I think it is a fascinating idea. I liked the earlier comment about PDF support. Then I don’t have to lug books around on my commute. I would be very interested in it as a consumer and a tester.

I’m certainly interested, though I’m skeptical of the end outcome. It would at minimum be an interesting exercise, certainly.

Put me down as interested. Skills are Python, C++, a little ruby, and some former experience in RTOS.

Very interested to help out here. I have a lot of experience on the protocol and product spec / product requirements side, but less so on the programming side.

9 years (and counting) working at Cisco, expertise in video systems, IT and marketing.

An RSS reader would be nice.

I want to have one! Im no programmer, but I can translate to Swedish if thats any help…

would like to help out as project manager (producer). my experience is on the software side but I’d love to get involved with hardware as well.
my other life: http://www.myfirstmac.com

I would love to help. I’m just getting into programming, but this would help me learn more. I am willing to help in this way or with documentation or anything else required.

Michael,

I would setup a project management site(a la SourceForge) but allow for schematics, cad files, pictures etc as well as software to be hosted as soon as possible to capture the current excitement.

For hardware it seems that the Nvidia Tegra line of processors would be great for this product. They are ARM-based but linux would have not problem with that. It is basically a system on a chip. It would allow for great video playback and probably would be able to play some OpenGL games. Just attach a usb keyboard to your Tablet and you have a really good laptop. Probably blow all these netbooks out of the water.

The biggest issue seems to be that Nvidia is purely focused on the Windows Mobile market. I wonder what it would take to get them to open it up.

This looks great! Ever the faithful skeptic, here’s the problems:

1. The price point cannot be met. Wish it could, but it can’t. Nor should it. I truly a number north of $200 but short of a grand would be possible, marketable, and profitable.
2. Fantastic response, but a blog, nor open source, does not a piece of hardware make. Software can be adjusted, rewritten, and improved. But once they start pouring the plastic molds, changes to hardware are not that easy. So, who is coordinating all of this help? And who is making the decisions that some ideas here are to be left in and others are to be left out. (There’s always a trade-off and a couple of ideas here - well they would guarantee that comment #1 was prophetic).
3. How come I can’t get passed the thought that TechCrunch has used this forum to test the water or fan the flames of possible users out there. . .for a product that is really coming out (and that is already going down a production line somewhere).
4. What the world needs is a good 5 cent cigar. What we want is a portable, affortdable, and user-friendly device that is built for web, entertainment, and communication, at a price point that makes it attractive and economical. (Why am I waiting before buying another laptop - can anyone say Vista)?

I’m in…..

How about naming it the Foxlet?

Arthur, you are a spoilsport. Also, if techcrunch is really testing the waters as you suggest in 3. then you’re contradicting your 1. argument (”impossible”). And why do you say that it “shouldn’t be possible”?

Anyhoo, wish I had skills to offer but I’d like to help anyway I can, Spanish translation or dummy-testing…

Have you considered the Flock browser instead of Firefox? It’s got great social networking integration and many firefox extensions work with it, too.

i’d love to help. user experience / ui & branding. let’s do it!

Let me make this simple:

Techcrunch Web Tablet + Ubuntu Mobile Internet Device (MID) Edition = Perfection

Ubuntu Mobile Internet Device (MID) Edition: http://www.ubuntu.com/products/mobile

Crap, you could just slap Xubuntu Linux on there it runs on practically nothing and you could milk more features out of it.

I would love to be involved in this. We are developing software for the education market and something like this would be extremely powerful in allowing rural and low-income student access to e-learning tools.

how about iTablet which is a large scale iPod Touch, runs all of the apps from the AppStore (some graphics processing to scale up the images), has wifi, bluetooth, sound, camera (with video this time), etc? The cost is the screen. 8GB iPod Touch is $299. Bigger screen but no other changes other than graphics chip for $499… all those wonderful apps, all that music, all that non-open Apple lock-in…

Of course you can buy a $300 laptop today too..

I’m in if you need me. My experiences are in architecture, graphic design, and furniture, and I’m pretty much a design junky, so I suppose if you need help with drafting, 3d-rendering (looks like you may have that covered), graphics, product design, or anything else that I have not yet thought of, I’d love to help.

No real skills but have played with computers for many years. The one thing I would really like to see added would be a card slot like a SD slot and the addition of a e-book reader like FBReader. This would allow the tablet to be useful when not on-line. At least I am not aware of any web based text reading sites. Otherwise I am quite interested in the tablet, If you want the input of a old user, sign me up! I can test it out just fine here! ;-)

I’d be interested in helping out. 5 years doing development and package porting for an embedded Linux company, I’m doing C/C++ development for embedded file systems on BSD these days.

