ubuntu-tablet team mailing list archive

["Curious Legends" <mitchell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Glad to see some life here! I also have been interested in getting Ubuntu on a tablet. As far as installing Ubuntu, that's relatively easy. You could look for something with an intel (x86 based architecture) processor, such as the Exopc, or one of the offerings from Ekoore, which also has a couple intel based tablets running Ubuntu natively. For development, either of these would be great options.

The problem of course with both of these options for me was use. All of them were fairly heavy devices with poor battery life, and several 'missing' features of many of the other arm based devices running android, etc. At my last time of looking, they were also fairly expensive. Not being a developer myself, I'm after something I can use as an everyday device while I help sort out bugs, etc. Neither of these options fit the bill.

Another possibility, at least unofficially, is the asus transformer. There already is a project running in which Ubuntu is installed natively on the mmc drive, often with an actual dualboot into android. The problem of course is that there is no graphics hardware acceleration, as the device uses a Nvidia Tegra 2 chipset, which last time I looked had very poor linux support from Nvidia. Battery life was great however, the device docks into a keyboard for increased use, and it seems fairly well supported by an active dev community using the unity 2d interface.

One of the main setbacks for me was the continued reliance on other developers to 'hack' versions of Ubuntu onto it, as well as the lack of hardware acceleration. In the end, I gave up, and have decided to wait until a decent arm device comes out I can hack Ubuntu on myself.

Another possibility is using something which has an omap4 chipset, which Ubuntu 'officially' has images for, at least for the pandaboard dev kit. I'm typing this now on a hacked kindle fire, running a port of the android-based cyanogenmod 9. It's got a lot of great features, but I miss the full usefulness of Ubuntu. I think Canonical has a great vision, and I would love to see Ubuntu on a device such as this. There are chroot methods to run Ubuntu within Android, but they are clunky, and without the effectiveness of a full native system.

If anyone can come up with a way to wipe android from my kindle fire and install, or 'flash' Ubuntu on it, I'd love to help out with development. Otherwise, I'll have to wait until there's an easier development solution with a device that works well as a tablet, and won't cost me an arm and a leg to get one.

Anyone know if Canonical has any plans to help encourage a device like this?

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