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New Tablet PCs With A Linux Option
Posted by
timothy
on Wed Nov 13, 2002 04:35 PM
from the chocolate-meet-peanut-butter dept.
from the chocolate-meet-peanut-butter dept.
Oliver Wendell Jones writes "InfoWorld is running an article about a new kind of inexpensive (starting under $800) tablet PC that runs your choice of Windows 2000, Windows XP or the Lindows distro of Linux. The PC is called the DocuNote and features an 8.4" touch screen with digital camera and microphone. The PCs are being created by a company called StepUp, which is formed of a lot of people from the old eMachines organization. DocuNotes are scheduled to start shipping in mid-December."
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Whooo Hoooo.... (Score:3, Funny)
They're shipping in time for Christmas!
Touch screen (Score:3, Funny)
I'm glad it runs linux but has a touch screen. That will prevent me from touching 'rm -rf
Seriously, linux w/ a touchscreen?? How useful is that?!
Re:Touch screen (Score:3, Funny)
When's the last time you touched finger?
Re:Touch screen (Score:3, Interesting)
yeah true... it's not like any of those Ipaq users or zaurus users can do anything with linux and a touchscreen.
ok, enough of me being silly... I can give you thousands of things you can do with linux + a touchscreen.
Internet surfing/ media tablet.
Tabulate data from people.
access medical records and display them along with showing the CAT or MRI animations.
Insurance data entry..
Basically anything you can do with a tablet pc you can do with linux+tablet pc... but faster, more secure and with greater stability.
Re:Touch screen (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm a DJ, and I've been using a laptop to suppliment vinyl for doing weddings, requests, etc. Is there a linux app for graphically mixing mp3s together? This would be the killer app for me to switch off of Windows for personal use. A tablet would look much more professional mounted into a mixer case with no display sticking up. So, to summarize- is there an mp3 mixer (a la Atomix) for Linux?
Parent
Re:Touch screen (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:Touch screen (Score:2)
No less useful than Win2k or WinXP with a touchscreen, I would hope. Unless you think Linux can't do what those other OSes can?
Re:Touch screen (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Touch screen (Score:5, Funny)
"Seriously, linux w/ a touchscreen?? How useful is that?!"
I agree. When was the last time you heard Picard say, "Data, bring up the command-line interface!"
Parent
Re:Touch screen (Score:5, Funny)
"Data, right click on My Network Neighborhood and choose properties..."
Parent
Re:Touch screen (Score:4, Informative)
On my linux tablet [mira2go.com] I use the touchscreen normally as you would a mouse. Works just fine for surfing, playing mp3's, etc.
For many things xstroke [isi.edu] suits my needs quite well. (I've had a Palm for years so I'm used to grafiti. When I have to have a keyboard I pull up xvkbd [nifty.ne.jp] and if I really need to type I plugin in one of those "industructable" keyboards that I keep in my desk or drop into my satchel.
So yeah, linux tablets work well, and having the power to download OSS apps, and or develop my own tools makes them excellent tools for the "power" user.
..next step get kdepim on it to sync with my desktop and my Palm...infomation everywhere, yeah team!
Parent
Re:Touch screen (Score:5, Funny)
You're asking the same crowd that thinks it's cool to install Linux on a watch.
Parent
The Article (Score:2, Interesting)
The cofounder of budget PC maker eMachines and several former executives of that company are behind the new venture. It's goal is to offer affordable desktop and mobile computing products that serve small and mid-size business users in targeted specialty and vertical markets, it said.
StepUp Computing's first product to market will be a tablet computer called the DocuNote, which will cost as little as $799 depending on the software it ships with, the company said. While it is being released in concert with a host of tablet devices from vendors such as Acer and Hewlett-Packard, it does not run Microsoft's new Windows XP Professional Tablet PC operating system, and lacks some of the advanced features that are available with those devices, according to Microsoft.
It also doesn't share the same price tag. Tablet devices running Microsoft's new operating system cost as much as $2,500.
The DocuNote weighs 2.5 pounds with its battery pack, and measures about 10 inches by 8 inches by 1-inch thick. It features an 8.4-inch touch-screen display and a built-in color digital camera and microphone that are designed for video conferencing, the company said. It features a 667MHz Crusoe TM5600 processor from Transmeta Corp., 256MB of memory and a 20GB hard drive. It also has a slot for a wireless network card.
Unlike the new class of Tablet PCs, the device from StepUp Computing can be navigated by touching the display with any object, such as a stylus pen or your finger. It does, however, share capabilities, such as inking and handwriting recognition, with the more expensive machines.
