[ale] difference between android and linux ?

[Pat Regan]

On Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:51:00 -0400
Ron Frazier <atllinuxenthinfo at c3energy.com> wrote:

> Pat,
> 
> I've been keeping one eye on the Nook.  Do you have the full power
> and flexibility of Android on the Nook, or is it crippled by B&N?  Do
> you know what the CPU, RAM, Flash specs are on it?  Can you run GNU /
> Linux on it?

It comes with a crippled, custom Android install.  That took about 10
minutes to fix, though.  The Nook Color is well supported by
Cyanogenmod.

It has an ARM A8 cpu that we run at 1100 mhz, 512 MB RAM, and 8 gig of
flash (I think it is split with about 2-3 GB to the OS and 5-6 GB of
user storage) and an empty microsd slot (you need a microsd to flash
an alternative firmware). It has a proper capacitive touch screen but it
is a bit less responsive in the corners.  It has a nice 1024x600 IPS
LCD panel.

I've never met an Android tablet than can directly boot any usual Linux
distro.

> The more I think about it, if I got a traditional Android tablet, I 
> think I want 1 GHz + CPU, 512 MB + RAM, 4 GB Flash, 32 GB memory card 
> slot, 1080p video playback, and 720p flash playback.  I know the
> device itself may not have that high a screen res, but you can pipe
> it out of HDMI.  This pushes the price in the $ 200 direction but it
> might be worth it.  I am not, however, willing to pay $ 500 for a
> tablet.

You're pushing way beyond the $200 range.  You're doing fine until you
get to 1080p video playback.  The Nook (and the wifi-only Galaxy Tab),
because of it's older PowerVR 530 GPU, can only do hardware accelerated
video playback of videos smaller than 848x480.  The Nook does not have
HDMI, either.

The Nook Color is $250 new, from B&N.  There've been a lot of sales of
Galaxy Tab refurbs for a bit over $250.  Woot.com has had the 10 inch
Viewsonich gtablet for $285 a couple of times.  I think 10 inches is a
bit on the big side, but that one is pretty powerful.  It has the
NVidia Tegra chipset, which means it has a fast GPU and dual core 1ghz
cpu.

I don't think a lot of what you want is really necessary on a tablet.
The tablets are nice for sitting around on the couch while you're
consuming data.  

Pat