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Tablets, like mobile phones, should be able to run mainline Linux, to offer the same lavel of control, freedom and privacy that Linux laptops, desktops and servers offer. Unfortunately, there aren’t many tablets that can run real Linux today.
PineTab stands out among Linux tablets because of its features and price. It is powered by a quad-core ARM Cortex A53 64-Bit Processor. It has an optional keyboard and trackpad which functions also as a screen cover and effectively converts the PineTab into a small laptop with a touch screen functionality. Numerous mainline Linux distributions as well as BSD and Android can be installed on PineTab. It’s price, $159.99, proves that pine64, the company that created it, understands that price can be also a freedom limiting factor. It should be noted, however, that the chip for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as well as the GPU (MALI-G52) require proprietary firmware to work. Even if you eliminate the proprietary firmware for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and use an external Wi-Fi adapter equipped exclusively with free and open source firmware, like Penguin Wireless N USB Adapter, you’ll still be using the GPU which needs proprietary software to function. Therefore, at this time at least, PineTab cannot be used without running some proprietary firmware.
There is also PineTab-V, a RISC-V based Linux tablet. Unfortunately, it can’t be considered a functional Linux tablet yet. The manufacturer specifies on their website: “The PineTab-V is an experimental device and lacks dedicated working software – it should therefore only be purchased by people interested in helping with the bring-up process of Linux and BSDs on the RISC-V architecture.”
Double Bastion has no affiliation with Pine Store Limited (Pine64), the company that produces PineTab and PineTab-V.
