Do you need a touchscreen? I have a Raspberry Pi touchscreen device that can run on a battery. I also have a Chip (https://getchip.com/) OpenSource Linux handheld, but it doesn't have a touchscreen I don't think. I really like the Chip, but it is a slow ARM CPU. If you need something beefier, I also have a Chuwi Hi12 tablet which is just like a regular Android tablet, but Chinese: cheap, unreliable sometimes, and really cheap. The thing was like $200: https://www.banggood.com/Chuwi-Hi12-Intel-Z8300-Quad-Core-1_84GHz-12-Inch-Dual-Boot-Tablet-p-1044181.html
It runs an Intel CPU, but you won't be gaming on it. It also has plenty of USB ports. Getting Linux to work with its wireless has been a pain for people, but you say you don't care so much about that, and it would work with a regular USB Wifi dongle. I have the tablet, a detachable keyboard designed for it, a stylus, screen protector, and case, and the whole thing was less than the cost of a regular high-end Android tablet. There's also the case of grabbing an old used Android phone, and installing AOSP on it, hooking it up to a USB On-the-go cable, and using that as your mobile device to log data and whatnot. I have old phones I use as remotes, car ODBII loggers, security cameras for my house, just about anything. I think at one point I had 5 really old Android phones running Cyanogenmod as wifi home monitoring security cameras, they're great: they have SD Cards for nearly unlimited offline storage, reliable wifi, power off USB so they don't require wall-warts, and they have backup batteries so they don't stop working when the power goes out! Pleasantly, Ronald Bynoe On Tue, Nov 7, 2017 at 12:40 PM, Richard Owlett <[email protected]> wrote: > On 11/07/2017 01:48 PM, Galen Seitz wrote: > >> On 11/07/17 11:20, Richard Owlett wrote: >> >>> Basically I'm looking for functionality similar to a PDA such as a Palm >>> Pilot. Ideally it would run an i386 build of Debian [no major problem >>> with AMD] - for maximum compatibility with my desktop and laptops. >>> >>> I don't have a good idea of what is available. My web searches have >>> gotten many hits on the day to day problems using one but relatively >>> little on what's available. >>> >>> Any suggestion for on line computer retailers [i.e. NOT amazon or ebay] >>> whose sites I should browse? >>> >>> Suggestions on "how to search" welcome. >>> >> >> While Intel has been improving with respect to power consumption, they >> still have difficulty competing with ARM in the mobile market. That's >> why x86-based phones are rare to nonexistent. If you must have x86, I >> suspect the best you can do is to look at the laptop/tablet hybrids that >> are on the market. >> >> galen >> >> > I'm looking for a physical form factor similar to a "smart phone"(sic;). > Cell network connectivity is a minus. > WiFi &/or Bluetooth OK but not required. > I'll have a data collection app and will usually transfer data via a USB > flash drive. > If i386/AMD64 a hindrance, ARM is acceptable. > I have a strong preference for Debian but a pre-installed Linux is > required. > Must be an off the shelf part. Low cost wins over featuritis ;) > Thank you. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > PLUG mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
