Dukepad: A Raspberry Pi-based Plan for Building Your Own Tablet

In case you've missed it, the tiny $25/$35 Linux computer dubbed Raspberry Pi is remaining one of the biggest open source stories anywhere this year. It's attracted many tinkerers, and is now running several flavors of Linux. There is even now a supercomputer consisting of many Pi devices lashed together with Lego pieces.

Not many people have been discussing the Raspberry Pi as the guts of a tablet device, though--until now. The Dukepad is a set of plans for a make-it-yourself tablet computer based on the Raspberry Pi and JavaSE Embedded 8.

 The plans and instructions for building the DukePad are openly available, and there will soon be suppliers to make available pre-made kits that can be easily assembled. According to the wiki:

"The software on the DukePad uses Raspbian Linux as the operating system, and an OSGi-based JavaFX environment. Within this DukePad environment, apps are simple JavaFX OSGi Modules."

"The code is hosted in the OpenJFX repositories under apps/experiments/DukePad. We hope to see forks of this code (GitHub, BitBucket, whatever you like best) and lots of experimentation and improvement that can be shared. There are quick start instructions if needed."

Eben Upton and the Raspberry PI foundation apparently worked directly with the developers of the Dukepad to ensure that everything will work. 

Tablets are all the rage now, and many people enjoy tinkering with the Raspberry Pi, so the Dukepad may find a home with hobbyists and Linux fans.