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ikidd ,
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

Linux is not replacing Android tablets any time soon for casual use by non-techies. Especially on RISC-V, where not much software has been packaged to that architecture. Even ARM or X86 tablets don’t have much tablet-oriented software available. Most DEs are pretty shit at tablet style navigation.

It will gather dust, I guarantee it. Maybe someday Linux will be there, but it won’t be soon. And I’ve tried several times with several devices to make that happen.

Olgratin_Magmatoe ,

Sure, it’s not perfect, but there is still probably use cases there. For me personally, I prefer using roll20 to store my character sheets for D&D, and my peace of shit 15 year old laptop just isn’t cutting it anymore. I don’t think this is a $150 use case, but if the price of this tablet were to come down I’d have second thoughts.

ikidd ,
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

If I could get a 7" RISC-V tablet that only ran FBReader or some other calibre-compatible reader, and had wifi, I would be very happy. I would even pay $150. But I’m not holding my breath.

Uncle_Abbie ,

I’m considering it, but I’m leery of a pre-order from China.

I would use it primarily as an e-reader and a chat client. I use a desktop for my heavy duty computing.

werefreeatlast OP ,

I mean, everything comes from China. But you mean the processor could be doing nepharious things under the hood to steal data from us and give it to China?

Uncle_Abbie ,

It doesn’t bother me that it’s made in China, it bothers me that it’s shipping from China.

I’m careful to check now, but in the past I’ve accidentally ordered products through Amazon that were actually third-party China-based corporations. More often than not I didn’t get the product and had to jump through hoops to get a refund.

GolfNovemberUniform ,
@GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml avatar

I don’t think you can get a good quality Android tablet with more than 4gb for $150 either so it’s an actually interesting deal for some people.

werefreeatlast OP ,

That’s what I thought. It has no android lock to Google, I assume root access, so it’s basically really yours?

GolfNovemberUniform ,
@GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml avatar

You can unlock the bootloader and install FOSS ROMs on some Android tablets.

Altomes ,

Not many though, a few Samsung and then the pixel tablet as far as I know and they’re still a bit more than $150 even used usually

werefreeatlast OP ,

Yeah, but just the fact that you are unlocking something means to me that at the very bottom of your software stack there’s a little switch that if you can’t unlock it, your entire computer is locked out to you. The owner should have full access to the entire computing device. I’m fine if the tablet boots to a fail safe interface. That’s good Linux practice. But don’t permanently eliminate root.

gramgan ,

Wait, but there’s no information on the size of the tablet? Isn’t that like the most important thing about a tablet?

AbidanYre ,

It says 10.1" right in the summary. That’s not full dimensions, but it should give you a ballpark.

RandomLegend ,
@RandomLegend@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Its said in the very first sentence though?

ExtremeDullard ,
@ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I watched Explaining Computer’s review of the DC-ROMA RISC-V Laptop II and I’ve decided to wait until the next gen RISC. It’s too early even for me. When even overly-enthusiastic and much-too-forgiving Christopher Barnatt thinks it’s not quite there yet, I pass.

dohpaz42 ,
@dohpaz42@lemmy.world avatar

The ram options available for this tablet are better than what the iPad had when it first came out, and are pretty on par with more modern versions. Source

The idea of using a tablet as a computer is not exactly a selling point for me. What id love to see is an app market space for tablets like this. Something that competes with Apple and Google; especially if it had a focus on home automation and security. Gaming would be a close second.

werefreeatlast OP ,

Sure, but I thought apt was just that. Anyone can make a repository or app store and give you access to apps thru apt-get install app. You could also run ducker to run virtual apps.

I would want to run gimp, krita, scribus inkscape, blender (maybe), Joplin, python/notebook, Spyder, libre office, etc. I think that would be a great list of apps that already one can easily install via app. I don’t want a store like apple or google and for sure I don’t want black box stuff that will run in the background consuming battery and stealing my data. I’ll go check the review to see if the “it’s not there yet” refers to functionality where these apps will keep crashing vs functionality meaning my mom can pick it up and use it like toddlers do. Big difference for me.

socphoenix ,

If your kids software is available in Ubuntu maybe? At a glance I’d wonder how power efficient it would be (my $100 Walmart tablet lasts all week with light usage, I doubt this could compare), and would have to wonder as well on gpu performance. It’s likely not optimized yet so idk I’d trust 800 mhz as enough.

I think the article sums it up best:

RISC-V computing is a promising field but best ploughed by developers, early adopters, and tech enthusiasts at present. RISC-V chip performance is improving, but it’s not “there” for mainstream adoption — yet.

It’d be a ton of fun to tinker with and if you have the money to risk I’d say go for it! But I wouldn’t buy this for a kid unless I had the extra $150 to potentially get them a normal android tablet if this didn’t work as well as hoped.

just_another_person ,

This is really meant to serve as a development platform though, so the price and capabilities probably matter less, and the default settings and such are probably not as tuned as they could be to offer the best performance or battery life.

I don’t even think power management tools in stock Linux take RISCV into account yet lol

rotopenguin ,
@rotopenguin@infosec.pub avatar

Power management on “the most boring Intel chip imaginable” is still touch-and-go at times.

pop ,

my $100 Walmart tablet lasts all week with light usage, I doubt this could compare

probably not in a first release, but Android is convulted piece of shit compared to linux development environments. Not to mention Google’s and/or OEMs built-in system apps running 24/7 guzzling all your data in the background.

In time, I guess it would beat out in performance and efficiency but lose in the availability of applications, same as desktop linux.

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