Even if you’ve followed the tips to boost WebOS speed, you might be worried about the TouchPad’s future. In case you missed the memo, it sort of doesn’t have one. At least not officially…While there are projects for a TouchPad Android port, here’s how you can get Ubuntu running on the TouchPad right now.
Liliputing has a guide up to getting your TouchPad fully Ubuntu-ised. Although “fully” here is not quite correct. Rather than replacing WebOS, what the guide does is run you through splitting up the TouchPad’s memory and installing Ubuntu on a partition. You’ll have to be CLI friendly to start installing packages once you’re done, and apparently not everything runs optimally right now. Applications that do run include Firefox and Chromium if the inbuilt WebOS browser doesn’t thrill you. [Liliputing]
poltak
Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 8:41 AM:( How did I miss out on this?
EckyThump
Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 9:02 AMI’m not sure ‘Ununtu’ is a good fit here! I was running it on my little netbook for awhile, but it’s kinda fat and slow. Now if they can get it’s little brother ‘Easy Peasy’ to work, that might be OK! It runs like a bullet. #]
teslass
Friday, August 26, 2011 at 10:19 PMOr, you could run a real distribution on it, like Sabayon or Debian. Ubuntu will be bloated and slow, as will its derivatives.
If people wanted to do it right, they’d put a LFS on it, and install just the bare minimum of things. Optimised kernel, yes please!
On a side note, very disappointed they sold out so quickly, they look beautiful.
ajay
Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 10:03 AMThis is reporting?
This is at LEAST a month old news. A quick google search will pull up many threads, e.g. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179657 talking about running an Ubuntu chroot under ANY webOS device. (Not just the Touchpad).
*sigh* and *yawn*
codework
Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 10:49 AMI appreciate that it may be old news to you, but many of us that may have picked up a cheap touchpad this week find it helpful. I have had no interest in WebOS or its accompanying devices until now, so articles like this from a nice launch point.
You could just skip over what you don’t like?
Big Windows
Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 3:17 PMDamn, envious, but I don’t understand the obsession with putting android(linux) or any other variant of linux on it… It is already linux and with a couple of tweaks the WebOS UI can be sped up significantly (look at Giz for those postings). Android… Even Honeycomb is a steaming pile of shiite… Why change one out for what probably amounts to something worse on this hardware?
olearymo
Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 4:10 PMWatch out there Big Windows, say that a couple of times and you’ll get taken down a peg for ‘spamming’ and asked to provide an essay on why webOS is ‘so great’.
Apparently it has no apps, will never ever be supported again, and doesn’t have ‘back buttons’. Lmao. Something I was laid into about yesterday on Giz.
:rolleyes:
Nice to see someone else talking sense here Big.
Graham
Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 11:09 AMIts news to me.
Sometimes developments might take longer to filter through to mainstream tech news sites particulary if they have only just become relevant to the masses. It doesn’t make the story any less interesting for those that missed the announcement on whatever niche news site you read it on previously.
Can you imagine just how many news items would be on Giz if they reported on every single tech development as it happened? They have to pick and choose which stories to publish based on relevancy.
Pyta
Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 1:50 PMI knew they were working on it but I had no idea that they were that close.
olearymo
Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 4:11 PMoh, well, they’d better pull down the story ajay!! It’s been on XDA Developers, a site that only people who are members of XDA Developers would really even know about, for ages!
Oh, how dare Gizmodo run this! sigh! Yawn!
darren
Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 11:49 AManyone know of anywhere to buy a touchstone charger for the touchpad?? cant seem to find any
olearymo
Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 9:03 PMif you mean online, tried precentral.net?
If you mean locally in aus, not sure I’m afraid.
Paul
Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 2:01 PMI still hate all of those who bought multiple… I definitely wanted one.
Big Windows
Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 3:18 PMThere will be more… Nah just joshin… Must admit I am a little sad that I missed out on one too… Damn social media.
codework
Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 4:28 PMYes, I agree. The guys at the Penrith store were giving away as many as people wanted on a first come first serve basis. It was tragic to see the 4 people in front of me all opting for two instead of one. The unit I ended up with (last one in store) was the on-display not-for-sale demo model, which is unfortunately gimped (HP blocks the serial numbers so you can’t register a proper account for accessing the paid marketplace). Still working on that.
panderiz
Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 4:29 PMitchin to play with this tab, got the 32gb at the local harvey norman. Thanks Gizmodo for original article, only reason I got one, +1 for checking giz once and hour!
One thing ppl don’t really understand is that any smartphone or tab isn’t limited by fricken apps. I use my SGS2 phone for everything from queue files remotely to checking sports scores. Almost anything that is an app can be done in an alternate way, or generally its just a novelty. I can not think of a single iOS or android app that If I didn’t have would make me think my device is a brick. The HPT allows media, browser, social media, for $150. The morons are the ones that think an Ipad is the beezneez, iOS is just like the old mac, completely constrained/overpriced, but pretty. Ladies device maybe….