can even support MacOS with no problems at all. Sure, you run into a few minor hardware incompatibilities (Linux Mint loves EVERYTHING about my wife's Asus eeePC except the microphone, but it's a brand new one and I expect the driver fix will be out soon, plus she's OK with the 2-step workaround when she wants to video-conference with her mother, who runs a Windows 7 laptop).

      The same thing will happen with TabletPCs. If the form factor takes off, most of the netbook manufacturers will rebuild their devices without a keyboard. Same processors, same base components, same hard drives, same screens (just add touch sensitivity). This will be a VERY easy conversion. I expect most will run Intel's N450 Pinewood, feature about a GB of ram, and use a small factor hard drive. Because, guess what? Those components exist, they're cheap, and they work darned well in small form factor machines.

      It'll be thicker and heavier than an iPad, but not by much, and the reduction in moving parts will probably make up for the cost of the touch-sensitive screen, so you could probably make and sell them profitably for about $250-300 (given that $300 is about the going rate for a decent netbook right now) and that would include a battery that could last 10 hours, a webcam, a 250GB hard drive, and all the standard connectors along the edge (VGA, USB, Ethernet, etc). In other words, a thinner, lighter, "keyboardless netbook". And the ability to run everything your desktop does, connect to its network shares, etc etc.

      In fact, really, the only "oddball" tablet out there is going to be the iPad. I'm not hating on Apple here, I'm sure it will be a great device. Apple makes great stuff. But it's the only device that is unlikely to run anything but the iPhone/iPodTouch/iPad OS. It's the only thing you won't be able to use your tether-capable cell phone on. It's the only thing that won't allow you to run any app you can download. Everything else out there will be capable of running the same OS your desktop does - or at least a minimized variant of it (Windows Seven Starter, for example). And all the same applications.

      --
      "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
    6. Re:No iPad for me by Bob-o-Matic! · · Score: 4, Funny

      That raises a good point: If I launch a missile at my enemy or an unfortunate neighbor, and the missile's internal computer uses GPL software, then do I have to include a copy of the GPL source code (or make an offer to provide the code by mail) somewhere in the payload?

      "If you can compile this then you are one lucky SOB"

      Just hypothetical; I don't design, build, or launch missiles professionally or otherwise :\

    7. Re:No iPad for me by Conchobair · · Score: 5, Funny

      "No ma'am, that's not a drink holder, it's a CD/DVD tray... Yes ma'am, they always go in shiny side down."

      "No sir, that is not hackers taking over your computer every 10 minutes, that's what we call a screen saver."

      "I understand you want to keep your surge protector protected; however you can't plug it into itself. It needs to go into the wall to power the other devices"

      All real... sadly... Sometimes I miss it.

    8. Re:No iPad for me by zmollusc · · Score: 4, Funny

      I agree totally about the stupidity of the average person. Horrifyingly, nearly 50% of people are even stupider!

      --
      They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
    9. Re:No iPad for me by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They are as easy to use as this porta-Mac iPad.

      Actually, if the iPad were anything like a "porta-Mac it wouldn't have required app-store tie-ins, nor would they be purposely borked by the manufacturer to prevent tethering to iPhones.

      The iPad is in fact nothing like the products that gave the Macs a reputation for technological elegance and user-friendliness.

      You didn't have to jailbreak a Mac to make it do the things you wanted it to do. You didn't have to get all your apps from Apple, and you could even write your own applications without getting permission if you were so inclined. You didn't have to sign a two-year contract with a shitty phone company when you bought your Mac, either. When you bought it, it was yours and it was the adventurousness of the people who took to Macintosh computers in order to make music, art, and video that gave Apple the "cachet" of being cool that has served it so well with the soy latte crowd.

      Apple is like that great neighborhood just a short distance from the city center where all the cool artists and creative folks moved in because the neighborhood had flavor and was reasonably priced, but then word got out that it was a "hot neighborhood" and all the yuppies and Bed, Bath and Beyonds moved in and now you can't find a place to park and you can't rent an apartment because all the old buildings were torn down to make cookie-cutter townhouses and "multi-use" upscale shopping and all the funky restaurants have been replaced by joints where someone named "Sami" takes your order and an appetizer the size of a postage stamp is covered with goat cheese and arugula and a beer is $11.50 and all the cool people have moved about 10 blocks away to a new great neighborhood which might not be as shiny and upscale but at least you can walk down the street without seeing every other person wearing an $80 Ed Hardy t-shirt. And the people that got hooked into seven-figure mortgages in order to buy their exposed-brick and granite countertop condos are suddenly looking over their shoulder and wondering why the neighborhood doesn't feel as cool as it once did. But of course, they'll never admit that fashion sucked them in so they'll wince and pretend that their neighborhood is still the coolest part of town because now nobody's going to take that condo off their hands anyway.