I would love to help as well. Please let me know how I can do more.

I’m pretty new to the open source scene, but I love the idea and would love to help.

I’ve thought about thoroughly and came up with the idea as not replacing your computer but rather accompanying it. What if you created a dock for it when you are home at your desk you drop it in and it becomes and additional screen the works with the desktop you have. Allowing you to simply drag and drop certain files to take with you and expanding your desktop usage. presumably if the device was cheap enough you could market it as the alternative to a laptop, for the price of a laptop get a desktop with more power and a tablet screen to go with it. maybe allow for expandable memory incase someone wants to put a movie or something on it.

I’m pretty damn smart, so having me help on this project just makes sense.

In regards to screen technology it might be worthwhile to contact Pixel Qi (Mary Lou Jepson’s company. She was behind the development of the OLPC screen). The OLPC screen is affordable, sunlight readable (which is a huge benefit for me), and low power. The next gen screens they are working on might be ready in time for this product?

I love this style of product development, and I’d be happy to show my support financially for this product. Open, transparent, and a solution for the people, by the people. :)

Thought I saw somebody mention a wiki before, but I’d suggest why not throw up a wiki with the specifications for this tablet in it, and let people have at it - give the specs some time to develop, meet once every couple of weeks to look at what specs have developed, what is popular and what are points of contention. That way the development of the final specification can come directly from the community and remain open, while TechCrunchIT, as the administrators of the project, can guide it from the high level.

I have a varied software engineering background in C++, Java, C#, PHP, Javascript, Linux, Windows, Palm OS and also, like many others here, a few prototypes sketched up for nearly the same thing, so at the very least I’d like to be kept in the loop as to the development of this project.

I’ve also been doing crazy web stuff on mobile devices since wireless LAN & the mobile OmniSky internet service cards came out for the Palm Visor back in the 90’s, so I have some experience with trying to cram full web applications onto that platform.

Thanks for giving this project a shot - and good luck to the team!

SixD

I haven’t seen anyone mention linux MCE (http://www.linuxmce.org/) slim client capabilities…this device would be an incredible/cheap audio client and entertainment controller (even if it’s just controlling a more powerfull HD device). Another open source/touch screen development that would be worth investigating is the chumby. Those things are really stripped down but have some interesting applications…

Don’t allow it to become bloated. The need here is for a portable window into the web, Google Docs, etc. It doesn’t need to be an all-purpose media player, or a desktop replacement. It doesn’t need tons of storage, or OpenOffice. The two most important aspects of it, to me, are the browser and battery life. It should be pre-configured to do all those nasty web things, like Youtube, Java, etc. People want it to just work, without having to hack together a bunch of patches to get Flash working, etc.

we will help you customize it with great art from TechEngraver.com and Etchstar.com. We’ll be your in house customization solution, just as we are for other leading tech OEMs! amazing idea.

This seems like something thats long overdue. I would like to help out in anyway possible.

Would love to be involved in any way possible.

im in it as much as i Could assist, Would be great to offer localization. i could help in marketing aspects and in the development of the concept. This kind of an open source software and a hardware project could be great. We hope that this could become a success and hit the markets soon.

Do contact me.

Anyone have any good ‘open hardware’ experiences, or have even seen it in practice? How does it work? Is it just a wiki of hardware specs that constantly gets adjusted by hardware testers?

Hi,

I’m working for VIA Technologies, Inc. as a BDM. VIA is the perfect hardware platform for this project with products such as x86 CPU 500MHz 1W TDP max. As for LCD/Touchsceen technology, I’m sure you’re already know about http://www.pixelqi.com from the OLPC project.

Thanks,
Nathan.

Great idea … small, open source, inexpensive chips, programmable (Python? Ruby?), energy efficient, USB interface … this will make a great computer appliance

I have been wanting to do something like this myself, and have a concept design.

I would be interested in helping. You already know my skills, you bought InviteShare.com from me.

I have a wide open use case - clinical apps in healthcare. To be effective some level of centralised command & control will be required. I’d be happy to contribute spec and design along those lines.

An amazing idea! What we can offer is an online platform that allows people to openly collaborate on the design, funding and development of this project (see http://www.fossfactory.org).