Young Song, president and chief executive officer at StepUp Computing, was a co-founder of eMachines. Other executives at the Fullerton, Calif.-based start-up include the former director of finance and senior director of corporate communications at eMachines.
StepUp Computing is practicing a similar philosophy to that of eMachines with its strategy of keeping hardware costs at the low-end of the market. The devices are manufactured in Seoul by Garnet Systems, and will only be available through select VARs (value-added resellers) and systems integrators, who will be responsible for setting up and configuring the devices for customers.
StepUp Computing is now accepting orders for the DocuNote through the channel with plans to begin shipping units in mid-December. In early 2003, the company will begin selling DocuNote devices running LindowsOS 3.0, it said.
hmm (Score:2, Troll)
Re:hmm (Score:2)
I suppose anything that supports linux or any non MS OS is a step in the right direction but, why lindows?
A couple of reasons I can think off the top of my head:
a) Lindows costs them some money so they can justify not making a cheaper priced machine with another version of Linux that they download for nothing. That would hurt their Windows tablet sales.
b)Windows users will feel more at home with a Windows-ish desktop.
Re:hmm (Score:3, Interesting)
Handwriting Recognition (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder if Lindows handwriting recognition software will be GPL'ed. Even if it isn't, perhaps it would be usable on other flavors of Linux?
AFAIK there is no high-powered handwriting recognition software readily available for linux. Is that so?
Re:Handwriting Recognition (Score:2, Informative)
that's not a big problem (Score:5, Informative)
And many functions of pen computers don't require handwriting recognition at all (ink notes, browsing, e-books, etc.)--just getting rid of that bulky keyboard alone when it's not needed would be worth the pen computer.
Parent
Macintosh? (Score:3, Interesting)
This is a disadvantage of a single-source hardware platform. Or not: oddly enough Apple has been an innovator there many times over -- SCSI, USB, Firewire, flat-panel iMac, dropping-the-floppy, Newton (oops), Superdrive and so on (please don't bother to correct the ones I got wrong) -- not to say these were all earthshaking, but you'd expect the innovation to come from the huge Wintel market (or not I now have learned, given the slender margins, 3rd-party hardware headaches, and pressure for cloning over novelty).
Re:Macintosh? (Score:3, Insightful)
Good foundation with Inkwell (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Macintosh? (Score:3, Insightful)
Correct. Apple has always been a conservative company, which is why it was slow to introduce the GUI, the mouse, the handheld, and stayed for so long with typical beige boxes. There's no way they're going to abandon their aging Mac OS kernel with a powerful Unix-based one, for example.
Note I didn't say they invented these things, but Apple as a company did not survive this long by waiting to see if it can play catchup.
Tablet software? (Score:5, Interesting)
At this stage Linux doesn't have anything even close to that. Of course it would be fun to hack a Tablet PC but not much productivity could be expected.
And here an article about Tablet PC software. [infoworld.com]
not a big deal (Score:3, Informative)
There is plenty of Linux software designed to run with pen input--after all, Linux has been used on handhelds for a number of years.
Most mouse based applications work naturally with a pen anyway. Web browsing, e-book reading, marking up text, drawing, and things like that work like a charm with standard Linux applications on a Linux-based tablet. And even with no handwriting recognition, an on-screen keyboard makes entering text and data quite easy and quick and, again, requires no application changes (given the modular X11 architecture). And fully integrated handwriting and gesture recognition also already exists for X11.
Maybe it was a lot of work to integrate pen input into Windows, but Linux and X11 are modular and mature enough that this is not an issue.
Lindows good for Linux? (Score:4, Insightful)
'It's basically a cheap imitation of Windows.' at which point the customer says:
'No thanks, I'll go with the genuine thing.' As I said, Lindows does nothing for Linux and in fact probably strengthens Microsoft's ability to sell its OS.
Are they the emachine people from the: (Score:5, Funny)
Quality Control - Easy to strip screws included at no additional cost!
or Purchasing - "These Fujistu hard drives are a great deal!"
What's up with all the Lindows? (Score:4, Interesting)
Ok, this may be slightly off-topic, and it may be a stupid question, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who is wondering -
What's with Lindows everywhere? First they get distribution with Wal-Mart PCs, and now these tablet PCs which look to me like they could be a serious competitor to the $2500 alternatives. Does anyone know anything about the company? Are they a "good" company as far as their open-source work? Are they looking to make any sort of corporate push? And on the technical side, I've never messed with Lindows myself. Is it similar to RedHat, or Debian, or what? Is it stable? Could anyone with experience with Lindows share their opinions and thoughts?
