What about tablet powered by Linux Mint?

[milen]

Hello!
In the few past years the tablet has become more and more popular due to it's portability and form factor and the recent technology provides powerful hardware and more capabilities. I know that Android is now ruling the tablet market but it seems to me that it is (still) not providing a full computer like experience. By this I mean, for example, I like my linux programs that I've been always using but I can't use them on a tablet so I must use android apps, sometimes with suspicious permissions required or if I'd like to do some basic programming I can't do it on a tablet. So I was thinking that it would be really great to be able to install a linux distro on a tablet without having to do dark magic, as simple as it is to install it on a computer. Having in mind that Linux Mint has made the linux world much more easy for the average user and brought to everyone of us so many options to choose from, I feel confident that Linux Mint Team could extend the Mint experience on tablets too. Some months ago Clem announced the first branded Mint device, the mintBox that looks impressing, so I thought that a branded mint tablet would be a great idea too. Obviously it would have to use a modified Linux Mint distribution installed, optimized for performance and free from features not available for the tablet platform but meantime being a full featured linux operating system.

In short my suggestions/ideas/distant dream is:
***Linux Mint for tablets
***Branded Mint tablet

Thank you for the great Linux Mint!
Milen

[veggen]

I'd love this. I'm not a fan of dumbed down OSes and would like a full blown OS on my tablet. I'm pretty sure I'd go with Enlightenment for DE, though.

[xenopeek]

Clem is pretty clear about Linux Mint being a desktop and laptop operating system. Mobile devices and touch screens aren't of interest to the Linux Mint developers right now. For some more background, see Clem's article here: http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2038

As most tablets run ARM processors, and Linux Mint is available only for x86 processors, it would be a major investment to get this done (I think).

[veggen]

Hehe, you're absolutely correct (and I wouldn't want Mint's development direction any different), I just indulged in a bit of what/if thinking.

[youngdaddytc]

if someone could port a vmware, virtualbox-like program to android then we could use that to run any desktop in a virtual environment. theoretically speaking of course, after all the bugs have been worked out.

[veggen]

Btw, is there any tablet on the market that can run a normal OS? MS Surface, maybe?

[youngdaddytc]

btw, i forgot to mention that when i had my HTC HD2 (phone) i used to run ubuntu desktop on it from the memory card. it had to be specially ported for it, but it worked.

thinking about that reminded me that tablets are essentially big phones when it comes to the OS, so really it's just up to the modding developer community to take that code and through reverse engineering make it work for that tablets' specific hardware.

you may want to check out xda-developers. it's possible that some of those tablets may already be able to run a desktop OS.

[gothicpreston]

Tablets running a Linux OS do already exist; WeTab from 4ttitoo in Munich running a Meego respin on a Intel Atom N450 pltform, and now the Vivaldi which is runnning KDE's Plasma 3 on an ARM platform.

The real issue for me is integrating the Mint desktop and these mobile devices so they work together as part of an overall system. I want to se my PIM data syncing to my tablet, and my media syncing to my tablet and my data/documents syncing to my tablet (and as you point out, my Linux based phone too).

I too have no desire to see Mint divert from it's core capabilities. I want Mint to continue to provide the best desktop experience and functionality.
But I would like to see both desktop project teams and application software teams work together to create this missing integration between the desktop and mobile devices.

Otherwise, how are we ever going to save all those lost souls trapped inside one of the closed source ecosystems, unless we can offer a viable alternative?

GP