[opensuse] Tablet + keyboard as general purpose device (WAS tablet pc)

On Monday 23 Apr 2012 11:03:03 C wrote:

On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 10:57, George Olson wrote:

...

That makes me think of asking a question here. It seems that the most common tablet that is being used on this list is the ASUS TF101. I looked up the specs and I noticed that it does not have a USB slot. For you TF101 users out there, do you find sometimes that you wished you did have a USB slot? or is the dataport and wifi sufficient? How about the USB ports that are on the keyboard - can you use those pretty easily?

The only time I can think of when I might want a USB slot would be if I were visiting at a friend's house, and they didn't have a home network set up, and they wanted to give me a file on a USB stick. But I suppose if I always carry with me a USB stick of my own for situations like that, then it won't be a problem.

The USB ports on the keyboard dock should be enough. The unit folds up clamshell-like... just like a laptop, protecting the screen and keeping it all nicely together. If you get one without the keyboard dock, Asus sells an inexpensive external USB adapter that plugs into the dock port (plugged in when you need it) giving you a standard USB port... so either way, you're covered.

I'm very interested in hearing how those of you with tablets + keyboards get on with them as general purpose computing devices, to see where the market is going. How useful are they? What tasks do you need the PC/laptop for? Is it just for better performance, or are there some things that are just not possible? Are those 'legacy things' like playing optical discs that can also be carried out using more current technology like streaming video, or things that are intrinsically impossible on a tablet? I am concerned about the future of the consumer Free Software 'market' as tablets displace PCs and locked down proprietary or only notionally Free operating systems replace general purpose OSen and platforms. It would be a great pity if the effort we've expended over the last 15 years to fight a monopolist was wasted because the userbase skipped happily into a totalitarian state's walled garden while we were fighting each other over widget sets. Will -- Will Stephenson, openSUSE Board, Booster, KDE Developer SUSE LINUX GmbH, GF: Jeff Hawn, Jennifer Guild, Felix Imendörffer, HRB 21284 (AG Nürnberg) Maxfeldstraße 5 90409 Nürnberg Germany -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org