New KDE tablet to liberate Linux enthusiasts from walled garden
- Monday, 30 January 2012 13:32
KDE developer Aaron Seigo has announced a new upcoming tablet computer, called the Spark, that will ship with KDE's Plasma environment. The device, which has a seven-inch display and a 1GHz ARM CPU, will sell for €200 ($262). Underneath the shiny KDE surface, the Spark reportedly runs Mer, a community-driven fork of the Linux-based MeeGo platform. Seigo says that the device will be open and that users will be able to install custom firmware.
Although the Spark's hardware specifications aren't particularly impressive and the device is unlikely to attract a mainstream audience, it will appeal to open source software developers who want an inexpensive hardware environment for developing touchscreen-friendly applications with Qt and QML.
