The year of the Linux tablet is, like the year of the Linux desktop, destined never to arrive.
That doesn't mean we won't see Linux on a tablet, but you'll see
Linux on a tablet the way you see it on the desktop - clinging to a tiny
percentage of the market.
There is of course Android, which does use a Linux kernel somewhere
under all that Java, but when Canonical or Red Hat talk about building
Linux tablets, obviously Android is not what they have in mind.
For most, the dream of a Linux tablet means running a distro like Ubuntu, Mint or Fedora on some sort of tablet hardware.
Indeed, intrepid users have already hacked Linux onto Android
tablets. But the first shipping Linux tablet looks like it will be the
$99 "
PengPod," a Frankentablet
that will run both Android and Linux proper. The PengPod will, assuming
its creators follow through with their plans, arrive in buyers' hands in
January of 2013.
Unfortunately, the PengPod seems doomed to mediocrity. The PengPod
was funded through the Kickstarter-like site Indiegogo that ensures a
market, no matter how small, does exist. But the device itself looks
like little more than an off-brand Android tablet with Linux running
from a micro SD card. There is also an option to have Linux
pre-installed on the internal flash, but those aren't shipping right
away.
The PengPod may well satisfy the enthusiasts who backed it, but it's
hardly going to make a flagship example of Linux excellence in a brand
new form factor.
In fact the best evidence that there's never going to be a year of
the Linux tablet is that it doesn't even look like there's going to be a
year of the Windows tablet.
Microsoft's Surface tablet effort is not, according to early numbers and a plethora of anecdotal evidence, flying off the shelves and hardware manufacturers don't seem to be rushing out the Windows 8 tablets.
So far, despite Microsoft's best efforts, the tablet world is still very much orbiting the twin stars of iOS and Android.
Having used a Samsung Windows 8 tablet for a few months, I have a
theory as to why: you think you want a full desktop computer on your
tablet - I certainly did -- but you don't. It simply doesn't work.
In the case of Windows 8 you can blame some of the "not working" on
the buggy, incomplete software that is Windows 8, but not all of the
problems can be attributed to a shortcoming of touch APIs.
Much of what makes a full desktop interface terrible on a touch
screen tablet is simply the whole desktop paradigm was never designed to
be used on a tablet and it shows. The Metro interface for Windows 8 is
excellent; different, but in my experience really well done.
Where Windows 8 on a tablet falls apart is when you try to bring the
software keyboard to the traditional desktop interface on a tablet. The
software keyboard takes up half the screen, which makes even simple
tasks difficult. How to you rename a file and move it? First you tap it
to select it, then you tap the button to bring up the keyboard, then you
type, then you touch away the keyboard, then you touch the file again.
It isn't just awkward and slow; it's downright antagonizing.
Read Full Story: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/26/year_of_the_linux_tablet/