Nik you can start by creating a project on FOSS Factory, lay down the basic specs, and the community will give feedback on the requirements, pool their funds to support it, and even develop the project. On our system the project could be broken down into subprojects (and sub-sub projects etc) with each project having a monetary reward assigned to it (and each project being able to accept feedback, requirement fine tuning, and even code submission).

FOSS Factory also has a GIT version control system on it (we made sure that it is secure and compatible with SVN), and a bug tracking system. It’s basically designed to facilitate open collaborations on projects such as this one, with a carefully tailored balance between the cathedral and the bazaar models. As you can see, it’s a whole development system, not just a wiki or a forum.

Please contact me if you would like to know more.

Abdullah Bakhach
Director of Business Development
FOSS Factory
abakhach@fossfactory.org

Errr aren’t Apple going to announce the release of the “Mac Touch” sometime soon?

I’d like to be a part of this. We have programmers, electronics guys, and security folks (no sense having a device like this that can get wiped out easily) that I can bring to bear on this project.

It would be great to add support for playing divx and stuff, a real portable dvd player.
This may be great for playing RTS’s or OpenTTD too, if multitouch support is hacked into them.

I’d be happy to translate to Dutch by the way.

I’d be happy to beta test! Lol. I’m not much of a programmer or anything but I will buy one when they come out for the public (or testers).

I would like to be part of it in whatever way I can. Open is the way to go.

I’m your non-techie end user, so I’m not much help at development. Might be useful as a beta tester, though. Also, I notice that nearly all commenters are men; a woman’s point of view at the testing end might be helpful.

Everything I can think of that I’d want in a device like this has been addressed by previous commenters.

Great idea, except it creates more dependency on media providers and more consumers than producers. Too many consumers don’t produce anything in the markets they are consuming. If you want the net neutrality movement to have any teeth, you’re going to have to have some of the movement be an alternative media. If there’s no competition (all media companies seem to be anti net neutrality) then there’s no force to all the protests. This device will bring more eyeballs to the alphabet media corporations. The very eyeballs they lost for doing a shoddy job as newspapers and tv media.

If you want net neutrality to continue to be relevant in a practical way, then this device must be convertible into a publishing platform. And the conversion should be easier than using Twitter. Otherwise, I can’t support it.

We need civil enterprise not more mobile gawking.

Imagine tablet aware GIMP! Or tablet aware UML IDEs!

Also consider Flock 2.0 which will contain Firefox 3.

We need to create a massive peer to peer culture in content creation not just downloading Britney videos. It is the lack of a peer to peer culture that allows media companies to ignore net neutrality.

There’s a many centuries old meme that says that if you do not produce anything just shut up and pay. We are treated as a second class because the world values the image of being active. Well let’s give them the real thing. The same prejudice is present in eminent domain cases. I remember back in the days of linkexchange.com when some self-righteous corporate lemming said that the Internet was built for business and not for us peasants.

So long live LOLcat loving peasants because the Internet is theirs as well, but let’s make a tool that’s not limited to push media, nor pull media, but also offers the same simplicity to individuals who produce media.

Oh wow! I would be very interested. I’m a User Interface and usability designer by trade so I could definately provide help on that area.
I’m also actually currently working similiar project of my own. (purely touch-screen based user interface for “big screens”)

http://www.notebookdesign.com
http://www.corient.com
http://www.iagroup.info

We can do corporate designs or private designs on the casing. Companies want this to promote brand. It will bring the cost down further per unit. We have presence in Asia, US and EMEA.

HQ in Saint Louis. Chris @ 314-578-4808

I just love it!. Call it the “CrunchPad”. Add a stylus and a simple drawing pgm for doodling. Be sure to include some SD or microSD slots for user storage expansion. I assume you’re thinking 802.11a, b, g but what about n? How about some pop out legs on the back so you can set it at an angle on your lap or desk? If possible, the screen should be glare resistant so you can read it outside too.

The idea looks good but see the fate of OPENOEM who tried to make an open computer http://www.innovationstage.com/openoem/ - Please dont do the mistakes they did.

The user interface is the key.. Hide everything from user and make to feel him that he is using some paper thin device. Its good to use OLPC display technology which is cheap…
Provide audio jack as well.

if you build it, we’ll turn it into an effective remote control - see our iPhone/iPod Touch product airremote at airremote.com

What an incredible response! Now TechCrunchIT has started, why stop here? We could do a similar appeal for an electric car and probably get a lot further than a bunch of heel dragging fuel and automotive companies! All we still hear (today on the BBC at the Motor Show) is that “fuel cell technology is completely new”. It is? Let’s get a second project up and running for alternative vehicles!

