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StarLite 12.5-inch Linux tablet

us.starlabs.systems

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Re: StarLite 12.5-inch Linux tablet

#91

Post by nimish »

jauntywundrkind wrote: post #22
eternityforest wrote: post #15

Why did they have to use a micro HDMI port? Couldn't they have done dual USB-C and made one the DisplayPort output? MicroHDMI is not a very nice connector, it's a lot of pins under mechanical stress from the heavy, rigid HDMI people generally attach to it.

DisplayPort has the huge advantage of being incredibly easy to passively convert into the ultra-legacy-weird-difficult HDMI, where-as the legacy-centric-pita-gross HDMI requires active absurd adapters to turn into DisplayPort. 100% more usb-c please, with alt modes. USB4 mandates every port be able to do DisplayPort output. I really hope we start to see phones and tablets which have >1 USB port. Lenovo has an absurd…

DP can only be passively converted to HDMI if the source uses DisplayPort++/Dual Mode, which is not supported by the DisplayPort Alt Mode over USB-C spec (Why? Who knows).

Every usb-c to HDMI adapter has to actively convert the signals which is why one end is usually much larger than the other.

Re: StarLite 12.5-inch Linux tablet

#92

Post by not_your_vase »

Turskarama wrote: post #19

I can't help but feel like an x86 tablet is a non starter, the architecture is just too power thirsty compared to ARM.

I use an RPi3 with 7 inch touchscreen to listen to webradio all the time. Just the other day I was curious, and measured its power consumption. My laptop with Ryzen 4700u with turned off screen uses less amount of power than the Rpi with screen on (~6W for laptop vs ~7.5W for RPi). I'm really thinking about ditching my RPi's as a radio and even as pihole, as my laptop can do much more while still using close to 0% CPU.

Sure, the screen on/off comparison makes this measurement a bit unfair, but calling x86/x64 energy inefficient doesn't sound particularly correct.

Re: StarLite 12.5-inch Linux tablet

#93

Post by karmakaze »

smcleod wrote: post #88
eternityforest wrote: post #15

Why did they have to use a micro HDMI port? Couldn't they have done dual USB-C and made one the DisplayPort output? MicroHDMI is not a very nice connector, it's a lot of pins under mechanical stress from the heavy, rigid HDMI people generally attach to it.

I haven't seen one of those in many many years! I wish HDMI in general would die and let displayport take it place.

What's the practical difference? With USB-C there's power delivery. DisplayPort has..?

Re: StarLite 12.5-inch Linux tablet

#94

Post by MichaelZuo »

eternityforest wrote: post #15

Why did they have to use a micro HDMI port? Couldn't they have done dual USB-C and made one the DisplayPort output? MicroHDMI is not a very nice connector, it's a lot of pins under mechanical stress from the heavy, rigid HDMI people generally attach to it.

Probably due to cheapening out a few dollars on the BOM, not a great sign to be honest.

Re: StarLite 12.5-inch Linux tablet

#95

Post by jwells89 »

heavyset_go wrote: post #86
jwells89 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My question is if that resolution is usable with 2x integer scaling (1440x960 effective screen real estate), because fractional scaling under Linux is still a bit rocky.

Fractional scaling works well on Plasma under Wayland if you're using an up to date distribution.

The DE itself, yes. This is true of GNOME as well once the hidden setting is enabled. Unfortunately there's still individual programs which don't behave correctly, which for now means that 1x or 2x displays are still best if a trouble-free, low-tinkering experience is the goal.

Re: StarLite 12.5-inch Linux tablet

#96

Post by smcleod »

karmakaze wrote: post #93
smcleod wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't seen one of those in many many years! I wish HDMI in general would die and let displayport take it place.

What's the practical difference? With USB-C there's power delivery. DisplayPort has..?

USB-C is the connector / cable, DisplayPort is one protocol that can run within such a cable. HDMI (a proprietary licensed protocol) can also. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort#Comparison_with_HD...

Re: StarLite 12.5-inch Linux tablet

#97

Post by cookiengineer »

Honestly when I am looking at their other models like the StarBook and StarFighter, I have a weird feeling that I cannot repair them once the battery or other parts breaks down. They have an internal battery similar to the format of A1278 MacBooks, which makes my spidey sense go off that it's not easily repairable without breaking a ribbon flex cable.

I don't need a bleeding edge gaming GPU, I don't need USB4, I don't need Thunderbolt. These are optional extras for me, I've given up on them already.

