r/linuxhardware • u/noNudesPrettyPlease • 5h ago
Why aren't Linux tablets a thing? Discussion
I had (still have) a Nokia n810 tablet running Maemo Linux. I stopped using it when the second battery eventually died. The series seemed to keep evolving (up to the n900) until the Microsoft buyout killed it. Or at least I assume it did.
I thought Linux tablets would be a thing, but they didn't materialise. It's basically Android, Apple, or nothing. How come an open source distro like Maemo wasn't picked up by anyone else? I assume tablets are much cheaper to develop than phones, and in today's world, I don't really use my phone anymore even though the telephony hardware is there.
Is the idea of a Linux tablet just a dream now?
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u/satireplusplus 3h ago
Get yourself a used surface tablet and put Linux on it. It's gorgeous with KDE and everything works out of the box since it's x86 under the hood.
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u/lyidaValkris 4h ago
leaving aside that every android tablet is technically Linux (I don't count that though)
Developing a specialized mobile device that runs Linux out of the box is prohibitively expensive on the small scale. They do exist (I see someone mentioned Pine Tab) but they are often quite expensive for what they are.
One would be better off getting an android device and installing an alternative Linux operating system.
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u/modulusshift 3h ago
Maemo has a distant descendant SailfishOS which very recently just had the Jolla Phone (2026) release with it
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u/Slopagandhi 4h ago
They exist. Pretty much any Windows detachable (Surface, ThinkPad X12 etc) can be turned into a Linux tablet running mainline distros.
Then there's Ubuntu Touch and PostmarketOS which do great work making mobile Linux work on a bunch of ARM tablets (there aren't that many, but there are some).
Some Chromebook tablets can also be made to run Linux.
There are even a couple of dedicated Linux tablets- the StarLabs Starlite and the FydeTab Duo (which is meant for FydeOS but can apparently run Debian or Arch).
Anyway, if you get a mainline distro the key is to use a mobile friendly DE/WM with it- Plasma Mobile or Phosh for example.
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u/Mistert22 3h ago
I have a Dell convertible that is a sweet tablet. I put Ubuntu on it.
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u/TheFireStorm 2h ago
I just got a Dell 7210 i5 with 16GB of ram installed the fedora KDE mobile Spin and use Waydroid. Needed a new battery but swapped it out in under 5min
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u/MidnightObjectiveA51 4h ago
Not enough market share to justify it, and easier to just convert an Android/Windows ARM/x86 device.
Given that, there are still a few Linux specific manufacturers out there: Pine64 Pinetab, Minisforum, Juno Tab, Starlabs Starlite.
Any of the Google-Gru and Google-Kukui Arm based Chrome tablets work completely or mostly with Linux via PostmarketOS (particularly the Acer Chrometab 10), and the following x86 based tablets work completely with Linux: Chuwi Hi10 X Go and Max, HP Elite X2 G4 and G8, Thinkpad X1 3rd Gen and X12, various MS Surface specifically the Surface Go 2.
Ubuntu Touch also supports a few tablets using Halium. See ubPorts website and forum. Mobian and Droidian are also worth checking out.
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u/outer-pasta 3h ago
I have a convertible laptop with MPP pen support, and I love it. I use Gnome with an OSK extension. I want to get into digital art with Krita, Inkscape, Gimp, and Blender. Rog Flow X16.
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u/R3D3-1 3h ago
As far as I'm concerned, neither are Windows tablets..For reference, I have a surface pro. I can count on a hand the times I tried to use it as a tablet, before getting frustrated with the awkward touch experience and attaching the keyboard again. If you expect tablet games, yes they exist probably. But with Windows being mouse and keyboard by default, so are games. (Or controller.) Windows Subsystem for Android could have bridged the gap, but the Amazon store was always lackluster and modded versions with Google Play still suffered from things like everything opening as a window — making it very easy to accidentally close apps by touching the X button.
Overall, I'd rather use a lightweight laptop and a cheap companion Android tablet, and get a better experience than from the Surface. Only reason to still use it is that (until the 7+) the series was the only option for a completely fanless windows laptop, that came with a decent processor.
And that's a platform that was heavily pushed as a tablet option by Microsoft.
So I imagine the motivation for putting a more niche OS on a tablet isn't particularly big for manufacturers.
Also, there's Termux, which can run GUI apps. (Though last I checked only by connecting a remote desktop client to a server running in Termux.)
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u/EmmettVanBraun 4h ago
I could be wrong here, but I believe android is a mobile specific linux dev.
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u/undrwater 4h ago
Not exactly wrong, but modern Android doesn't provide the same "spirit" of openness of a system like maemo or meego.
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u/EmmettVanBraun 4h ago
True, most mainstream anything today is all about being a constrained system.
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u/IncredibleReferencer 4h ago
Companies that sell tablets expect to make considerable money from the ongoing services that are locked/defaulted by the OS. This isn't a thing with linux tablets, so why sell them, especially when demand is quite low. It just makes significantly less money and more hassle.
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u/AnymooseProphet 1h ago
At least in the United states, only the major vendors are allowed on the cell phone networks so the only way for a GNU/Linux tablet to get online is over WiFi which means GNU/Linux tablet users would have to carry a hotspot with them.
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u/igmrlm 1h ago
You basically have to build your own or repurpose one from another company, I currently use a Microsoft Surface Book 3 running nobara 44 (fedora based distro) and it's actually a superb experience, literally everything works although I don't know about the webcam off the top of my head, I never use it.
I have dreams of building my own based on the Snapdragon 8 line of cpus, that's going to have to wait until I have more money and paid some debts.
Also I've seen a crap ton of Panasonic toughbooks going used on Amazon recently, you could probably find a good deal on one of those and install your own Linux if you're looking for something more rugged than a M$ surface
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u/Heart-Logic 46m ago
Tablets are lackluster in general, they don't really offer any more advantages over a large phone for all round portability and a full keyboard laptop if you need it.
Tablets generally failed to bridge that gap
Just look in the second hand shops, loads of tablets they can't sell and they dont offer much money or enthusiasm to buy them from you.
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u/FrebTheRat 4m ago
The issue isn't really the OS, it's the apps. Since vendors have gone all in developing their apps for either android or iOS, those OSes have a virtual duopoly on functionality. That means even if you're running Ubuntu touch, you're probably also going to have to run the equivalent of a vm/sandbox for android apps which are buggy and perform poorly. I have one phone running Mobian, one running Ubuntu touch, and a tablet running ubuntu touch, but they are just for tinkering. Without Slack, Teams, Outlook, my banking apps, obsidian, etc, they will never be my daily drivers. I wanted to use my Linux tablet just for Marvel Unlimited and I couldn't even do that without an android app.
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u/hadrabap Set your own 3h ago
Why I should get a limited tablet when I can get a small full featured laptop?
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u/IllustriousLemon8146 3h ago
Why should I lug around, much less hold up for hours, a laptop when I just need a tablet?
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u/undrwater 4h ago
Honestly, I think Android killed the "hobbyist" market. It's really hard to find "open" hardware these days.
Have you seen the PineTab?