Great idea if it can be done. I need (its all about me) bluetooth, WiFi, 3G, VGA out, USB.

I would absolutly love to help out in any way with this project don’t know if you all would need but i could get some 3d models and actual to scale cad drawings of the design. also i was wondering what about using the ubuntu mid edition? has support already for a lot of the things your looking for !
http://www.ubuntu.com/products/mobile

Sounds like a great ebook/reading device!

I’m a graphic artist/designer. I would love to help in any way possible.

I’m 2d20+4 excited about this project!

Shoot me an email.

I’d love to help with this project. I’ve been using exclusively open-source software for years now; and this would be a great step in introducing more people to FOSS and open hardware when it’s released. I will soon be a freshman in college with a major in electrical engineering, I will help as much I can with that department if I am allowed.

I also have some pretty good skills in the GIMP if needed. ;)
Thanks to the guys at tech crunch for coming up with such an awesome idea.

I’ve been waiting for something like this tablet to come out for a long time, last month I finally gave up and just bought an EEE. The market needs something like this.

I hope I can help with kernel hacking, modifying drivers, or etc.

I am interested in working on the Web Tablet. I am a physicist, worked in microelectronics and had a startup on interfaces, so have experience with building this type of devices. Let me know

I would more than be happy to help with hardware/software for such a device….good idea!

I strongly agree that supporting ebooks/.pdf/.chm would be an excellent feature ,we could probably integrate support for chm/txt into Firefox. PDF support could be a little trickier.
I’m a software developer would be glad to help if i can.

Call it the “EyeBall”

After all, it should be nothing more than an eye on the web.

Help provide eyeballs to every web site who wants them and you will have industry support. Remember also to do nothing that will compete with others in hardware if you want universal approval…K.I.S.S.

Put no harddrive in it - instead put two USB ports on the FRONT FACE (facing up).

We can build it in one or more of our twelve notebook assembly plants right here in the US. Could cost less than $100 USD depending on the screen quality.

We would sell aprrox. 8 million units per year.

We have warranty sevice organizations in North America and EMEA.

chris.bylander@corient.com

I know nothing about hardware or software development, but I’d love to have one of these in my backpack. Just saw a rumor about Apple coming out with a table in October — want to bet it’s closer to $1,000 than $300? Open source hardware / software is the way to go. Brilliant idea!

Wow, like the others I can’t tell you how long I’ve been waiting for something like this. Unfortunately I’m not much of an engineer, programming or otherwise so all I can offer is my guaranteed purchase. Good luck!

Great idea! It’s about time!!! My background includes a stint at SGI with a lot of the guys who did the Tablet-PC after SGI couldn’t afford to continue the development of the SGI-Tablet. I’ll bet you didn’t know there was an SGI-Tablet. We called it the WebTab, and it fit almost every one of your design criterion. Do look out for all the MSFT patents in this space, SGI sold theirs to MSFT and there are a lot of them. Open Source or not, I would think that MSFT would defend itself.

I’d be happy to lend a hand when I’m not fooling around on other stuff. Too rusty to program, but I still know how to market stuff and what folks want.

Beau

I’ve read about half the comments but need to get to work at some point today. I’m definitely in, even as a die-hard Mac user. This could be — and based on the feedback probably needs to become over time — an actual product line. As you envision it, it’s a great tool for the underserved at both ends.

I definitely see it in education and for my 84-year-old mother, who claims not to be bothered by the fact that her years-old windows machine is up on the second floor with a 2-foot-deep CPU hanging out in her face, just as she’s pretty much giving up stairs. (Yet hasn’t checked email in 4 months. You tell me.)

At the same time, I’ve been envisioning a bigger version - called it a ‘cafeteria tray’ after the approximate screen dimensions - for the creatives of the world, since the early 90s. So there are two models right there.

As for my contributions: I haven’t seen anyone sign up in the classic DR/DM copy role that can turn words into sales.

I also design - so I do whole projects and campaigns - and have been for 30 years, but I make it my business to keep the work updated. Nothing is worse, imho, than a creative who’s stuck in a 20-year-old style.

One request — can we make our version of Firefox so you can fill out a form with one press of the Tab key? That feature alone keeps me wedded to Safari, when Firefox does other things better.

sounds like a pepperpad to me.

http://www.pepper.com/solutions/web-devices.html

I’d love to help.

