I've had a few interesting sessions with the Emacs psychotherapist.

some possibilities just aren't there yet. While I can see everything you are talking about taking place at some time, seasoned waiters don't even use note pads and menus would risk theft or damage. I would hate to get a sticky and cracked ipad as a menu.

I agree that way more software is needed for tablets. Linux is especially lacking. The software is mostly there for basic use, but nobody has put in thought to their normal applications having tablet interfaces.

Try selecting random and multiple selections with a pointing device and no shift/control key.

Additionally, the software that is there is sometimes not updated for years. There are also other technical hurdles like locking your screen in xorg. For xlock to do that securely, it has to force it self above other windows and do other various things. You would have to specifically add a virtual keyboard as part of xlock which would not only increase the size but open up more potential for holes.


What's needed is a solid easy to use window manager with good tablet software. Fortunately the new interfaces for KDE (plasma) and Gnome(-shell/unity) look like they are well on there way to being good options for both tablets and netbooks

crush them.

I feel your pain. Last night, I finally upgraded my Ubuntu system to 10.04.1. I had to do it via net install, which took a very long time. Three hours had gone by when I had the base system installed. And I was at a command-line at first prompt. The first thing I did was 'apt-get install gdm.'

After I had a basic X system running, I was able to get into Synaptic and add some much needed software because although I have an idea of what needs to be on the system, it's still a bit more easier seeing it.

I will probably do some runlevel editing to get the system performing well. But it took awhile even with Comcast high speed internet; it probably took so long because the server's latency was high from my vantage point.