this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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The point of a tablet is to be secure to use it with a touch interface. If you install just some vanilla Linux distro, that won't work. Is there any touch based interface for Linux that's worth using?
Gnome has a strong touch interface. You just don't see it when used in a desktop.
My Surface 3 Pro with Debian Stable would disagree. The Gnome desktop does pretty good without a keyboard.
Interesting. Might give that try some time. I'd love to have a tablet with Linux.
If only there was another group of touch first devices, preferably with even smaller screens, oh wait...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_for_mobile_devices
Yeah, I know I could just use Android or ChromeOS. But there's a reason why I prefer Linux.
You haven't read the list to the end, have you?
Gnome is actually amazing on a tablet. The touch gestures work well and it even does fancy stuff like pushes the content on your screen up when the on screen keyboard is active so you can see what you're typing. The only thing that really needs work is the on screen keyboard, however it is greatly improved by using the "Improved OSK" Gnome extension. If only it had swipe type.
Source: I recently acquired a hand me down Dell latitude 5175 which is an x86 tablet (can be found for cheap on eBay) so of course I had to install Linux on it. If anyone happens to be interested in using Linux on a Dell latitude 5175/5179 do note that deep sleep does not work and neither do the cameras. I also recommend Ubuntu LTS and using X11 instead of Wayland.
Plasma should detect automatically when the keyboard is detached and then apply some changes to its desktop layout. There's also Plasma Mobile but I think that would not work well on the larger screen.
If I were StarLabs, I would probably default to BlissOS which is based on Android-x86 which means all regular Linux distributions are still feasible to install.
Android