I think the biggest thing that should be kept in mind during the software development phase is the portability of the software over to other platforms and hardware. It would be great to have a nice distro that could achieve this with few modifications to fit other touch devices from handhelds up to 30″ touchscreens!

Also, remote desktop is a must for me, so lets make sure that’s in there somewhere!

Can we call it the Drifter?

Economical, not shackled to a location, loves to travel and tough…

Or…the TC Epiphany…

Wanderer…would make the theme song easy to choose for a commercial…:)

I’m always interested in lending a hand, would love to be on the list, virtual coffee preparer and also not bad at testing and requirements gathering. Let me know if you need yet another helper.

Great idea and sounds like a fun project…not sure why some posters are so negative about the possibility of completing the project, who cares if it fails, but man, what if it takes off?!? How fun would that be!

Thanks!

One general opinion upfront, mainly because it seems to be counter to much of what people are saying in comments: don’t forget the KISS principle.

A lot of people are going to be pressuring you to add lots of gimmicks and gadgets to this, but I think they’re mostly a bad idea, at least for the initial reference implementation. If it’s going to be fully open-source, then variants versions can add features as necessary.

But initially? I’d say that it would be smartest to stay laser-focused on the core idea, which is a pure Webtop. That implies some hardware is important (good Wifi, preferably 802.11n; as good a battery as you can afford; a kick-ass screen), but most of it can and should be deferred. I honestly don’t see much *need* for Bluetooth, or even necessarily USB, for a true thin-client machine. Sure, they’re nice — but not necessary for the core use cases, and it’s important to get the core right first.

Good software will be essential, but most of the critical bits exist already — heck, much of it exists as Firefox add-ins. So picking and choosing the right bits will be the most important job. Again, resist the temptation to write custom software as much as possible. (And there *will* be pressure to do so.)

These projects have a way of spiraling in complexity, and that can be death to them. You’re going to have to fight hard to keep it simple, but it’ll greatly improve the project’s chances.

Good luck! I think it’s a great idea, whose time has come, and I’m likely to buy one…

Please include bluetooth. It’s perfect for this type of device.

It would let people use a real keyboard/mouse if they so desired.
It would let people listen to audio through wireless headphones.
It would allow people to use Skype with a wireless headset
It would allow for the use of a cell phone as an internet connection when no WiFi is available.
It would allow for file transfers to and from many devices.
It would allow for others to develop hardware addons (GPS?) without having to crack the case and risk breaking the device.

I’d definitely be down to help with documentation, usability testing, or anything else that you could use help with. I’m really excited about this, proving that a community can do something like this would be huge.
KBD

At first I laughed and waited to see what will happen, when I started to see the flood of responses.. well. i’m not laughing anymore. As you can imagine open hardware is much more problematic then open software and having some experience in directing product management of “boxes” i know what it takes, and it’s not easy.

But… as someone who started as auto-didactic programmer and in years moved from bit-level programming to my last position as VP Marketing & Products i’m starting to feel the adrenaline.. :)
So if you need a skeptic, customer experience biased :) , with “some” years hanging around product development, i’d love to contribute, requirement wise, business wise, beta-testing wise etc. (gee.. and i said no pro-bono anymore:) here I fall again :)

Please count me in. Also interested to sell it to geeks in our country. I’m running a Hardware computer store with distributors spread in entire country.

I’ve been looking for, hoping for, and needing a solution like this for years. Hopefully this idea will come to fruition and if my two-bits would amout to anything amid the flood of responses shoot me an e-mail and I’ll do what I can.

id like to help

let me know/include me in the site change. i can contribute along with the hundreds of others (programming), but either way id be interested to watch the progression.

A few things.

i think pdf is essential for this device to succeed. many documents on the web, as well as in corporate environs, are in the pdf format. I know acrobat is not open source, but the pdf spec is, open and there are many o/s readers available for linux.

The 4 gig ssd mentioned by the op is a bit overkill in my opinion and will add significantly to the price. , splashtop http://www.splashtop.com/, an instant - on system is already developed, and i believe needs less than 500mb for installation.
personally, i would rather have an extra 512 mb of ram (to guarantee performance) over an extra 2 or 3 gigs of space.

i would love to be a part of this project!

i’m interested in partitipating. pls notify me on proceedings

Wish I was useful to this project as anything but a consumer. I’ve read some of the naysayers commenting, and really, the reason alot of the things puported to compete against this concept are/were half baked, or seriously overpriced at best. If the iPhone was about 3x larger (and not 3x the price) I suspect that this blog would have never come to pass. Just a web browser that I can start up and use fast is all I need at home 98% of the time. An external keyboard (wireless) would be a nice option.

