> Well, because it's true: many of the repositories are named after "Wacom". It's a historical legacy on GNU/Linux. It's also a decade-long debate that these repos should be renamed differently.
If the project being named after Wacom is actively causing other companies to not contribute because they believe it’s a Wacom lead project and they’d be helping a competitor, I don’t understand why this is even a debate vs. just changing the name to something vendor neutral.
Devil's advocate: why should the project have to rename because some companies want them to? That just shifts the window slightly closer to corporate control, something that millions of people worldwide bemoan.
Good point. You don't even need to rename the upstream project. Just create a new project, and get the code there. Since it's open source, it will eventually make its way into the upstream libwacom as well.
I updated from a screenless Wacom to an XP-Pen screen tablet. The tablet hardware itself is good (but also I moved up several product categories) for less money than the Wacom, but the experience getting it to work on Linux was reminiscent of trying to get wifi to work 15 years ago. I got there in the end, but it was not smooth.
I'm using a screen XP-Pen 24" Gen 2 on Arch+Wayland+KDE right now, it has been a much better experience than on Windows. The tablet worked flawlessly out of the box.
However, there aren't any drivers for the included remote, and to calibrate the tablet itself you'll need to use OpenTabletDriver.
One thing I miss from Windows is the tablet driver GUI. "cinnamon-settings wacom" doesn't let me map buttons to keys (important for software like FireAlpaca, which pans with the space key instead of supporting the middle mouse button like everybody else in the planet), and it also doesn't let me remap the tablet area to arbitrary screen coordinates. These are things I could do on Windows that I can't do through the GUI.
I wrote a Python script to do it using xsetwacom, but I don't know if it would work for anybody else. I don't know if xsetwacom is only for wacom tablets, or if xsetwacom is only for X11 (I'm not on Wayland yet).
It’s not like they collaborate on closed-source drivers either. If you have two different brands of tablets in your life then you get to deal with weird bugs from their drivers fighting. And if you’re on Windows they may fight with MS’ attempt at default drivers, too.
Feel free to reply to that email and let them know that your readers just discovered that instead of considering Wacom alternatives, they now believe that Wacom is the only brand they can use on Linux. It seems like the only valid response to that is to give money to the people who make their hardware usable on my software.
> Well, because it's true: many of the repositories are named after "Wacom". It's a historical legacy on GNU/Linux. It's also a decade-long debate that these repos should be renamed differently.
Okay... let's rename them then? I know it's silly, but, well, we've went through the whole pointless `master` -> `main` branch rename in so many projects which was much more disruptive -- at least this one could serve a purpose?
For my part, I've been using Wacom tablets and styluses and digitizers since placing a same day order (2AM) w/ PC Warehouse using their 1-800 number, paying for rush shipping and getting a Wacom ArtZ later that same day.
I've suffered through a lot of non-Wacom EMR styluses in the past, and my preference is to buy the real thing, so I'm okay with the status quo, unless there has been a marked improvement --- that said, who wants multiple stylus technologies? A big improvement in my life was getting the same Wacom EMR support on _all_ of my devices, so I can:
- make a note in MyScript Notes on my Samsung Galaxy Note 10+
- add it into a to-do notebook on my Kindle Scribe Colorsoft
- open the note in Nebo.app on my Samsung Book 3 Pro 360 for reference/editing
- work on the project on my MacBook using a Wacom One display
(and yes, there are times when I have all four devices out)
I couldn't count how many Wacom EMR styluses are scattered around my house or in various laptop bags....
All they have to do is publish a technical PDF with descriptors and stuff. That's it. Why not ask for that? They should see the benefit of their product "just working" with FOSS systems.
To me, this response shows that there is a great opportunity to convince them with things that will bring them good publicity.
Things like "drivers" with their name, etc...
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[ 5.5 ms ] story [ 50.7 ms ] threadIf the project being named after Wacom is actively causing other companies to not contribute because they believe it’s a Wacom lead project and they’d be helping a competitor, I don’t understand why this is even a debate vs. just changing the name to something vendor neutral.
However, there aren't any drivers for the included remote, and to calibrate the tablet itself you'll need to use OpenTabletDriver.
I wrote a Python script to do it using xsetwacom, but I don't know if it would work for anybody else. I don't know if xsetwacom is only for wacom tablets, or if xsetwacom is only for X11 (I'm not on Wayland yet).
It's just another reason why Wayland isn't ready for daily use.
Okay... let's rename them then? I know it's silly, but, well, we've went through the whole pointless `master` -> `main` branch rename in so many projects which was much more disruptive -- at least this one could serve a purpose?
Would it work to give the Windows driver to an LLM and tell it to analyze it and write a Linux driver?
I've suffered through a lot of non-Wacom EMR styluses in the past, and my preference is to buy the real thing, so I'm okay with the status quo, unless there has been a marked improvement --- that said, who wants multiple stylus technologies? A big improvement in my life was getting the same Wacom EMR support on _all_ of my devices, so I can:
- make a note in MyScript Notes on my Samsung Galaxy Note 10+
- add it into a to-do notebook on my Kindle Scribe Colorsoft
- open the note in Nebo.app on my Samsung Book 3 Pro 360 for reference/editing
- work on the project on my MacBook using a Wacom One display
(and yes, there are times when I have all four devices out)
I couldn't count how many Wacom EMR styluses are scattered around my house or in various laptop bags....