5 ms·

Latest tablets rock some pretty spectacular hardware. It's so sad that the horrible OSes completely waste all that potential. Why is it so much to ask for a ta

Latest tablets rock some pretty spectacular hardware. It's so sad that the horrible OSes completely waste all that potential. Why is it so much to ask for a tables with an open OS?

bitL 4y ago
Get a Lenovo M10 X605 and enjoy accelerated video on Ubuntu touch: https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/device/x605/ https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/device/x605/ IMO the only tablet that works well on Linux.
- ngcc_hk 4y ago
  That sound interesting. Seems quite low on memory and the 3rd generation is 3+128… is only 605 workable. I may give it a trial as it is very cheap experiment. The article mentioned iSH. It is sad that iSH and a-shell both are working but cannot run sbcl … And ecl run but cannot load quicklisp. Hard to be used.
  - bitL 4y ago
    There is some YouTube video of X606F running on Ubuntu Touch as well but I can't tell what exactly works on that one.
rollcat 4y ago
I don't know if it's wasted. Depends on what you expect out of your computing device. My partner is very happy sketching in ProCreate every day, but she'd find a hackable Linux device much less useful. I'm pretty much the other way around.
- pessimizer 4y ago
  > she'd find a hackable Linux device much less useful. No she wouldn't. You're not forced to install linux on a linux-capable device.
- sto_hristo 4y ago
  I expect an actual computing device, not a locked up console, which is what these things are. A device running on a real OS, in the sense of an actual operating system - the thing that just controls hardware and runs whatever you throw at it, will be found even more useful by your partner as it will stretch far beyond ProCreate.
  - rollcat 4y ago
    Name a hardware+pen+OS+app combo that beats iPad + Apple Pencil + ProCreate. Name it.
    - dredmorbius 4y ago
      Oddly enough, that wasn't the problem framed.
      - rollcat 4y ago
        I'm sorry, but what is the problem? We already own more general-purpose computers than we can carry, might be the problem.
        dredmorbius 4y ago
        sto_hristo's already replied here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31631979 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31631979 For myself, based on over ten years' experience with Android, and quoting myself: [T]he OSes themselves are BDSM nightmares. Because the apps aren’t trusted (very rightfully so), they can’t share storage, so there’s next to no interaction between applications. Coming from Unix, the land of pipes (literally streaming data between programs to do useful things) this is … staggering. Apps themselves are aimed at the minimum viable user, economics are painful, and the result is that a million minimally useful buggy pieces of shit bloom, with no way for users to assess which ones don’t actually suck manure through a straw. (Spoiler alert: they all do.) User is denied root. There’s little option for adblocking or firewalling on-device. ... Touch: the fact that a click and a drag cannot be reliably distinguished … just fucking kills me. Android’s had ten motherfucking years to sort this, and hasn’t figured it out. Hardware vendors are a fucking disaster. Everything I’ve ever had or used from Samsung has been a massive disappointment (from electronics to appliances), I consider the brand a warning label. Post-purchase OS upgrades from any vendor appear to be exceedingly rare if at all available. Android has been a privacy disaster from day one. ... https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/880e5c403edb013918e1002590d8e506 https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/880e5c403edb013918e100... Termux is the one Android app that does not specifically suck. (Einkbro is rapidly approaching that status, credit where due.) Tablets, preferably e-ink, are quite good for reading textual material, if the display is sufficiently large (8" is about the minimum, I prefer 10 -- 13"). For virtually any generative / productivity tasks, a laptop is preferred. Sketching is a possible exception, though desktop + Wacom tablet is probably better. It's the OS and application ecosystem, plus the pervasive surveillance state, that have me utterly turned off tablets. I don't think my views are widely held. I do think they're valid.

Latest tablets rock some pretty spectacular hardware. It's so sad that the horrible OSes completely waste all that potential. Why is it so much to ask for a tables with an open OS?

bitL 4y ago

Get a Lenovo M10 X605 and enjoy accelerated video on Ubuntu touch: https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/device/x605/ https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/device/x605/ IMO the only tablet that works well on Linux.

ngcc_hk 4y ago
That sound interesting. Seems quite low on memory and the 3rd generation is 3+128… is only 605 workable. I may give it a trial as it is very cheap experiment. The article mentioned iSH. It is sad that iSH and a-shell both are working but cannot run sbcl … And ecl run but cannot load quicklisp. Hard to be used.
- bitL 4y ago
  There is some YouTube video of X606F running on Ubuntu Touch as well but I can't tell what exactly works on that one.

rollcat 4y ago

I don't know if it's wasted. Depends on what you expect out of your computing device. My partner is very happy sketching in ProCreate every day, but she'd find a hackable Linux device much less useful. I'm pretty much the other way around.

pessimizer 4y ago
> she'd find a hackable Linux device much less useful. No she wouldn't. You're not forced to install linux on a linux-capable device.
sto_hristo 4y ago
I expect an actual computing device, not a locked up console, which is what these things are. A device running on a real OS, in the sense of an actual operating system - the thing that just controls hardware and runs whatever you throw at it, will be found even more useful by your partner as it will stretch far beyond ProCreate.
- rollcat 4y ago
  Name a hardware+pen+OS+app combo that beats iPad + Apple Pencil + ProCreate. Name it.
  - dredmorbius 4y ago
    Oddly enough, that wasn't the problem framed.
    - rollcat 4y ago
      I'm sorry, but what is the problem? We already own more general-purpose computers than we can carry, might be the problem.
      - dredmorbius 4y ago
        sto_hristo's already replied here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31631979 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31631979 For myself, based on over ten years' experience with Android, and quoting myself: [T]he OSes themselves are BDSM nightmares. Because the apps aren’t trusted (very rightfully so), they can’t share storage, so there’s next to no interaction between applications. Coming from Unix, the land of pipes (literally streaming data between programs to do useful things) this is … staggering. Apps themselves are aimed at the minimum viable user, economics are painful, and the result is that a million minimally useful buggy pieces of shit bloom, with no way for users to assess which ones don’t actually suck manure through a straw. (Spoiler alert: they all do.) User is denied root. There’s little option for adblocking or firewalling on-device. ... Touch: the fact that a click and a drag cannot be reliably distinguished … just fucking kills me. Android’s had ten motherfucking years to sort this, and hasn’t figured it out. Hardware vendors are a fucking disaster. Everything I’ve ever had or used from Samsung has been a massive disappointment (from electronics to appliances), I consider the brand a warning label. Post-purchase OS upgrades from any vendor appear to be exceedingly rare if at all available. Android has been a privacy disaster from day one. ... https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/880e5c403edb013918e1002590d8e506 https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/880e5c403edb013918e100... Termux is the one Android app that does not specifically suck. (Einkbro is rapidly approaching that status, credit where due.) Tablets, preferably e-ink, are quite good for reading textual material, if the display is sufficiently large (8" is about the minimum, I prefer 10 -- 13"). For virtually any generative / productivity tasks, a laptop is preferred. Sketching is a possible exception, though desktop + Wacom tablet is probably better. It's the OS and application ecosystem, plus the pervasive surveillance state, that have me utterly turned off tablets. I don't think my views are widely held. I do think they're valid.