There is also a TuxMobil page dedicated to Linux on Tablet PCs, WebPads, NotePads,... It contains an almost complete list of installation reports, drivers, useful applications and Linux distributions especially for Tablet PCs. There are even some manufacturers, which offer Tablet PCs pre-equipped with Linux.
There are many more fancy input devices working with Linux available, e.g. the Twiddler a tiny wrist keyboard made by Handykey.com, different Linux applications featuring your cell phone as a remote control and the WireLess NoteBook Presenter made by Targus; to name just a few. BTW: The WireLess NoteBook Presenter doesn't feature mouse gestures in the air, you have to provide mouse events by pushing a mouse button, but it works with Linux out of the box and seems much cheaper.
Indeed "having a little 'store all my interesting media' device" not much bigger than just a portable audio player, but much more powerful, that's the way I like it, too. For example, you may use your Linux PDA not only to listen to "free" music, but also to view "free" pocket movies, to read a "free" eBook. Or the other way round, even generate your own media: writing a book (actually there is Z4CK a book written on a SHARP Zaurus Linux PDA already available), recording voices or music, take a picture, writing a program in the programming language of your choice,...
Usually they are only available in China or Japan, but there are even more mobile Linux phones available. You may also enhance a Linux PDA with a GSM/GPRS CF-Card and turn it into a mobile SmartPhone this way.
Though not directly related to your question, it might help to know, that there are vendors dedicated to offer commercial support for IBM hardware, e.g. Xtops.DE - Linux, Laptops, Notebooks, PDAs.
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There are methods to prevent laptops, notebooks, PDAs, .. from theft. These methods are especially suited for Linux machines.
Just in case you are interested in Linux connectivity to other portable audio and video players, there are reports for Apple iPod, Archos JukeBox, Creative Nomad MuVo, Diamond Rio, Sony Diskman and many more models. There is also a survey of Linux Applications for Portable Music and Video Players, links to free music (GPLed or under Creative Commons license and tips and tricks about repairing, upgrading and disassembling your portable media player.
There is also a TuxMobil page dedicated to Linux on Tablet PCs, WebPads, NotePads, ... It contains an almost complete list of installation reports, drivers, useful applications and Linux distributions especially for Tablet PCs. There are even some manufacturers, which offer Tablet PCs pre-equipped with Linux.
My project TuxMobil: Linux with Laptops, Notebooks, PDAs, Mobile Phones and Portable Computers has been under the attack of content thieves some times. Therefore I have decided to sign all my pages with a steganographic watermark. Also I often watch out for stolen content using a special search engine, e.g. CopyScape. In case I detect a fraudulent site, I contact the FBI to Report Internet Fraud and the FTC's Consumer Complaints site (this applies only if the thief is located in the U.S.). And I complain to the thief's ISP.
There are many more fancy input devices working with Linux available, e.g. the Twiddler a tiny wrist keyboard made by Handykey.com, different Linux applications featuring your cell phone as a remote control and the WireLess NoteBook Presenter made by Targus; to name just a few. BTW: The WireLess NoteBook Presenter doesn't feature mouse gestures in the air, you have to provide mouse events by pushing a mouse button, but it works with Linux out of the box and seems much cheaper.
Indeed "having a little 'store all my interesting media' device" not much bigger than just a portable audio player, but much more powerful, that's the way I like it, too. For example, you may use your Linux PDA not only to listen to "free" music, but also to view "free" pocket movies, to read a "free" eBook. Or the other way round, even generate your own media: writing a book (actually there is Z4CK a book written on a SHARP Zaurus Linux PDA already available), recording voices or music, take a picture, writing a program in the programming language of your choice, ...
Usually they are only available in China or Japan, but there are even more mobile Linux phones available. You may also enhance a Linux PDA with a GSM/GPRS CF-Card and turn it into a mobile SmartPhone this way.
There are already mobile phones equipped with Linux available. You may also consider to enhance your Linux PDA with a GSM/GPRS CF-Card. For an example see this report about Linux and the AnyCom GS-320 TriBand GSM/GPRS CF-Card.
There is already The Linux Documentation Project - TLDP, offering many high quality Linux HOWTOs, FAQs and guides in different languages.
Whether SHARP will bring their Linux PDAs to the U.S. or not, they will be available in Europe by Xtops.DE - Linux, Laptops, PDAs. More vendors around the globe you may find in the international TuxMobil - Linux laptop, notebook and PDA vendor survey.
NoFoSt is not the only vendor of Linux laptops, there is a large and international survey of vendors, which ship pre-installed Linux laptops, notebooks and PDAs at TuxMobil. The main sponsor for TuxMobil is Xtops.DE. They are located in Berlin (Germany). They sell IBM ThinkPads pre-equipped with Linux as well as other brands. Some of them even without Microsoft-Tax.
Besides instructions on how to upgrade and repair Apple notebooks, at TuxMobil there are disassembly guides for laptops and notebooks, dissection pictures of PDAs and handhelds, take apart manuals for mobile (cell phones), as well as images from the inside of mobile media players. Guides on how to maintain other mobile electronic gadgets will follow.
Here are some tips and tricks for Theft and Loss Protection of *Linux* Laptops, Notebooks and PDAs.
There are even more Linux installation reports for small notebooks, e.g. Linux on Panasonic notebooks, Linux on JVC notebooks. As well as a survey of Linux installations on laptops and notebooks with TransMeta CPUs.
There is already a bunch of Tablet PCs pre-installed with Linux available, there are also installation reports for other Tablet PCs.
There is already a plethora of free software for mobile audio and video players available.
Though not directly related to your question, it might help to know, that there are vendors dedicated to offer commercial support for IBM hardware, e.g. Xtops.DE - Linux, Laptops, Notebooks, PDAs.
Just in case you need information about Linux and portable media players, see this survey of Linux tools and ports for mobile media players.
There are many Linux installation reports for Centrino based laptops and notebooks available. The older manuals cover the Centrinos with Banias CPU. But some of the new cover the current Centrino generation with Dothan CPU already.
There are Tablet PCs running Linux already, as well as Apple Powerbooks and iBooks running Linux. So there seems to be a fair chance that an Apple Tablet PC might run Linux, too.
This topic has been already discussed at /. February 2004: What Do You Use WAP For?. I still can see from the footprints of mobile cell phones in my Apache log files, that many people are using the WAP format of TuxMobil - Linux On Laptops, PDAs and Mobile Cell Phones. Also the i-mode format is used, too.
Just in case you want to fix these abused things. - When trying to fix broken computers, I have found it difficult to get advice via Google. So here are some links to step-by-step manuals including pictures or videos for do-it-yourself laptop repair. There are also take apart instructions for PDAs, disassembly manuals for mobile (cell) phones and repair HOWTOs for portable audio and video players.
I would be interested in a first hand report, too. But with Linux installed, to include it into the TuxMobil Linux laptop and notebook overview.
Just in case somebody will write a Linux installation report about this device, I would like to include a link into the Linux on Sony laptops and notebooks survey as well as into the Linux on TabletPCs and Pen PCs overview.
Visit TuxMobil if you want to get more information on how to connect a portable digital media player to a Linux computer.