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What's next for tablets running Linux?

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Just not preloaed... (Score: 2, Interesting)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2014-09-17 04:29 (#2SG1)

I don't understand the pessimism in the summary. It even mentioned that the Nexus 7 can be re-purposed by anyone who wants to. Just buy one, and install Linux on it.

http://liliputing.com/2013/02/how-to-install-ubuntu-touch-on-a-nexus-7-with-windows-mac-or-linux.html

http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-to-Install-Ubuntu-on-Nexus-7-323489.shtml

As long as the tablet hardware is open, those who are interested in Linux will be able to install and use it. And supporting open hardware is a far more important goal than (locked-down) Linux preloaded on a tablet.

In addition, there are convertible x86 laptops that can look and work an awful lot like a tablet.

Personally, I'm happy to skip the fad... I always get my phone with a hardware keyboard, and I'm hardly going to be interested in a bigger and more expensive device without one. Chromebooks look like a good source of cheap laptop hardware for Linux aficionados to me.

Re: Just not preloaed... (Score: 1, Interesting)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-09-17 04:59 (#2SG2)

Because "open hardware" means ZIPPO and won't EXIST for long if not enough of it is sold to keep the company in business.

And unless you get very lucky as to right place / right time / right niche (Raspberry Pi) you end up like Maemo/Meego/blabla or Tizen.

The rest of us hope that a successful commercialized platform will still allow enough freedom for the tinkerers among us to continue doing their thing. This is why, despite its decline into evil, Google and Android are still so, so, so much preferable to Apple or Microsoft. And of course your Nexus 7 example proves that point.

There is very little incentive for manufacturers to make their "tablet hardware open" except that they want to take advantage of Google's ecosystem and market, and the cost of rolling their own is too high / doomed. It's a lucky and convenient accident that we're not more locked up than we already are.

So if a platform were commercialized that WERE entirely open by design and in practice, it would be a really nice place to start and to maintain.

Re: Just not preloaed... (Score: 1)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2014-09-17 06:55 (#2SG4)

Open hardware doesn't mean project boards, it means stuff like the Nexus 7... You might notice the Nexus 7 has sold pretty well.

It can still come with Android, it just needs to have documentation so a non-proprietary Linux kernel can be bootstrapped, and drivers for video/wifi/etc. can be written.

Nothing about Android forces OEMs to be "open", they're allowed to keep the specs secret, and depending on binary-blob drivers, but as long as there are manufacturers of open hardware, the community can unite behind their devices as a platform, and provide Linux and perhaps other OSes for it.

The Nexus 7 absolutely already exists, and it is a nice place to start...

Re: Just not preloaed... (Score: 2, Informative)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-09-17 13:25 (#2SGT)

You mean the same Nexus 7 over which the maintainer of the Android Open Source Project quit in protest due to unreleased proprietary blobs? That Nexus 7?

http://liliputing.com/2013/08/android-open-source-maintainer-quits-over-proprietary-code-issues.html

"Jean-Baptiste Qui©ru is a software engineer who had until recently been in charge of the AOSP project. But in a Google+ Post, he says "there's no point being the maintainer of an Operating System that can't boot to the home screen on its flagship device for lack of GPU support."

Translation: Google can't release the full source code or factory image for the new Nexus 7, because it includes proprietary binaries related to Qualcomm's Adreno graphics core.

This doesn't appear to be a new problem. Google never released a factory image for the first member of the Nexus family, the Google Nexus One. That phone also had a Qualcomm processor.

There are images for the Qualcomm-powered Nexus 4 smartphone, but it took a while for those to be released, and Qui©ru has suggested he's not sure the issues will be resolved at all for the new Nexus 7 tablet.

Independent developers can still take advantage of the proprietary blobs to included hardware-accelerated video and graphics support in custom ROMs for the Nexus 7 and other tablets. But since Google doesn't officially have support to distribute those blobs, the company can't offer factory image downloads.

It's not clear why Qualcomm is being more protective over its intellectual property than Samsung, NVIDIA, or Texas Instruments. Those companies made the chips found in other Nexus devices. But it's also not clear why Google would continue to work with a company that has a poor track record of working with the Android Open Source Project."

Re: Just not preloaed... (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-09-17 15:14 (#2SH5)

Interesting indeed. I've got a Nexus 7 and didn't know any of that stuff. Android is cool and all, but stuff like this makes a good reminder that other solutions ought to be possible, if not recommended! Too much of what makes Android Android is not available for the curious to poke around with, and I hate that. Dalvek - I'm looking at you.

Re: Just not preloaed... (Score: 1, Interesting)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-09-17 23:10 (#2SHP)

Poll suggestion: What mobile devices do you own or use. Get a snapshot of the community. Have a discussion about why we bought them. I did not buy an android for the ability to dig around in the guts and modify the OS. But I would like to!

Moderation

Time Reason Points Voter
2014-09-17 23:16 Interesting +1 rocks@pipedot.org

Junk Status

Marked as [Not Junk] by bryan@pipedot.org on 2015-01-03 01:04