Linux on a tablet

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Mage of Maple
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Linux on a tablet

Post by Mage of Maple »

I think I basically know the answer to this, given that I've been searching the web and haven't turned up much of anything that is encouraging, but here goes ...

Does anyone know of a cost-effective tablet that can run Linux? Doesn't have to be Mint, but Android doesn't count (because I don't want Google Play.) Must support the touch-screen, wireless, etc., although I know and accept that things won't exactly be touch-friendly.

Thanks!
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Esbeeb
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Re: Linux on a tablet

Post by Esbeeb »

The reason why Linux works well on laptops and desktops is because the AMD64 architecture (and other related chips commonly found in PC's) are far more consistent and well-supported across all the PC vendors.

The ARM world is way different. It's a nightmare for Linux (ignoring Android here) to gain footing in the ARM world. Support for each and every new ARM board is hard-won. It's rare these days for ARM boards to gain mainline kernel support; you see a lot of "binary blobs" in use (needed for closed-source drivers), which sucks. So tablets are still a ways off.

See the video about Armbian (scroll to the bottom of that page), where the lead developer explains the nightmares of how hard it is to support every single ARM board (to get it booting, etc). A highly informational video, which gave me a lot of respect for Armbian.

IMHO, It's going to take a giant with money like IBM/Redhat, etc. to get a tablet off the ground. It will take an army of developers.
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Mage of Maple
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Re: Linux on a tablet

Post by Mage of Maple »

Thank you for this informative reply. That's certainly bad news but good to know. Maybe IBM/RedHat will do something in the vein but I doubt it. I'm not sure they care about anything but cloud but we can hope...
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Re: Linux on a tablet

Post by smurphos »

Just google x86 tablet ubuntu or trail tablet ubuntu for some candidate devices.
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Re: Linux on a tablet

Post by old_noob »

There are dozens of very cheap Windows 8 tablets (with x86 processors) on ebay. Most will probably run Linux, but how well I don't know.
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