techcrunchit_logo Over on TechCrunchIT they’re not satisfied just talking about tech – now they want to create it. They have visions to create a very lightweight tablet PC running pretty much as a web book.

The product looks cool – but even cooler will be to watch the project unfold – it’s intended that it will be a fully open source machine – hardware and software and will sell in the sub $300 range.

I’ve been saying forever that operating systems should be in the dead pool – once we’re all exclusively using web apps they can be – this project could just give that concept a bit of a nudge.

Mockups below

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Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users.

6 Comments
  • Hmmm. But all computers need an operating system. An OS is responsible for managing multi-tasks, managing device subsystem communications and so on.

    A tablet like this will have a touch sensitive screen, at least a wireless ethernet adapter, a power managed CPU, and so. Each one of these needs to be “managed”. This is the OS function.

    Even a browser needs to be managed. Unless you make the browser the OS, in which case let’s call it what it is.

  • OK MF here goes – my vision is to have a browser that includes all the stuff that an OS does. Bear in mind we’re talking very little OS functionality – a few drivers, the comms stuff etc etc. It’s be interesting to have someone give us the true lowdown on the following

    -Current size of separate OS + Browser
    -How much duplication there currently is with seperate OS and browser
    -Possible memory/speed benefits to be gained by bringing it all together

  • So it is an OS then. It’s just that the browser is the OS interface…

  • leaving aside the OS side for a moment – what’s the difference between the TCIT WebTablet and a better version of Amazon’s Kindle?

    It seems to me that alot of the functionality for the tablet is already delivered by the Kindle (esp. long battery life) it just needs to look cooler and move away from being locked to proprietary content (though note that Amazon covers the wireless cost to the user in exchange for selling content)

    I’m probably missing something obvious – keen to know what!

  • @tom

    one word – proprietary vs open (well two words but you get my drift)

    b

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