Second tablet achieved...

The post office reattempted delivery today, so I didn't have to worry about going in to pick it up. That means I now have a Fujitsu stylistic 3500, ready for fiddling.

It's got Windows 2000 Pro and PenX installed, but on a Celeron 500 that's going to be a bit clunky. So...

Step 1: Image the disk so I don't lose the install that's there.
Step 2: Set up a floppy with Smart BootManager
Step 3: Install Ubuntu Linux (alternate). I'm waffling on this, though. It might be a good choice to go with Xubuntu, as it's system requirements are a bit lighter.
Step 4: Install fpit and configure it for the Stylistic 3500 digitizer.
Step 5: Try out various linux tablet utilities
Step 6: Find and try out some slide-show and media player utilities.

One less worry

Well.

I found a site where I could download all the Stylistic 3500 drivers (including the pen software), so I'm far less worried about losing the existing Win2k Pro install.

Very convenient.

Of course, I'll also have to dig up an old Windows 2000 Pro install disk and serial number.

It's still a nice safety net.

So much for that...

The linux install is going to have to wait. I'm experiencing a bit of wonkiness with the CD-ROM drive that came with the tablet (as in it's recognized by the OS, but won't mount any disks and isn't recognized by Smart Boot Manager) and I've got some issues with the discs I made from the .iso images in the first place.

On the other hand, it's working under Windows 2000 and I just confirmed that I can use Picasa as my slideshow software on the machine. I've spent the last two hours loading patches (no big surprise, and I'm not done yet) and getting ready to load Windows Defender (I think it runs under Win2k) and Symantec AV 9 to get the machine a bit more beefed up. It'll make a reasonable digital photo frame as-is.

Probably still worth investing in a few more "bare" tablets for more photo frames, whether or not I get back to trying out linux on it.

...and on that note...

There's nothing like working with Windows 2000 Professional to remind us how much better a version makes. XP's management/configuration interface is so much nicer than 2000's.

It's still not enough to get me to want to go Vista, though.