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Ask HN: Linux for tablets?

4 points by TobbenTM ↗ HN
Hello HN

I've been out of the game for a while, what is "the" linux tablet distro nowadays? I used Jolicloud once, are there any better options? Thanks

9 comments

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samarudge
I'd guess Android is the most well known one but that depends on what you consider 'linux'.

I think the difference between tablets and desktops is such that the underlying distro probably doesn't matter that much, it's more down to the frontend (I.E. Gnome looks pretty much the same whatever distro you run it on). I assume Gnome3 would run pretty well on a tablet although it's probably down to personal opinion

TobbenTM
In 'linux' i mean Linux. :) Not Android as it's ARM only. (Tried the X86 port, not working on my Acer W500)

Guess your right about the GUI. I'll try out some different DE's then. Thanks.

kleiba
Oh, so you mean which GNU/Linux distro is suited best? Not which OS that uses Linux, the kernel...
nodata
By Linux do you mean Linux kernel+Gnome/KDE/Xfce or do you mean Linux kernel only (Android/WebOS on top)?

If the former, and you want touchscreen, you're pretty much out of luck. Sorry.

gohyper
"If the former, and you want touchscreen, you're pretty much out of luck. Sorry."

Not really. I have a SmartQ V7 tablet that triple boots Android, Linux, and Windows CE. They exist but generally aren't great. The V7 has a resistive touchscreen and is a bit old at this stage but does web browsing and HD video fine. I also got Debian up and running on it.

nodata
Interesting. How often do you use Linux on it? Are there many touch screen applications? How do you find them?
davidotoole
I have used Ubuntu on this HP TouchSmart TM2 flippy-screen tablet PC since I bought it. Touchscreen, stylus, basically everything works.
davidotoole
And I DONT use unity---just "Gnome Classic"