Keep taking the tablets!

[catgate]

Management is interested in the purchase of a "tablet". She is also, like me, more or less "wedded" to LInux.
I would like to ask if anyone knows a) Is there a tablet that is sold with Linux as it's operating system?

or b) is there any way of swapping the existing O.S.( windows?) for Mint ?

Doesn't life get complicated!!!!!

Thanks in advance!!!!

[MintBean]

I think you'll find Mint a poor choice for a tablet unless you plan on using it with a keyboard and mouse.

[Portreve]

UBports is maintaining Ubuntu Touch, and iirc, some of the supported hardware are tablets.

[Pierre]

you will be right out of luck, with a Tablet,
as they generally come loaded with Android & are locked to Google.

there is a few that can to rooted, but not many of them.
ie: you you can place a secondary system onto them.

[BG405]

It's possible to run at least a live session of Linux Mint 17.3 (Cinnamon is the one I tried & both 64-bit and 32-bit versions* will boot from USB) on the Microsoft Linx tablets. I haven't yet gotten round to actually installing it so can not confirm how well it works.

Touchscreen works on the Linx tablets but the people who design these things seem to think we want to use them in landscape mode (which is obviously not compatible with traditional video formats or many software programs) and rotating the display does not also rotate the touchscreen in this case. This may be an issue but it might have been resolved in Mint 18.x versions. I haven't tried these yet but am planning to give it a go with LM18.1 KDE. I know it is an issue with 2-in-1 hybrid "tabtops" (a name invention of mine?).

Inbuilt WiFi doesn't work out of the box with 17.3 - may work with later versions. Again I haven't checked. A USB dongle works OK using an OTG hub, also with a keyboard and mouse connected.

A mouse and keyboard is, IMHO, essential for any serious & / or practical use of these devices anyway.

* By adding "bootia32.efi" to the relevant directory as these tablets have 32-bit UEFI. Both 32-bit & 64-bit OSs can run with this in UEFI mode. CSM appears to be useless, simply won't boot.