      That's why you find people who were great fans of Apple products pre-iPod and have increasingly become disillusioned with the direction the company's taken. Are those people "geeks"? Maybe, but I doubt Apple is going to start putting in their advertisements any language that says "Techie geeks don't really care for our products".

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    10. Re:No iPad for me by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 4, Funny

      ...my grandma uses Ubuntu on her netbook and thinks Apple is for fags. She's a tough old bird and member of The Greatest Generation.

      Imagine this yelled by Lee Ermey in drill instructor's uniform with his face six inches from yours.

    11. Re:No iPad for me by NatasRevol · · Score: 5, Funny

      Today I got an on site call. Mouse wasn't working right no matter what they did.

      I literally rotated it 180 degrees. Problem solved before I even sat down.

      Thanks, that will be $100!

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    12. Re:No iPad for me by tool462 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'd just print the source code on the outer casing of the missile. It would also give the target a fighting chance at survival. Assuming they had a really high-res camera and a couple good coders, they'd have the total flight time to try and find a bug that they can exploit to change its trajectory. Feels more sporting somehow.

    13. Re:No iPad for me by mdarksbane · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Have you interacted with anyone who wasn't a geek recently? I love what control I have over my computer, too, but the vast majority of users struggle to install something other than internet explorer! They use their computer for facebook, music, word, and porn. The only installers they run personally are pop cap games and malware.

      Aside from our nerdy philosophical objections to the idea, the fact that the garden has a wall doesn't matter if it has everything you want or care about inside of it.

      I mean, I don't care if you buy an ipad. I'm not touching one and I don't own an iphone. But the amount of complete denial of the state of computing users here amazes me.

    14. Re:No iPad for me by indiechild · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I generally agree with your assessment on Tablet PCs becoming more popular and so on, but I have to say the iPad doesn't fall into that category at all. It's not a "computer" in the normal sense -- you can't run a desktop operating system on it. It really is a new category of device.

      Personally, I have an Eee PC 901 and I hardly ever use it now. I think netbooks and the upcoming nettablets are an unacceptable compromise, with too many shortcomings. We don't just need smaller, lighter, slower and more unergonomic computers. What average consumers really want is something that can perform everyday lifestyle computing tasks, designed from the ground up to be an intuitive and easy-to-use handheld device. Steve Jobs recognised that, and that is what the iPad addresses. But hey, that's just my opinion.

  2. And here come the pundits... by jpmorgan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And here come the pundits declaring every tablet computer to be an iPad clone. Because as we all know, the CrunchPad/JooJoo is such a ripoff of the iPad.

    Aren't we so lucky to have Apple around to invent everything for us?

  3. How are these clones? by ircmaxell · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How are these clones? The iPad was announced what, 2.5 months ago? Doesn't it take significantly longer than that to engineer, design and develop a device to market? So if these were in the works long before the iPad was announced, how can then POSSIBLY be clones? Or is this just successful Apple marketing to instill the idea that if a "Major Player" is first to press (Which the iPad wasn't by the way), all others become imitators? That's like saying that Apple invented the smart phone, or that MS invented the home computer, or that Google invented online document editing and storage...

    --
    If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good
  4. Software by gilesjuk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Unless the software on the Linux devices has been rewritten for a touch interface I don't see why they're worth bothering with.

    That's the genius of the iPad, loads of software apps designed for a touch screen interface. Hence why Apple based it on the iPhone not the Mac.

    Tablets with desktop OS software suck and have been around for years, failing to catch on due to poor usability.

  5. Forget Linux by Yvan256 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    All I want is a low-cost (100$ max), E-ink (reflective, extremely low-power) PDF reader with an SD memory card slot.

    No Web browser
    No MP3 player
    No Wi-Fi or Bluetooth
    No keyboard (touch screen would be nice but at that price I would settle for a gamepad-style interface)

    1. Re:Forget Linux by FencingLion · · Score: 5, Funny

      No Web browser

      No MP3 player

      No Wi-Fi or Bluetooth

      No keyboard

      Lame.

      --
      Just keep swimming.
    2. Re:Forget Linux by ajiva · · Score: 4, Informative

      Is $160 close enough?

      The SONY eBook Pocket Reader is exactly what you want, but its $160 at Fry's.

    3. Re:Forget Linux by sessamoid · · Score: 4, Informative

      Don't understand the joke. Care to explain?

      The post is parodying the now-famous (here, at least) Slashdot article commentary posted by none other than CmdrTaco about the introduction of Apple's iPod: "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."

      --
      "No, no, no. Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to."
  6. DRM by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 5, Insightful

    On top of that, Apple will be including DRM on some eBooks and other iPad content.

    Wait what? You won't buy devices that companies can sell DRM'd content on? I can see not buying devices where the only content is DRM'd, but devices that support both free and DRM'd formats give me more choices, not fewer. I'm not buying an iPad because I don't fit the target market and it would be pretty useless for me, but your DRM reasoning baffles me.

