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Ask Slashdot: Tablet With Root Access By Default?

Posted by timothy on from the oh-you-want-everything dept.

hweimer writes "I am looking for a small (7") tablet that comes with root access out of the box. I know, I could get one of the usual suspects and root it myself, but I don't want to waste my time in the process and end up voiding my warranty. Basically, I'd like to use it for web browsing, reading PDFs and accessing my e-mails via SSH (extra bonus for X11 forwarding). Any good suggestions, or should I wait for Tizen devices to hit the market?"

16 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. n900 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I know it's a little dated, and not as fancy as other tablets, but it has everything you just asked for, along with X11 forwarding. I'd strongly suggest taking a look at it. You can even use it as a phone if you'd like. I think they are about $250 now.

  2. Doesn't matter the OS by Microlith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    None. Every tablet with Android has to be rooted and vendors are working very, very hard to fight the small percentage of users that do root. The closest you can get are tablets that don't sign the kernel and allow you to customize the OS (load cyanogenmod or something) but increasingly vendors are on the attack against that (B&N clamping down on the Nook Tablet, Samsung pushing out an update that locks down the platform.)

    Tizen-based devices will, thus far, simply allow for a more standard *nix platform and other ready-made and compatible distributions, but that still requires you work your way through the first line of vendor hostilities (platsec misused against you) and then the second line of vendor hostilities (proprietary, signed bootloader and possibly a checksummed kernel.)

    It's extra shitty in the mobile space these days, especially for those who like to do a little more than blindly consume.

    1. Re:Doesn't matter the OS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      class 10 micro SD card

      Um, no. Do NOT get a class 10 SD card if you are planning to boot from the SD card. Class 10 is optimized for sequential read/write of large files. It will have very poor random access performance. It is an unavoidable trade-off. Running an OS is mostly random small read/writes. Get a SanDisk class 4 card, or any other card with high scores on the "4K Random Write" benchmark. See this thread for more details (the thread refers to WP7 but the same is true for Android)..

  3. Re:Viewsonic G-Tablet by Microlith · · Score: 4, Informative

    The downside to the G-Tablet is the older, broken revision of the Tegra 2 silicon and the low quality TN-panel.

  4. Do you actually need it? by Guspaz · · Score: 4, Informative

    None of the things that you said you want to do require root access. Web browsing, SSH, X11 forwarding, PDFs... You can do that all with an Android device without rooting. Heck, you can do that with an Apple device without jailbreaking.

    1. Re:Do you actually need it? by datavirtue · · Score: 5, Informative

      If you want to install Wireshark (Airshark?) you must have root access. For me that is the first app I want on any android device. I'm not happy unless I have a full battery of tools with which to sniff the network. Root access required.

      --
      I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
    2. Re:Do you actually need it? by rtfa-troll · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Let's just imagine you bought a car to drive to work in and go on occasional weekend trips to the countryside.

      Now let's imagine, when you get the keys and enter in there's a little contract lying there which says "you can drive to work, you can have work colleagues, but if you want to drive out of town on a weekday evening then you need to pay extra and if you want to have a girlfriend in the car, that's not allowed". You'd be pissed.

      The guy wants to buy a tablet which he owns not Apple. He wants to do normal stuff on it, but he doesn't, within reason, want someone else telling him what he can and can't do with it. Is that so complex? Why do we always get a bunch of Applesoft trolls coming on and telling us "oh; but you didn't say you wanted to drive around with a girlfriend". Of course he didn't. This is slashdot, he doesn't expect to get a girlfriend, but when he does get one he's not going to be happy with your restrictions. Now he'd just like to buy and own a tablet. Later he can decide what he doesn't want to do with it.

      --
      =~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
  5. Nook Color by afidel · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nook Color, it boots from the CF slot first so you just put down your own OS on a CF card and should you ever have a problem you just pull the card and it's back to factory fresh.

    --
    There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  6. Archos 101 G9 by BlueCoder · · Score: 5, Informative

    Everything you could pretty much want. But only 16GB. Only one SD slot. Wish they had a way to upgrade the on-board flash to larger capacities. We seriously need a smaller footprint for SSD's. Would be perfect with 128gb.

    You can put whatever OS you want on it and the manufacturer encourages it, it just happens to come with android which is Linux under the covers.

  7. Here's what I'm looking for by Stonent1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    "I am looking for people who know how to use google out of the box. I know, I could get one of the usual suspects and post my question on slashdot, but I don't want to waste my time in the process and end up voiding my status as being too important to look it up myself. Basically, I like to tell people I'm a power user but really I'm not. Any good suggestions, or should I ask Siri?"

  8. ASUS Transformer TF101 by masterpiga · · Score: 5, Informative

    I cannot speak for the upcoming Transformer Prime, but its predecessor TF101 can be rooted extremely easily (no time wasted here).
    OTA updates keep working and the rooting can easily be undone (actually, the device gets automatically un-rooted every time you do an OTA update).
    The super simple rooting procedure is discussed here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1198303
    You basically just download a jar to your computer, connect the tablet via USB and follow the instructions on screen. It takes less than 5 minutes. I cannot guarantee that it does not invalidate the warranty, but I would say it doesn't.

  9. SmartQ 7 ~600 MHz ARM Ubuntu tablets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    I had good experiences with this $200 SmartQ 7 7" tablet which I got 3 years ago (for $200). Runs an Ubuntu build that's mostly in english; apt-get did everything i needed to get my remote desktop on. I don't have a Nook so I'm not sure how it compares.

    The supplier I used seems to be out of stock, but presumably there are others:
    http://www.dealextreme.com/p/smartdevices-smartq-7-7-0-touchscreen-linux-mid-internet-tablet-667mhz-cpu-wifi-bluetooth-1gb-27904

  10. Knowledgable people's opinions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Googling will get you every two bit opinion on Earth. At least by asking Slashdot, you're narrowing the two-bit opinions to an audience that would more than likely know for sure.

    I once asked my brother (also in IT) his opinion on something IT related. He said, "let me google that. Here you go."

    I replied, "I did that, thank you. I wanted your opinion and your experience if any."

    Here's another example of where googling can be a dumb idea - car repair. If you don't know much about cars, you will be led down some expensive paths.

    All google seems to get you many times is the Earth wide Peanut Gallery.

  11. Re:You're an idiot. by Swarley · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sometimes people post in their own question about how they are capable of rooting a tablet themselves but don't want to waste the time while being perfectly happy to waste their time (much more than would be needed to actually root an android device) and the time of others with this silly question. He could have rooted a tablet 10 times over in the amount of time it will take him to get a useful response from this thread. I think that makes him an idiot.

  12. 9" but still root by Pheonix28 · · Score: 4, Informative

    it is 9" but he HP Touchpad doesn't have to be rooted. Simply enter developer mode ( just type webos20090606) and you've got root access. If not for poor decision making by execs and poor advertising more people would understand just how much you can do with WebOS and the touchpad.

  13. ROOTING DOES NOT VOID THE WARRANTY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not the warranty you actually care about, anyway. Even if you root the software, that only voids the software warranty. The hardware is still covered under any applicable warranty. If the piece of junk falls apart in your hands after you rooted it, there is nothing preventing you from sending it back for a replacement. Flash the software back to stock if you are paranoid about it. The manufacturers and carriers don't give you root by default because the average person would fuck up their device if they had root access. Not giving you root limits their liability so they dont have to replace devices because some dumbass fubared his /system partition. If you can root, then you can also learn how to fix the damn software yourself. It becomes your own responsibility. Fixing defective hardware is always the manufacterer's responsibility, unless you modded the hardware. See Magnusson-Moss warranty act