This sounds like a great project and I’d love to be involved. I have C/C++, Ruby, and web programming experience and have been looking to get more involved with the open source community. Let me know when the development site goes up.

Definitely like to help… It was something that I thought should exists for a while…

Can help with organizing/keeping track, and bridging gaps between expertise that seems to be gathering, got a lot of time, and a bit of experience in everything.

Accounting, marketing, web design, t-shirt printing, a bit of programing, promoting and a bias that every gadget should have touch screen features.

I think the key is to make sure the price is attainable, have great channels/chains for distribution and global local marketing, keep it at doing its minimal (focus on core hardware core software UI, simplicity, and battery life), and have the first commercial products out asap.

I have no programming experience, but I’d be happy to help in any way I can. =]

Make sure you make it easy for us to mod it. Add in an extra gig of ram, etc.
and Gimp/Inkscape would be missed. It is a tablet after all. (;

I am a hardware/software consultant, so I can be of some assistance with the build. I would like to help with the getting the system specs finalized and then help look for parts for the build.

fantastic idea. i’m very interested. if you plan on adding additional languages to this great little machine, please do contact me, i’d be delighted to help with the German translation.

I have a lot of experience documenting embedded Linux devices and would be pleased to be a part of the project. Please keep me in mind.

I would love to help in any way I can. I have experience with Java, J#, and C#.

I’m in for helping however I can. I can do web software development, hardware testing, general nerding… whatever I can to be a part of this one.

Unfortunately i doubt i’d be able to lend a hand in this.
Regarding Brian’s comment (#382), I think including Aviary (http://a.viary.com/) somehow would be pretty nice.

Good luck with this fellas! I’d love to see this come into fruition!

Im a programmer and id like to help too, I have experience in xul, and think it would be a good idea to create the whole interface in xul, which also allows an easy interface with firefox

I would definetely go for the stunning XO2 looks. A wifi tablet plus simple and plain agenda/notebook/e-reader, this thing would be hot and be the next Moleskine! And the output could help to make the OLPC v2 real.

I’d hope it’d have WebKit on it so we could have the pretty web instead of the plain and boring web you get with Firefox dragging their feet to adopt CSS3.

You sure would sell more if you had the ‘pretty web’ as a selling point with clean text rendering.

Another key point is the text rendering engine. If this isn’t perfect it’s gonna be a pretty looking paperweight. ATSUI grayscale is top of the line here for preventing eye fatigue and reducing eye-strain related injuries. Freetype is slowly catching up too.

And yes, PDF reader. For the comic book fans. CBR, CAR, and CBZ can be converted to lossless compressed PDFs. For portability better anyway.

yes! i’d love to help with the software…

-bowerbird

I’d like to contribute. My expertise is towards UI and Accessibility. In particular: color design. Not color design as in colors matching your personality, yada, yada. But color design as in helping to structure information. As in jet cockpits, architecture or UI design.

Firefox 3? Brrrrrrr.

WebKit is light years ahead.

Ask Aza Raskin, they clearly copied much from Safari.

But as Picasso himself said, bad artists copy, great artists steal.

Understand that Firefox will soon be the new IE.

We need to be encouraging a fractured competitive marketplace for browsers. Not another African dictatorship where it’s 50% for the Hutus and 50% for the Tutsis. Exactly what we don’t want is a Firefox vs IE.

What we want is many great browsers.

Proposing to name such an ingenious idea as the Firefox Tablet is firstly unimaginative, and secondly dangerous.

Don’t be fooled by “not for profit”. There’s big bucks going down. It’s the Mozilla Corporation after all.

In any event, WebKit is, from all points of view, superior.

Surely TechCrunch is hip to this?

I’m in for Firefox plugins and web programming

Considering the number of people who are interested in working on it software wise, It might be a good idea once the hardware has been hacked out to offer first run of the hardware with nothing on it as a dev-kit for the 200-300 dollars, some people would want to participate in making it web savvy, others like myself would be more interested in other apps. Which could be collected and offered via download. I have been wanting a piece of hardware exactly like this, for both web surfing and as a interface to my desktop systems…

What a great Idea !!!!, I’d love to use one. Please keep me posted