Asus Eee Pad Transformer

[dsfitzpat]

I'm intrigued by the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, which is now hitting the North American market - it's an Android tablet that docks into a netbook-sized keyboard. I've had great results with Ubuntu on Eee PCs in the past and I think this thing could be a good platform for Unity, if it's possible to get it running properly.
Has anyone had a go at this yet? (I know there's a similar product from Always Innovating that supports Ubuntu, but Asus seems to have them beat on price and specs.)

[Paqman]

If it's running Android it's probably got an ARM chip inside it, so might be far from straightforward to get Ubuntu running on it.

The fact the tablets run on ARM chips is the reason they all run on slightly lame phone OSes, instead of something a bit gruntier.

[ve4cib]

You can get ARM versions of many distros, including Ubuntu and Debian. Blaming the CPU for "lame phone OSs" seems like a cop-out to me.

[Paqman]

You can get ARM versions of many distros, including Ubuntu and Debian. Blaming the CPU for "lame phone OSs" seems like a cop-out to me.

Indeed, and yet that's the way they've gone.

[ve4cib]

Yes, but I doubt it's the CPU that's driving the decision to use Android. I have a feeling it's more a case of "We want to make an Android tablet. What hardware can we get for cheap? ARM chips? Sounds good. Use those."

[NormanFLinux]

Its priced the same with the accessory keyboard as Acer's Iconia which includes it in the price.

They are notvertibles - that is notbooks with a detachable display.

They're designed for the crowd that can't decide between a true notbook or a tablet PC.

[Johnsie]

I'm a big fan of eeepc's in fact I'm using one right now. Very portable and it has taken a good beating over the last year. I normally replace my netbooks after 6 months because it's critical for my job that i have a stable netbook.

The eeepad looks good, but it seems very expensive. It'll be interesting to see how much of a beating it can take. I had an Archos 70 pad and it got a badly cracked screen after less than a month. I'm not getting another pad until I can find one that can take a beating like my netbook. I love some of the android apps but my netbook is way more powerful and customisable.

[dsfitzpat]

The Eee Pad is priced at $399 USD, which is less than an iPad or a Xoom, but I see now that the keyboard is extra (and not for sale until next month). Under the hood it's got an Nvidia Tegra 2 and 1GB RAM.
I don't see myself going for a tablet anytime soon - I like having a keyboard - but Unity seems to be begging for a touchscreen!
I like my EeePC 1005HA - it's cheap, it travels easily, and with the extra EeePC support in the kernel shipping with 11.04, Ubuntu works out of the box (except for a couple of function keys). The downside is that it sucks at playing flash video - any embedded clips I come across tend to be pretty choppy.

[Copper Bezel]

I'm more impressed with the Slider, which is basically a Xoom with a pop-out stand with a keyboard. Damned thin even still.

Android has more name recognition, more active development for enduser apps, etc. than Ubuntu, and it's a little simpler to use. It's also an easy switch for someone who already uses an Android phone. Of course Ubuntu has more free software, more desktop-scale applications, and actual customization options. It's no surprise if tablets continue to ship primarily with Android (and no surprise if we all have to get used to the first step on getting a new computer being "replace Android with Ubuntu" instead of "replace Windows with Ubuntu.") = D

I love my Eee, incidentally. I've never been happier with a computer, and I haven't had a computer happier with Ubuntu, either.

Edit: An S101, the girly model with the chrome and the rhinestones, in Graphite.

[NormanFLinux]

Android 3.0 Honeycomb is customized for a tablet. Windows 7 and Ubuntu aren't quite there yet.