Can one build a tablet?

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wutsinterweb
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Can one build a tablet?

Post by wutsinterweb »

Is there a way to buy Raspi or other micro computers, a screen, battery and make one's own tablet using a Linux derivative?
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I've been using Mint for over 4 years, but I'm still a slow learner. I have a website: https://pickfetish.com. It is dedicated to guitar/instrument picks.
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Re: Can one build a tablet?

Post by catweazel »

wutsinterweb wrote:Is there a way to buy Raspi or other micro computers, a screen, battery and make one's own tablet using a Linux derivative?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySYOinoYNuI
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wutsinterweb
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Re: Can one build a tablet?

Post by wutsinterweb »

Alright, some people have done it, and there are tutorials, plans, and kits, but the battery part and the screen size are issues, and the charge life isn't very good. Still, it would be nice to have a non big brand OS tablet, Android is vulnerable, I don't know how they made something secure like Linux less secure, but it bothers me.
I've been using Mint for over 4 years, but I'm still a slow learner. I have a website: https://pickfetish.com. It is dedicated to guitar/instrument picks.
Nate

Re: Can one build a tablet?

Post by Nate »

I've seen a few around. often with a 3d printed case, but they tend to be a fair bit thicker than your average tablet and the build quality has never looked all that great to me.

If you want a Linux tablet (they're a current love of mine due to how often I'm away from home these days), your best bet is to grab a Windows tablet with an intel processor. Second-hand if you want to do it low budget, some a couple years old are still relatively powerful and their price can be significantly cheaper than newer technology. I'd look up models you're interested in if you take that route though. I've heard people have had problems with MS Surface tablets, but I've had a really cruisey time setting up Dell 2 in 1s (my favourite machine for example and I've gotten a few others I know in the flesh interested in them when they've seen mine) and not quite such a smooth time, but still very doably, a HP Spectre X2. I think the reason the Dells are so easy is you can order them with Ubuntu preinstalled instead of Windows straight from Dell's website, but I've never actually owned one that didn't come with Windows as I've always bought them cheaper away from their website and I've never seen one with Ubuntu preinstalled in the wild.
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Re: Can one build a tablet?

Post by Hoser Rob »

wutsinterweb wrote: Mon Feb 05, 2018 3:05 am... Android is vulnerable, I don't know how they made something secure like Linux less secure ...
It's not really Linux, it's a Linux kernel with their own patches with a closed wrapper. Mint is GNU/Linux, which isn't really Linux either. Linux is technically just the kernel. And Android is not really less secure than Ubuntu/Mint or any other GNU/Linux distro.
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Re: Can one build a tablet?

Post by wutsinterweb »

I didn't know it was ONLY the Kernel. I thought it was mostly the Kernel, so thanks for that information.

Do you know what makes Android so vulnerable? I haven't done enough reading so I'm unclear, my impression is that even to this day, iPhones have proven to be less vulnerable to exploits, but for the life of me, I don't know if that is true or why?
I've been using Mint for over 4 years, but I'm still a slow learner. I have a website: https://pickfetish.com. It is dedicated to guitar/instrument picks.
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Re: Can one build a tablet?

Post by Fred Barclay »

I'm sorry, I can't resist...
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:D
wutsinterweb wrote:Do you know what makes Android so vulnerable?
I could be wrong, but my understanding is that a large part of the problem isn't Android, it's the phone vendors or carriers who don't push Android security updates for months, if at all.

I believe the choice of language (Java) has a lot to do with it too. The Java sandbox is rather leaky, and code that should be contained often isn't.
https://security.stackexchange.com/ques ... cure#57655

That being said, Android does have a lot of good ideas (most apps are sandboxed from another, it's pretty simple to control permissions, and so on). IMHO they just didn't implement them as well as they could have.
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Re: Can one build a tablet?

Post by Portreve »

I have a LOT of issues with how Alphabet (nee Google) has handled Android OS distribution and licensing, etc.

Given that phone-selling carriers make money only from selling phones and not from supporting them, Google should design their OS where they spec certain ranges of hardware for each kind of subsystem (a range of cellular modems, a range of LTE parts, a range of Bluetooth parts, a range of WNIC parts, a range of CPUs, etc.) and have these component makers writing and sending them drivers for those components, not the carriers and not the phone makers.

Then, they can issue a general set of parameters and say, "If you're building a device to run Android, here are your available choices to do so." To be fair, they need to do this in a way that doesn't legitimately straightjacket hardware makers, but this way the hardware makers and the carriers don't become the bottleneck. Then, the hardware makers as they do now just download the core OS, core apps, and the drivers appropriate to the hardware they've decided to use, put it together and validate it, and push that out to the market. Then, all of these components can be auto-detected and handled directly through Google's Play Store. This way, everything becomes carrier- and manufacturer independent, and the only EOL issues people will have to deal with is when their phone's spec is legitimately just so far out of date that they realistically should upgrade. But, up to that point, there's no other dependency for the user, and they can know they're running either the latest version of Android or the latest version of Android that their phone can handle, and all of the latest security updates, along with fixes for any vulnerabilities originating from component drivers.

One should not have to buy a Google Nexus / Pixel phone just to get a decent run of support that isn't stepped on by a manufacturer or carrier. That is utter crap, and is why I refuse to ever again buy a non-Alphabet phone, and why I'm anxiously looking for a viable alternative (again, and this should come as no surprise to regular LMF participants, I'm taking a long, hard look at Purism.)
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