First open tablet released by KDE developer

Heh, Unity and Gnome3 are a mess and need to be complained about.

KDE on the other hand got things right like E17 did long ago - they developed a flexible desktop that can be easily molded to touch AND desktop devices.

Just makes sense.

~Jeff

The Tablet is already on my shopping list

@Jeff91: Yes, they got it completely right. But is anyone paying attention? Sure doesn't seem like it. It seems, from the comments on Linux boards, that a small number of people have given KDE a second look because of the Unity/Gnome3 debacle, but most people either have jumped straight to XFCE or LXDE, or they stick with Gnome3/Unity and try to either learn to like them or try to change them (Cinnamon, etc.).

I think you greatly underestimate the popularity of KDE. Sure, if you go to an Ubuntu board nobody is going to be talking about it.

I just can't get into KDE. It's a resource hog, and it's to "alien" to me. Tried it again recently. I didn't like it any better.

Oh, and this tablet looks too much like the poor build quality machines that you can get out of China. Give me a mainstream tablet, with good battery life & gorilla glass. The first time you bump a tablet like this KDE tablet into something, is the last time you'll be using it. Trust me when I tell you to spend the extra money and get a quality, well built, and hackable tablet. I wish I had back my $460 (total) I'd spent on two cheap $230 Chinese imports...

JaseP - Give he a mainstream (ARM) tablet that has fully functional hardware under alternative operating systems and then you can talk.

As for KDE being a resource hog, agreed. Thats why I use and promote E17 generally. Just as flexible but much, much lighter.

~Jeff

Jeff,

If you don't mind cheap hardware, go right ahead... Of course I am assuming here, but it's not much of a stretch ... I haven't seen a thorough review of the device enough to say how good it is. But you need to realize that with flexibility comes compromise. I'm betting this tablet was arranged through some Chinese resellers who were actually willing to be pegged down on specs. Since I've actually priced these things out before, and assuming margins, who's willing to do the builds, etc., I don't have a lot of faith in the build quality.

Take into consideration that this thing has touch sensitive "buttons" on the front. Those things are very driver dependent and wonky. It has a bunch of ports, making me believe that the cases are on the weaker side. There are also concerns with surface mounted ports, and how well they're secured.

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of an open tablet. I'd like an open tablet for myself. I'm just skeptical that anyone can pull it off for a decent price and with good build quality.

Looks to be a rebranded and reflashed one of these:

Zenithink ZT280-C71 7inch Capacitive 5point Multitouch Cortex A9

Average-ish build quality, a little under powered, about 2 hours of continuous battery life (which is poor). Don't see anyone complaining about the build, and the backing is apparently aluminum, which is a plus. But these can be had for $150 in their Android version.

PS - On a related note, it looks like that unit has a sibling, the ZT280-C91, which is a 10.1 inch unit, and similarly spec'd. So these guys might be able to get a 10 inch open tablet model.

Quoting:Average-ish build quality, a little under powered, about 2 hours of continuous battery life (which is poor).

There are so many variations of hardware in the tablet market to the point of saturation already.

http://www.mcbub.com/category/cheap-Android-Tablet-pc-1146/

What is important about this revelation is that, once you have a Linux open stack, the sky is the limit. One could determine and choose whatever hardware is best suitable in price range and to the application to install whatever OS is most desirable.

I don't think this effort is going to be limited to just one specific device.

Edited: One would hope that Google edited: does Not turn evil by influencing manufacturers like you know who.

If you read the guy's blog, you'll note that there are proprietary binary blobs involved. So not 100% open source,... You'll also note the trouble they had in nailing the Chinese manufacturers down on specs... It seems to me that it's more like a one specific device situation than not...

Just saying ...

Quoting:If you read the guy's blog

I am not sure which blog you are referring to, could you link with quote?

Never mind JaseP, I found the reference here.

http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2012/01/open-beyond-licensing.htm...

As a matter of interest, perhaps. I've been testing Linux Mint 12 With KDE4.7.4, and even the annoyances with the places panel is no longer an issue. I think I'll be going back to KDE as my desktop on my next upgrade.

KDE gives me the ability to have a desktop with almost exactly the same functionality as I have now with my GNOME2 Panel plus Compiz-Fusion and DockbarX. In some respects it's better, because it looks nicer. Since I appear not to be able to pull that collection of tools together with any current version of MATE, or GNOME3 Panel, or Cinnamon... for example DockBarX doesn't seem to have an applet that runs in either the GNOME 3 Panel or MATE, the way it does in GNOME2 Panel, and I'm having issues with MATE, and GNOME 3 Panel, and Compiz-Fusion. Which leaves me with few choices.

You can go XFCE or LXDE with Compiz & Cairo-dock. It takes a little work to get Compiz working correctly with either of those 2 DEs, but the result is mostly satisfying. Cairo-dock can be configured with multiple layer sub-docks, which helps keep it nice and tidy.

Cairo Dock doesn't have a Panel Applet. DockBarX was the only one that did. And... I actually like KDE 4 (4.7 +)

Not actually about this device.

I have a customer/friend who never buys a computer through me, but everytime he buys a new computer, the first thing he does is come to me and ask if I can blow away Windows and install Linux.

I've just installed Linux on a brand new HP mini tower. CPU : AMD Radeon A6-3000 with 3.4 Gig of RAM and 1 TByte HDD. The Machine also has UEFI, but unlocked, (Windows 7 installed )

I've just installed Linux Mint 12 with a standard GNOME Panel style Desktop. As I have only Wireless networking in the Motorhome, I can't hook up to the internet to install the nVidia graphic driver.

3.4 Gig of RAM? How'd you manage to not have a round number there?

That's what LM is reporting. I suspect it's shared RAM, and the rest of the 4 Gig is being used by the Video card.

This term "shared RAM" or "shared memory" seems to be a misnomer. How can it be "shared" if you have part of it only accessible to the CPU and not the GPU, and the other part only accessible to the GPU and not the CPU? We should be calling it "partitioned memory" instead. It's just like partitioning a hard drive.

"Shared" as in, if the CPU puts anything here, it will affect the state of the GPU as well. Not available for arbitrary use by applications or kernel.