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!
Linux on a tablet
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- Mage of Maple
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Linux on a tablet
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
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Re: Linux on a tablet
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.
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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- Linux Mint Mate, Asus Zenbook UX330U
- Linux Mint Mate, Asus Zenbook UX330U
- Mage of Maple
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Re: Linux on a tablet
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...
- smurphos
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Re: Linux on a tablet
Just google
x86 tablet ubuntu
or trail tablet ubuntu
for some candidate devices.For custom Nemo actions, useful scripts for the Cinnamon desktop, and Cinnamox themes visit my Github pages.
Re: Linux on a tablet
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.