  7. 2010 by Kell+Bengal · · Score: 4, Funny

    2010: Year of the Linux Deskt- er... Lapt- wait... no.. er... palmt-... no no... hmm.

    'Tabletop'?

    --
    Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
    altslashdot.org: The future of slashdot.
  8. do everything they can do and far more. by wiredog · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Except run for more than a day without charging. Oh, and be read in full sunlight.

    --

    Best Slashdot Co
  9. ergh by nomadic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For the same price as a high-end dedicated device you can get a tablet that will do everything they can do and far more.

    No you don't; why are there people that just can't understand that to some of us an e-ink screen provides a superior reading experience to a glowing one?

  10. Only if screens are as eye-friendly as Kindle's by Brian+Stretch · · Score: 4, Informative

    I can read off my Kindle's e-ink screen with considerably less eye strain than reading off a backlit LCD. Backlights are hard on your eyes.

    Some tips: sit ~3 feet away from your monitor, turn the backlight down as low as you can without it becoming counterproductive (wanting to lean forward to view the dim screen is bad), look away every once in a while so your eyes aren't fixed on the same close distance for long periods. For more serious problems you may need vision therapy like I did. I thought I had ADD until I figured that out. Oh, that's why I had so much trouble with reading and why my vision got blurry after marathon gaming sessions...

  11. Ok, where are they??? by RapmasterT · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "when I consider that there are soon going to be literally dozens of cheaper, Linux-powered iPad devices on the market"

    Ok, find I'm sold. can I order one today? Tomorrow? 6 months?

    No, well FU then. I've been waiting for a slate computing device like this for YEARS and someone is shipping one next month, that someone happens to be Apple. If something better comes along, fine I'll take one of those too, then ReBay the iPad. If the market floods with them and nothing is any better, I'll keep it.

    I can't sit down on the couch with Vaporware, so how long are we supposed to wait? And frankly I'm not poor enough to worry about waiting to save a couple $$ to buy the exact best thing at the exact best time.

  12. Re:Adapting a mouse app for touch control by peragrin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    adjusting the overall interface for touch screen , not just big controls but proper controls. you can have sliding buttons, etc. You need an on screen keyboard that works the same across all applications, with built in spell check that picks up words as they are entered. Applications themselves need to be able to rotate to deal with changes in resolutions. You need to setup a method of switching to various applications without keyboard combos or other hardware buttons. You need to add gesture support into the ENTIRE interface and every app to allow more input methods.

    Oh and you need to make all of that work the same across every app and every interface element that needs or could make sensible use of it.

    That is the point Android and current windows mobile fail so badly at. They are still designing interfaces for desktops. Not for multi touch based tablets. People like you who think there is only two steps to make s touch based app to consider when designing the interface, is why apple is kicking android's ass.

    --
    i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
  13. Re:Adapting a mouse app for touch control by Phleg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This mentality is precisely why Windows Mobile has been a complete and utter failure.

    --
    No comment.
  14. Re:Tivoization by Zen+Hash · · Score: 4, Informative

    What with all the other tablets coming out that let me install whatever the hell I want on them

    Not necessarily. The mention of "ARM-powered entertainment tablets" makes me think some of these tablets will be locked up like a TiVo DVR: running a GPLv2 Linux kernel digitally signed by the manufacturer and GPLv2 apps digitally signed by the manufacturer. The compliance and robustness requirements of the digital restrictions management systems used by the publishers of non-free works on "entertainment tablets" might prohibit any environment that isn't suitably Tivoized so that someone can't just tee(1) the cleartext of a non-free work to a file.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDe1gd-pBRo -- There have been ARM-powered tablets on the market for quite awhile now, and they don't have the limitations you mention... Unlike the iPad, this one not only supports tethering to cell phones, it even steps you through BT pairing and configuring the DUN connection during the out-of-box setup wizard. You can also dual-boot different operating systems (Android, Ubuntu, Mer, etc.) stored internally or on removable SD cards. Not bad for something that costs less than half the price of the iPad. There are surely better ones available if one were to look around.

    --
    Here I sit, all broken hearted.
    Came to poop, but only farted.
  15. I pre-ordered an iPad 3G. by MikeFM · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I just spent $1000 on an iPad whereas I can't see spending more than $250 for an Android tablet (and probably nothing for any other tablet) because they haven't learned the Linux desktop lesson. They are often incompatible, have poorly designed interface, and allow any random rubbish to clutter things up. Call it flexibility if you want but I call it a crappy user experience. Pay $100 for a developer license or jailbreak your iPhone OS and you can install damn near anything you want. How many people do it? Not many because that isn't what most people want. The only selling point the competition has is cheaper price tags. A smart competitor would mod Android to be as well designed as iPhone including the restrictions and sell a cheaper device.

    --
    At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.