Open Source iPad alternatives

For the past year and a half I've been looking for a touch screen 'tablet' devic, with a screen larger than a cell phone and smaller than a laptop. I wanted it to have a good web browser, desktop resoltuion, the option to pair it with a keyboard, a good selection of high quality applications, and great battery life. I wasn't looking for something to use as a computer, but rather something to supplement my computer. The idea is that it's small enough to keep with you all the time, versitle enough to fill whatever niche you need it to, and enough unlike a computer to never feel burdened with a lack of understanding.

The iPad is those things. It is an increadibly well built, well engineered peice of hardware. It is running well written, visually pleasing, useful software. Using it feels good, more like a book or a magazine than a computer. It scratches the itch that I had and if Dell or HP had released the iPad I would be shouting from the roof tops.

But Apple made the iPad. It looks and feels like an Apple product, polished clean, well thought out, and utterly limited. The iPad is a perfect walled garden. If you don't use iTunes, you can't use an iPad. If you write an app apple disapproves of, it can't be on the iPad. If your book says 'sperm' it will be censored on the iPad. Apple has built an ecosystem that reminds me more of Nintendo or Sega from the 90s than any computer company. The mantra seems to be 'people can't be trusted with the things they buy.'

So I have gathered together a list of some of the most promising iPad competitors from the open source world. Most of these existed before the iPad, and each comes with it's own caveats, but if you are looking for iPad alternatives, you'd do well to start here.

SmartQ v7 - This is a . It runs Android, windows mobile, and Ubuntu.