Re: Debian tablet computer

On Thursday 20 June 2013 09:48:48 Louis-Maurice De Sousa wrote:
>
> If I write you today, it's because we are trying to make possible a free
> tablet computer for schools.
> We are beginning a work with the company Unowhy?
>
> http://www.unowhy.com/nos-solutions-pour-leducation/nos-solutions-pour-le-s
>econdaire/
>
> At the moment, the tablet is based on Ubuntu, with a hacked kernel.
> Technical specs :
> - Processor omap4 Texas Instrument : Cortex A9 dual core at 1Ghz
> - GPU3D : PowerVR SGX 450

Have you evaluated other processors? The PowerVR hardware is apparently 
particularly problematic, although people are apparently making progress on 
reverse-engineered Free Software drivers. The following page is probably 
useful to see which CPUs are the most viable from a Free Software point of 
view:

http://rhombus-tech.net/evaluated_cpus/

> - GPU2D : Video Processor for hardware 1080p decoding
> - RAM 512 Mo
> - SSD 8 Go
> - Screen 10’1 (WSVGA, 1024x600)
> - Capacitive multitouch screen
> - Battery 5000 mAh
> - HP stéréo
> - 4 buttons
> Connectivity :
> - Wifi B/G/N
> - USB
> - SD reader
> - Ethernet
> - Headphone connector

I might also suggest that you look at what the Rhombus Tech people are doing 
with their tablet for KDE developers, even though they are using a smaller 
screen:

http://rhombus-tech.net/community_ideas/kde_tablet/news/

Much closer to the above, at least in terms of the CPU and internals is the 
following:

http://shop.goldelico.com/wiki.php?page=Letux%207004

> We have planned an appointment with the CTO of Unowhy? to see how they
> could work with Debian community. The point is that most of the software
> must be made specificaly for a tablet computer. For the moment, imho,
> only gnome-shell could work natively with a tablet.

Again, I'd suggest looking at the project making this last product because 
they appear to use Debian already and have experience with the OMAP products:

http://projects.goldelico.com/p/openphoenux/

I hope that these links might give you a few ideas. There are many people 
doing hardware for Free Software, and also people deploying Debian and 
Emdebian on that hardware [*], and it might save time and effort to find 
those people and work with them (or get them to help you).

Paul

[*] An example: http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Emdebian