Thanks
Re:What's up with all the Lindows? (Score:3, Flamebait)
Also, they did at some point claim that Lindows ran most windows applications well, when in fact it just runs a few of them badly. (article here [newsforge.com])
Honestly, they sound like a bunch of unscrupulous business people who have been making inroads at retail chains largely by making ridicoulous claims to management types who don't know the difference. I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them, and I certainly wouldn't give them any of my money. In fact, I'd really like to know why Slashdot gets so excited every time they do something--people like this aren't good for the Linux community.
Quality? (Score:5, Funny)
StepUp Computing - website (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.stepupcomputing.com/
Wonder if they'll sell an OS-less version, so we don't have to pay the Windows tax?
What's the deal with these tablets (Score:3, Interesting)
I mean really - why does everyone just suddenly believe these things have a future? I don't mean they would not, but why now?
Company website with pictures... (Score:5, Informative)
It looks pretty nice, even has a d-pad/mouse, but alas no thumbboard.
Jon Acheson
Amongst the cries of "YAY it runs LINUX!!"... (Score:5, Insightful)
1. You CAN run Linux on a MS Tablet PC. No one's stopping you. Woo hoo.
2. These have TOUCH SCREENS. MS Tablets have electomagnetic pens, kinda like a Wacom tablet. NOT pressure sensitive like a touch screen.
3. MS Tablets have XP Tablet Edition, with the handwriting recognition/Ink software. Linux doesn't, and seeing the state Linux fonts are currently in ("Linux fonts are fine!! Just copy the TrueType fonts from Windblo... um, nevermind"), I don't think handwriting recognition software is on its way anytime soon (and before anyone brings it up, SourceForge projects below stage 3 or 4 DON'T COUNT).
So what we have here is a glorified Palm running linux or WinXP. Glue a touchscreen LCD onto a brick PC and you're done. Wahoo. I can go back to sleep now, because this in no way offers competition to the MS-based tablets. HAND.
w/o handwriting recognition (Score:2)
Re:w/o handwriting recognition (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Inexpensive... (Score:5, Funny)
How is this inexpensive ? What next "Inexpensive Ferrari" ?
Re:Inexpensive... (Score:3, Insightful)
Would I buy one if it has the right form factor and usability? hell yeah! I'm a consultant and go to meetings all day carrying a similar size and weight leather portfolio for note taking, PLUS a Sony Clie and stowaway keyboard (on a combined cleather case) for my electronic needs (more extensive note taking during longer meetings, PIM stuff). With one of these tablets I'd probably end up with one, more powerful item where I can take all kinds of notes and have all my apps instead of their lighter sucky versions found on PDA's. Besides, have you ever been able to organize legal pad notes? I haven't.
And this is just one applciation for a tablet PC. I'm sure there would be plenty in all kinds of jobs, like civil engineering, construction, etc.
wtf?!?!! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:wtf?!?!! (Score:3, Funny)
Well at least you won't have to worry about the crappy handling of keyboard shortcuts in KDE/Gnome/whatever with this machine!
Tablet PC's (Score:5, Funny)
Tablet PC's: "If a PDA can't cut it, you have enough money for a laptop but can't stand keyboards -- this is the platform for you."
Linux pen software (Score:3, Informative)
- http://www.linuxslate.org
(drivers &c. for Fujitsu and other pen slates, also XScribble (graffiti-like handwriting recogntion)
Various Berkeley Java based Pen / gestural UI things (w/ source):
starting at:
http://guir.cs.berkeley.edu/projects/
NotePals - http://guir.cs.berkeley.edu/projects/notepals/
(
Quill and GDT - http://guir.cs.berkeley.edu/projects/quill/
(ges
SATIN - http://guir.cs.berkeley.edu/projects/satin/
(ske
DENIM and SILK - http://guir.cs.berkeley.edu/projects/denim/
(inf
Someone else already mentioned Squeak, a SmallTalk implementation suitable for use w/ pens www.squeak.org, as well as www.handhelds.org, (which should be obvious)
www.mira2go.com had Linux pen systems pretty recently (and was even advertising here on Slashdot).
The critical issue to my mind is getting some sort of natural ink handling w/ nicely integrated gesture support as well as document annotation.
William
A passive touchscreen is GOOD... (Score:4, Insightful)
The typing issue is trivial. I'm nearly certain you can plug in a standard keyboard (it's basically still a laptop, after all), and for those occasions when you can't, a simple app could put a keyboard on the screen and you can type on that.
Also, there's a neat gadget ( http://www.time.com/time/2002/inventions/rob_keybo ard.html )
that could be incorporated pretty easily, although I'm sure it's not in the machine under discussion. (Sorry if the URL is broken in half -- I couldn't figure out how to fix it.)
