Partly because of the pandemic, I've found myself reading PDFs far more and want a slightly more bed-friendly experience reading, and loosly editing them (and their colour figures). Free software, hackability and repairability are important to me -- and for that reason, I'm disinclined to buy an iPad or a Samsung equivalent.
Might I be so rude as to ask for HN's current recommendations, for a hackable nerd-friendly *nix tablet?
Sorry I didn't answer your question exactly but reMarkable (I am not affiliated btw) seems quite cool. I am sad it is a bit too expensive for me to justify the purchase.
[0] https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-2 [1] https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable [2] https://github.com/danielebruneo/remarkable2-hacks#remarkabl...
Easy to replace batteries. Dual cores way better than any (non-Apple) ARM chip. Idles down nicely. Has fans that rarely need to spring on but can. Tolerable (almost nice!) front & back cameras. Surprisingly good sound. Replaceable ssd. Gyro's & accelerometers. A usb3 type-a port. Decently drive 4k30 via mini-hdmi.
With a big swap file, even a 4GB model made a daily driver for me for a long time; worked great. The only reason mine aren't still getting more use is because they use a custom pre-USB-PD Dell 19.5V power-over-usb-micro solution. There's a great tablet stand accessory for it, to make it a Google Max type hub, with power & ethernet & a usb hub; it was a great offering, super useful, but it never really fit well in my house & I didn't spend enough time building a touch-hub for it. Dell did an amazing job, it is such a well loved computer (by me at least), so well considered in every way, with a variety of great accessories.
But I have a somewhat more modern alternative these days. (Still often on 4GB, but 8GB is available.) The Venue 11 Pros were not cutting edge when I bought them, nor was my new detachable. Newer designs are mostly folio-keyboard-centric (where-as the Venue 11 Pro had either a great clamshell keyboard with +4 hour battery or folio keyboard) which I resisted but end up working fine. Personally I prefer a bluetooth keyboard anyways; the ergonomics can be set up much much better than what a conventional laptop will ever grant it's poor user. Your desired tablet usage makes this a non-issue anyways (for me these were also daily drivers). Some laptops insist on using frustrating non-standard weird platform stuff, which may make various peripherals non-functional, but shockingly stuff just works across the board a good amount of the time. There's some roll of the dice. We need more people willing to try & to report what goes wrong, challenging others to complete the usually-not-that-hard reverse engineering.
Alas, arm tablets are almost universally unusable for anything but Android. We are just starting to see some upstream kernel support for Snapdragon 845 systems (2017), which is a pretty respectable & modern arm, but a usable ARM system is the exception rather than the rule. Tragic loss, imo. (Even though my aged Dell Venue 11 Pro would smoke the tar out of whatever tablet/pc arm chip Qualcomm is selling these days anyways.)
It's got an ethernet port, programmable GPIO, and runs Linux. How's that for "nerd friendly"?
The iPad is that good. It has destroyed the tablet market for a reason.
Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Plus Wi-Fi (2016) - $380
Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e (Wi-Fi) - $400