PengPod Hits Funding Goal, Plans to Ship Linux Tablet In January

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PengPod Hits Funding Goal, Plans to Ship Linux Tablet In January

Posted by Unknown on Sunday December 2, 2012 @02:20AM from the tablet-for-the-gnu-slash-rest-of-us dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Quoting liliputing: 'PengPod plans to start shipping 7 and 10 inch tablets with support for Linux as well as Google Android in January. The company, founded by Neal Peacock, has been raising money to help support software development for the tablets — and Peacock just wrote in to let us know the project has surpassed its initial $49,000 fundraising goal. In other words, the campaign will be fully funded and backers that pledged $120 or more should get their tablets starting in January if all goes according to plan.'" And, unlike many ARM SoCs, the kernel for the Allwinner A10 powering it is developed openly.

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There goes the tablet experience by metalmaster · 2012-12-02 02:33 · Score: 5, Insightful

I love the idea of a dual booting tablet, but it doesnt really strike me as a consumer device. I hope each of the pledged backers really understands what they're getting. It should beat out that $99 walgreens tablet but it's not going to be the iPad killer by any means
1. Re:There goes the tablet experience by citizenr · 2012-12-02 02:53 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  It should beat out that $99 walgreens tablet
  no it wont. It has $50 Tablet specs (shitty photoframe TN low resolution screen). 10' one is $30 more expensive than same hardware bought in shop.
  Kernel source is useless when you have no GPU driver and no VPU driver (no h.264 acceleration).
  I really dont understand what is this thing about.
  
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  Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
2. Re:There goes the tablet experience by nurb432 · 2012-12-02 03:45 · Score: 2
  
  "Look and feel" is a personal choice, not absolute.
  
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  ---- Booth was a patriot ----
3. Re:There goes the tablet experience by westlake · 2012-12-02 04:01 · Score: 2
  
  It should beat out that $99 walgreens tablet
  
  no it wont. It has $50 Tablet specs (shitty photoframe TN low resolution screen).
  
  Back to the Future.
  The one positive for Walmart in its five year mission to bring OEM Linux to the masses was the discovery that it could onload truckloads of worthless industrial surplus shit hardware to the geek so long as it was stickered with a Tux logo.
4. Re:There goes the tablet experience by tuppe666 · 2012-12-02 05:43 · Score: 2
  
  I wish android was in a position to contest the ipad, but with fragmentation getting worse and worse android is just going to get left in the dust.
  Thank goodness your dream is todays reality. iPads market share has dropped again sown in one quarter from 60% to 50% in just one quarter. With great launches like the Nexus this is set to continue.
  The irony of you quoting fragmentation in a topic where a tablet has the unique feature [what you call fragmentaion] of being open...A feature Apple products lack.
5. Re:There goes the tablet experience by tramp · 2012-12-02 08:13 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  I just bought a € 99 tablet with Android 4, 1 Gb internal memory, 1.2 Ghz ARM A8 processor and a usb keyboard in a sleeve. It does everything it needs to do and at reasonable pace. Truth is that you do not need a Ipad to do basic things as browsing (Opera Mobile works perfect), email and some nice to have apps or casual gaming. Of course a Ipad is wonderfull but at a price I do not want to pay.
Either it is Linux, or it is a tablet. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-02 02:44 · Score: 2, Interesting

The Linux philosophy is incompatible with the concept of a tablet. Sadly kids today think "Ubuntu" would be what Linux is. They couldn't be farther from the truth.
A tablet is a consumer device that is not a computer anymore but is very limited and primitive in its functionality. It is not suited for creating anything, or using a computer for its actual purpose in general.
Linux is an operating system whose greatest features are its total freedom... of configurability... of modifiability... and most importantly: of being able to automate your work away, by using a computer like it's supposed to be used. It is a professional operating system. Something that is designed to be used by people who actually make things instead of sitting there and drooling their life away.
So a tablet is never a Linux computer. It is a gadget with a couple of appliances that happen to be implemented by (ab)using Linux. It lacks the whole damn point of why you'd choose Linux in the first place.
We must stop acting like bash scripting and text config files and everything-is-a-file and udev and dbus and kernel configuration are things to be ashamed of, and start wearing those things with pride! They are a thing of elegance and power and freedom in a word of jails and appliances and meaningless non-captioned colorful clickables... sorry... tapables.
Oh, and all the above criticism can be said about Ubuntu, and in fact all Linux "desktop environments" and monolithic big applications in general.
1. Re:Either it is Linux, or it is a tablet. by westlake · 2012-12-02 07:42 · Score: 2
  
  Something that is designed to be used by people who actually make things instead of sitting there and drooling their life away.
  The tool maker makes tools that make building or managing other things easier.
  It doesn't make him superior to the business woman, artist or craftsman, who has the imagination to see their full potential.
  It doesn't make him superior to those whose lives are centered around other tools and other tasks. "Drooling their lives away?" Not at all.
2. Re:Either it is Linux, or it is a tablet. by Half-pint+HAL · 2012-12-02 23:33 · Score: 2
  
  Maybe you need to realize that while you *think* you're creating things with your new toy, it's actually more like playing in a sandbox they created. The illusion of work is becoming more successful than ever.
  Someone who prefers a tablet over a keyboard is an almost certain sign that they are useless when it comes to any kind technical competence, and therefore getting things done using modern tools.
  Nope, sorry. It's not the tablet form-factor that's responsible, true, but there are people doing great things with the touch interface based on notions of near-direct control that are analogous to puppetry. The technical competence required for current content creation tools is pretty esoteric as they are based on a workflow that arose out of the limits of computers 10-20 years ago and physical analogies that are irrelevant to most modern users. The paradigm shift that we're seeing now goes well beyond the touch interface, and often the touch interface isn't even required, but touch has got designers thinking again, and we'll all be benefitting from the improved, modernised workflows in a couple of years...
  