That's just one reason I consider a passive touchscreen (anything which can depress it can activate it) to an active one (has a special pen that is the only thing that will activate it.)
Here's a few others:
* Losing your stylus doesn't require a $15-$20 (at least) replacement, and render your machine completely dysfunctional until you get it.
* It allows software to become much more intuitive. The original concept of a mouse was to simulate being able to touch the objects on the "desktop" and move them around. The objects will still be a simulation, but the touching will be reality.
This has one medium serious drawback, of course. It means Apple was right to stick with a one-button mouse all this time...
* It opens up a whole bunch of new interface interaction possibilities. For example, to address the one-button,two-button,three-button issue, you could tap with one, two, or three fingers. (Some of the stuff that's been done with right-clicking I actually like. I'd rather not give it up.)
Even more, it makes possible interactions that could not possibly be done with a mouse, such as moving a window around with one hand and resizing it with the other at the same time (or resizing with two fingers on the same hand); or moving two windows (maybe even three or four if you've got big hands and coordination) at once.
How'd you like to design a web page layout by literal "hands-on" design? Eye-hand coordination is built into the species. Remote control devices like mice, trackballs, graphics tablets, etc all make it more difficult to use your mind for the creative, aesthetic side of the work. (Geeks, who usually don't have any aesthetic sense worth speaking of, and who use mice and keyboards more often than any other object, will not get as big a boost in productivity. Sorry.)
Add to that any other activities that involve multiple fingers (musical keyboards, 10-key pads, phone number pads and so on), and I consider a passive touchscreen a much better option than One Pen to Rul... Sorry, started to get carried away.
using tablet to post this (Score:5, Interesting)
novelty at best
Re:using tablet to post this (Score:3, Interesting)
I was able to write in ink but woop-de-doo, I can do that on my Pocket PC in the notes function.
At CDN$4000 after taxes, it's way too expensive and way too delicate. I'd like to see something rugged with a tough screen I can work with. I had hoped to have something to display my novels on so I could read them and mark them up with ink and invite other people to do so as well and then have all the comments together.
Lindows is for real (Score:3, Insightful)
They're engaging in very aggressive, very smart business.
Firstly, naming it Lindows. Sounds like Windows, but doesn't violate the trademark, as a US Court found; partially because, to the dismay of the fuckwits at MS, they don't have rights over everything that sounds like Windows; partially because, as the court also found, Windows is a generic name. This move makes it more likely that Windows users will convert over.
Secondly, making their website look like Apple's Web site, and making their default desktop setup looking like a mix between WinXP and OSX. This helps to bring over Mac and Windows users.
Thirdly, aggressively pursuing OEMs and third parties to sell PC's with Lindows pre-installed. The partnership with Walmart is particularly brilliant. Millions of people shop at Walmart to get a value, and Lindows can capitalize on that by allowing people to get tons of software and a good OS on a $500 dollar PC with the monitor included. Most people already have printers, so it isn't necessary to include the cost of a printer.
Fourthly, by implying this relationship with AOL. Yes, its sneaky, but the only way a company can beat MS and Apple is to play by their game. It doesn't matter that they use sly tactics; what matters is that they're our natural allies.
Fifthly, by basing their distribution around Debian GNU/Linux. Couldn't have picked a more solid distro to base it off of. Also, being true to the GNU ideal will please the faithful.
Sixthly, for, while obeying the GPL, not offering the source code for download over the web free of charge, nor offering their binaries for download free of charge. The GNU GPL does not require that you give away the source for free, it only requires that you mail people the source if requested at no more than what it costs you to mail it to them. GNU GPL also doesn't require that you offer binaries for download over the web. Lindows is taking advantage of that, and employing a real business model. As dot.bomb taught us, its not a viable business model to plan your business around giving something away for free but hoping people will pay for it anyways.
Yes, Lindows is a serious business. Yes, they're aggressive. Yes, they're SOB's. But because their software is based off of the GPL'ed Debian, they're our SOB's. Lindows is a GNU/Linux distribution that will appeal to the masses by offering easy setup and configuration at a very cheap price. PC's sold with Lindows are definately much cheaper than the equivalent PC's sold with Windows. I see it gaining ground. I'd even suggest investing in Lindows as a stockholder.
pr0n (Score:3, Funny)
This is going to revolutionalize porn..
(sorry, had to be said
Re:Linux tablets at last! (Score:2)
ssh into it? Or are you planning on carrying a keyboard around for your tablet PC?
Re:Newton (Score:3, Interesting)
Ditto what others have said - what kind of HWR will this thing have that'll run on Linux?
Re:StepUp company URL? (Score:3, Informative)