Touch Screen Linux

I was at the local Best Buy yesterday, and sure enough they have the latest HP Touch Screen systems set up, so I sat down and played a hand. I cam away underwhelmed. Don’t know why, the figures swirled and danced, but I found my tried and true mouse and keyboard far easier. The arm soo got tired raising up to touch the screen and the mouse got used more and more as the fun slipped away.

Frankly, on a desktop, this whole touchscreen thing may not make any sense. But on a laptop or whatever portable, it might make quite a bit of sense. If it becomes truly accurate enough to replace the stylus in any big way — There is something about a pencil like device that just works for human hands. But, ever since Apple wowed the world with the iPhone, with the insanely high per month charges, the world has been abuzz with touch screen mania.

So now along comes Linux, meetoo, meetoo, they shout … You knew there was going to be someone didn’t you? And isn’t that the true beauty of open source free softarwe, you are free to try anything.

This video shows some action made using a multitouch capable tablet.
these action are handled natively by the new Linux kernel 2.6.30 meaning that you can now produce the same effects shown in proprietary systems.

More information and downloads on the ENAC multi-touch technology may be found: http://lii-enac.fr

Ubuntu 9.04 Upgrade, Reuse /Home

Finally took the plunge on my daily driver, the important system. I have been using Ubuntu since, well I don’t know, somewhere around release 5. something. So I am reasonably well adapted to Ubuntu. Been a UNIX user, Solaris, since the 70s so …

But one little wall remained, how to update from the latest LTS to Jaunty. Since the upgrades from prior upgrades had left some unwanted cruft, I decided a new install was best. So off I went, install new, keep home and reuse the users spaces. All was well until boot, then no login with the original users. So now what?

For once I decide to do a wipe and install, OS only. I had already put /home into another partition long ago, and have been using that.