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  Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
3. Re:Either it is Linux, or it is a tablet. by darkNeko · 2012-12-03 05:07 · Score: 2
  
  I beg to differ,
  It'ts not the tablet form factor that is the problem. It's the OS and envitornment that limit yourself. You cannot develop for IOS on the ipad or iphone, you cannot easily develop for android in an android device. Those environment are pretty limited, because they are mean to work as appliances, not computers, however, the underlying hardware is a computer, and quite powerfull for what is worth.
  You really don't need several gigaherz of processing power but for a couple of task, gaming and hardocore calculations, that you won't be making in a tablet, however it doesn't mean that the tablet is worthless. It has other uses, and touch interfaces are sometimes far more efficient than using a command line (Yeah, label me and heretic, burn me for my blasphemy!) This is about freedom, having new tools, trying new ways, I'm a proud linuxer and I can tell you, not everything is the command line, servers and desktop computers. I have pride in my CLI, programming and admin skills, it's good to have pride, but too much pride is a defect, if you are too prideful to try new things.
  You say tablets are incompatible with linux, NOTHING is incompatible with linux, as linux is mean to be free, you can adapt it to anything if you put effort in it, thats why the joke "But, does it run linux?" will never die, people run linux on the weirdest things, toasters, fridges, embeded systems, mainframes, clocks, routers, etc.
  Some of those implementations may not be appear very useful to you, but others are things that we cannot live without. And even those that are "not useful", advance the knowledge, make people think out of the box, and sometimes, just sometimes, people thinking different, doing useless things, different things, have changed the world. Yes its just a tablet, yes the current ecosystems may be closed, yes, it may not change the world, but it's a start, a step in a less transited road. Linux is not something sacred, reserved to the realm of high-computers, it a frigging OS, that is mean to be used, shared, modified, and its precisely that freedom that you preach about what gives everyone the posibility of using it as he or she wants, from toasters to mainframes.
  I see a lot of hate aimed at this little tablet/project, "its not powerful enough", "lame screen resolution", "closed source gpu drivers", "a tablet is a consumer device, not a creation device", etc.
  To all people who hates, you want a powerful tablet, buy an Ipad, or a Nexus. Those are closed ecosystems you say, then create a new ecosystem, be a creator, not a consumer. You don't have the skills, time, resources?, Then shut up and stop criticizing those that are trying to make a change. You will say that is not open enough?, You mean, like, current computers, with those firmwares, drm, and secure boot?
  You remind me of Sheldon Copper, "They are having fun the wrong way"
800x480 by citizenr · 2012-12-02 02:46 · Score: 2, Insightful

$120
hilarious

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Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
Still available for pre-order by drachensun · 2012-12-02 02:53 · Score: 2

The site is http://www.indiegogo.com/pengpod and the preorders are open through Sunday.
More advertorial service from Slashdot? by BenJeremy · 2012-12-02 02:58 · Score: 4, Insightful

Again with the PengPod. My SmartQ V7 had Ubuntu, Android and Windows CE several years ago.
This is nothing new, and I'm even more shocked this whole thing has had a followup.
I wish could mod the summary
1. Re:More advertorial service from Slashdot? by Dzimas · 2012-12-02 06:53 · Score: 2
  
  Just because something isn't the first doesn't mean it should be dismissed. The news here is that the PengPad Kickstarter project was successful. It's a strong indicator that there is a market for multi-boot tablets that aren't locked down, although I suspect it will be a year or two (if ever) before we see top notch hardware in that niche.
It's about sneaking linux onto desktops.... by AmazingRuss · 2012-12-02 03:43 · Score: 2

...as a coaster.
Why? by p0p0 · 2012-12-02 04:02 · Score: 4, Insightful

My $120 china tab has a 1024x600 display. 1GHz and dual-core mai-400 GPU. It has Android 4 and there is a ubuntu image available that runs from SD. Even the Nexus has an official ubuntu port, and many others have the same port as mine I'd wagger. So what exactly is the purpose?

The company that made my tab (Ainol *snicker*) has released their kernel sources, so it's not like some companies which don't honour the usage rights.

What a load of rubbish.
Households without a production device by tepples · 2012-12-02 04:58 · Score: 3, Interesting

A tablet is not the be-all and end-all of computing devices, but it's not intended to be a production device.
So devices that are great for viewing existing works but not much else have become fashionable. The problem is that these devices' popularity will drive people to end up choosing not to buy a device suitable for creating works, but by the time they grow to regret that choice, it's too late. Look at how video game consoles drove set-top home computers to near extinction in the 8- to 16-bit transition, for example. The C64, Apple II, and the like had set-top presence, but by the time IBM's 16-bit PC and its clones became popular, home computers had all but abandoned the ability to view works on the TV monitors of the time, and locked-down consoles picked up popularity.
Re:Why? by csumpi · 2012-12-02 05:13 · Score: 2

Maybe because Ainol didn't pay the /. front page story tax. BTW I have the same Ainol tablet, great screen and superb build quality (it survived many drops by my 3 year old).