[kwlug-disc] Tablet shopping

[Paul Gallaway]

On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 6:54 PM, Paul Nijjar <paul_nijjar at yahoo.ca> wrote:
> Is Secure Boot still a thing to worry about? I thought it was locked
> down for Windows ARM tablets. There were a bunch of posts like this
> one:
> http://blog.hansenpartnership.com/the-arm-windows-8-lockdown/
>
> and I have not been able to find information that this has changed.

That seems to be something specific with ARM and UEFI not being
supported by Linux? The Bay Trail issue is maybe similar. I found
something that indicated there was a problem with UEFI32 with most
distributions, whereas most Linux distributions will work under UEFI64
(what's found in most laptops/desktops - these devices are apparently
a 64 bit processor with a 32 bit bios? Even the Window blogs are
confused about why they can't install Windows 8 64). Also found a
mention that this should be fixed with 3.15 kernels (and my most
recent Debian testing updated included 3.16 so...).

> Doing a little web searching, the models you describe are Intel
> processors, so you can disable Secure Boot if you want. (I cannot
> imagine wanting an x86 tablet, but your kilometerage may vary.)

It's a Baytrail processor and the few benchmarks I've looked at put it
as a decent performing processor (as far as tablets go apparently in
the Core 2 Duo performance range which might put it ahead of the
desktop I'm writing on now!) and battery performance seems to be on
about par with similar ARM parts. Looks like there's a Fedora
developer working on a distribution for these devices:
https://www.happyassassin.net/fedlet-a-fedora-remix-for-bay-trail-tablets/
https://www.happyassassin.net/category/fedlet/

But from his recent posts it sounds like it's still not there yet. But
it does seem promising! Maybe with the next round of tablets. Sounds
like it could be fun to experiment with but Android is likely a better
fit for me right now. I have a phone and a cheap $50 tablet for
toddler use so know exactly what to expect there.

~pAul.

all good things, all in good time...