ZaTab from ZaReason - a fully open Android tablet
Hi folks, Sorry for being so quiet recently and missing meetings, a combination of lots of work and some timetable clashes.. The US company ZaReason who build Linux systems (and are currently investigating opening a store in New Zealand) have been working on a fully open Android tablet for some time now. Well it's now appeared on their website for pre-orders (unlinked from the rest of the site, but tweeted about) here: http://zareason.com/shop/zatab.html I've blogged about it here: http://www.csamuel.org/2012/04/25/the-zatab-from-zareason-a-fully-open-sourc... summarising what I've learnt from their tweets and from their site, plus noting that the status of their GPU driver is unclear (there is an open source driver in development, but its maturity is claimed to be low). The tablet ships with CyanogenMod 9 and an unlocked boot loader. I would presume it doesn't ship with the Google Apps as they're not open. I've asked via Twitter if they plan on having F-Droid installed by default. Timely given the interest in free software Android devices! cheers, Chris -- Chris Samuel : http://www.csamuel.org/ : Melbourne, VIC This email may come with a PGP signature as a file. Do not panic. For more info see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenPGP
Chris Samuel <chris@csamuel.org> writes:
Sorry for being so quiet recently and missing meetings, a combination of lots of work and some timetable clashes..
No-one is obligated to be chatty or quiet, so no apology necessary :-)
Chris, are you ordering one? I get annoyed with online stores that insist I create an account in order merely to buy something, and ZaReason appears to be yet another one of those.
Timely given the interest in free software Android devices!
Very much so. I've resisted the urge to buy a tablet hoping that someone would realise the market for a free-software-friendly one. This may be the first. But, CyanogenMod isn't free software, remember; it has a higher proportion of free software, but is still very much a non-free operating system and AFAIK has all the non-free drivers as Android. Have ZaReason made the device so that all the hardware works without any non-free software (programs, firmware, whatever) at all? -- \ Rommel: “Don't move, or I'll turn the key on this can of Spam!” | `\ —The Goon Show, _Rommel's Treasure_ | _o__) | Ben Finney
On 26 April 2012 11:53, Ben Finney <ben+freesoftware@benfinney.id.au> wrote:
But, CyanogenMod isn't free software, remember; it has a higher proportion of free software, but is still very much a non-free operating system and AFAIK has all the non-free drivers as Android.
AFAIK, Android itself is 100% open source software, entire source can be downloaded from git, modified, etc. I compiled it myself. Only catch is you need non-free software to compile, it seems to require Oracle's JDK 1.6, doesn't seem to work with OpenJDK (or JDK 1.7 for that matter) - not that I tried very hard here to get it to work. It is the add-ons to Android that are not open source. Very likely CyanogenMod has a number of these extra pieces, like non-free drivers. Big question is, will Replicant run on this tablet? http://replicant.us/about/ -- Brian May <brian@microcomaustralia.com.au>
On 26/04/12 11:53, Ben Finney wrote:
Chris Samuel <chris@csamuel.org> writes:
Chris, are you ordering one? I get annoyed with online stores that insist I create an account in order merely to buy something, and ZaReason appears to be yet another one of those.
No, only interested in a netbook at the moment.
But, CyanogenMod isn't free software, remember; it has a higher proportion of free software, but is still very much a non-free operating system and AFAIK has all the non-free drivers as Android.
As I wrote in the blog, they're working with the Software Freedom Conservancy is "pure" (to use their words).
Have ZaReason made the device so that all the hardware works without any non-free software (programs, firmware, whatever) at all?
Yes, they have said to me that they chose the Allwinner A10 because it was the most open SoC they could find. I am not clear about the GPU driver (I presume they are using the Lima Projects fully open one) but they do appear to be making a strong effort to ensure it is fully open (and I suspect they know that if they market it as that and it isn't they will quickly get found out). cheers, Chris -- Chris Samuel : http://www.csamuel.org/ : Melbourne, VIC
On 26/04/12 13:16, Chris Samuel wrote:
As I wrote in the blog, they're working with the Software Freedom Conservancy is "pure" (to use their words).
Hmm, missed some words there, let's try that again.. As I wrote in the blog, they're working with the Software Freedom Conservancy, apparently to make sure their device is "pure" (to use their words). -- Chris Samuel : http://www.csamuel.org/ : Melbourne, VIC
On 26/04/12 13:16, Chris Samuel wrote:
Yes, they have said to me that they chose the Allwinner A10 because it was the most open SoC they could find. I am not clear about the GPU driver
Asked via Twitter, their response was: https://twitter.com/#!/ZaReasonNZ/status/195359671450742785 @chris_bloke Initially there may be some binary blobs. Lima isn't far enough along at this time, but we have high hopes for it. -- Chris Samuel : http://www.csamuel.org/ : Melbourne, VIC
participants (3)
-
Ben Finney -
Brian May -
Chris Samuel