Currently I am kind of stuck with the old T440p because of this, all other laptops that I bought in the last 10 years have died already with no chance of repairing or fixing them - either because of non available parts, or because literally the GPU melted down (happens more often on MacBooks than one might think, apparently).

From Ultrabooks to even MacBooks, I've had them all, from Dell to HP, Apple and back... all died eventually and I switched back to my T440p in 2019. This old laptop still lives, can be repaired, has a replacement parts community [1], and doesn't break when I let it fall down on the floor. But it's now so outdated that I cannot even order battery packs anymore, because they will arrive with less than 20% capacity condition when they're being sold as "New" because they're even not produced anymore and are stored for too long.

I think what I want is something like the MNT Reform laptop [2], where the battery cells are replaceable 18650 standard cells. But without the problems that come with ARM. I've been thinking about even getting an older Thinkpad just so that I can just let the guy from xyte.ch [3] build a better one out of it.

Honestly I've spent more than 10k over the years for crappy Ultrabook laptops or MacBooks, which all died up on me and I'm sick of spending so much money when my laptop from 2013 still works.

Why can't we have nice replaceable battery packs, RAM, and m2 SSDs anymore? I mean, not even the Framework laptop has a replaceable battery pack? WHY?

Am I the only one wanting this?

[1] https://www.thinkstore24.de

[2] https://shop.mntre.com/products/mnt-reform

[3] http://web.archive.org/web/20221130010517/https://www.xyte.c... (currently has php problems)

Re: StarLite 12.5-inch Linux tablet

#98

Post by PrivateButts »

A bit ago I did a bit of an experiment with an old surface tablet, where I threw some linux distros at it to see what the experience was. I tried Ubuntu, Manjaro, and Fedora, and all were extremely janky to downright broken. On screen keyboard was completely broken with Wayland, with some apps like Firefox just not popping it open, to others ignoring input. X had trouble with screen rotation. Fedora wouldn't let me past the login screen unless I connected a keyboard, which was compounded with a bug that was causing the screen to lock every sixty seconds. Manjaro ended up lasting the longest, but at that point I had just given up trying to fix things and reverted to using the Surface as a laptop with a touch screen.

I don't know how much touch screen only computers are considered during development of desktop environments and display servers, my experience left me with the distinct feeling that I had gone way outside of the bounds of the target user of these applications. Maybe I just had bad luck. Hopefully if this is truly an under-served side of the Linux desktop experience, a successful product like this will help push the ball forward on improving support for this niche. I wonder how much the popularity of the Steam Deck is pushing the KDE team to improve touch screen support as well.

Re: StarLite 12.5-inch Linux tablet

#99

Post by eternityforest »

mcny wrote: post #78
afavour wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If we get to 2030 and phones can't plug in to GPUs something is f-ed and the system is broken, tech has ossified grossly. Why? That’s an incredibly minor use case. If you’re expecting something this niche to become the norm then you’re destined to be disappointed.

We had USB 3 with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 in September 2013. It is now almost a decade. If rumors are true, Samsung will announce a USB 4 (thunderbolt 3) phone before the end of 2024. I agree with the grandparent. While most people don't care too much for eGPU (?), I'm sure if we let people innovate, good things will come. My dream is much smaller. I just want whatever hardware circuitry is required to accomplish t…

Pretty sure most any phone already has the hardware for software defined charging. Android just doesn't have an API call for it, unless they do and I just haven't heard yet.

Maybe we should be filing feature requests for it;

Re: StarLite 12.5-inch Linux tablet

#100

Post by TheDong »

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #80
msgilligan wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it’s really a shame. I have the original iPad and the hardware remains solid. If I could have an updated browser that could display modern websites without crashing, I would still use it.

Another option is to create more progressive enhancement websites which work with such devices. Giving older devices new life is part of the reason I started developing my framework. For example, the websites linked in my profile are backwards compatible all the way to Netscape 3.0, while still supporting more modern features like in-place updating vote counters and adding dialogs to a page without reloading it. And…

I agree that these devices should be supported, but the only entity that can actually support them is apple.

It's not enough for sites to work, the underlying software also has to be secure enough to handle the internet. That can come from Apple providing software updates to the device to keep it secure, or Apple providing a supported mechanism for someone to install Linux, or some other operating system that can be updated.

Unfortunately, apple does not provide security updates or any way to actually "unlock" them, so they are unsupported. Tailoring your site to work on these insecure clients is in a sense encouraging them to venture onto the internet, encouraging them to try other sites which might have untrusted 3rd party ads that pwn them and steal their bank cookies..... In that sense, it's more responsible to make your site only work with newer secure browsers than the reverse.

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