[Arm-netbook] Debian GNU/Linux on tablet hardware

[Mark Constable]

On 2011-10-28 07:50 PM, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
> ...
> it's an insane situation - i'm offering Free Software Developers
> a "way out" of this insanity.

Excellent disclosure of the reality of dealing with Chinese
manufaturers. So you are suggesting the main problem is matching
up an OS with the hardware, not the hardware itself.

A few months ago I made a plea for a non-netbook tablet solution
to allow those keen to develop OS options a chance of getting
something ready NOW while we wait for the "ideal" form factor
parts to fall into place. Unfortunately the core point of that
email, "give us something to develop on now", got buried under
an assertion that any device won't end up in the hands of GPL
tolerant western developers much under $300 retail/delivered.

Fortunately for all concerned, the Raspberry PI will change this
situation forever in another 1/2 year (a few months after it hits
the market) so the plea to get "anything" into the hands of said
GPL-tolerant developers is about to be solved.

It seems the main block is between Chiness manufacturers and
various western open source repositories that in most case have
between 90% and 99.9% of ready-to-use source code. How can this
blockage be removed and/or why are Chinese manufacturers seemingly
at the mercy of their ODM partners?

Perhaps it's as simple is the mandatory English-only communication
channels surrounding the western repositories.