It sucks that most of these linux-based companies don't have the balls to go for the gold and release luxury products: they'd give Apple a serious run for their money if they dropped a sexy-ass $800 tablet that every nerd would drool over. Custom hardware with an OS that's been optimized to run on that specific configuration. No fucking around, no patching, no hacking, no re-compiling... just a sexy-ass linux tablet. Man, anyone know where I can get me one of those?
Puri.sm makes luxury products. Although they don't have a tablet they have the Librem 5 smart phone, which is complete opensourced and has special privacy features.
It's kind of ambitious what they're trying to do, and as the article describes, it is proof that it can work. The phone is in continuous improvement and you can order one.
I have a librem laptop, and it works really well, with it's own operating system, and it's got hardware buttons to shut off the wifi and microphone. I hope they can get that phone working well soon. I'll get one.
The market for such a thing is probably very limited. I'd settle for a decent machine that was open, but had the physical size of and shape of an iPad.
Android tablets all tend to be tiny and long, if I wanted a minecraft turd I'd play minecraft.
I think you're very-highly underestimating the number of well-paid nerds who exist in the world. Hell, I'm not even saying go all-in and dump support for your lower-end products— just give us the option.
Pine's stuff isn't terrible quality, they just don't put a lot of effort into the software sometimes. Armbian group has done more for Pine than Pine has.
That being said, perhaps there would be a market for a good quality open tablet.
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