Promoting Alternatives to the Windows Tablet Stack

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Instead of killing the tablet requirement, let's try to promote Free Software on it :).

I wrote up two emails: One for the VTLUUG and one for the SEC. I'm not very familiar with Macs in general, so I couldn't really think of anything to write to VTMUG. Perhaps Ashton can contribute something?

I can't speak for VTLUUG officially but we've discussed the topic some already and the general consensus was that mandating Microsoft is wrong. I don't remember there being much strong opposition to the hardware side, though. --"Nerox"

Anyway, I kept the VTLUUG email pretty short, as I'm sure they're already aware of the Tablet PC issue. On the other hand, I think the SEC email could definitely be more concise. I tried to keep it fairly general so as to appeal to as many types of engineers as possible (not just CS/CPE/EE). Feel free to tweak it if anyone thinks it can be improved.

In my opinion we will absolutely need support from the SEC if we can even hope of overturning this requirement. It's probably a good idea to focus the most on them since they are the most inclusive group and most likely hold the most members. Matt 07:24, 17 October 2007 (JST)

Would the Student Software Advisory Committee be an organization worth infiltrating? --"Nerox"

Contents

Letters

For the VTLUUG

Dear [VTLUUG Head],

We at the Free Culture club at Tech would like to ask the VTLUUG to support us in getting rid of the Tablet PC requirement for incoming freshmen engineering students.

As you may already know, the Engineering Department has had this requirement for quite some time. Unfortunately, Tablet PCs aren't exactly friendly with Linux, Mac OS, or pretty much any UNIX-like system.

If enough people raise this issue with the Engineering Department, then they might listen to what we have to say. So, we are asking the VTLUUG to support us. Please let us know your thoughts on this. Thanks!

Sincerely,

[Whoever is sending this]

For the SEC:

Dear [SEC Head],

The Free Culture club at VT, speaking on behalf of many engineering students, is concerned about the Engineering Department's Tablet PC requirement for incoming freshmen.

As engineering students, we take pride in our ability to tinker with and improve upon technology we use on an everyday basis. This includes our computers, and the software we run on them. In order for curious students to tinker with technology, it is essential for that technology to be built upon open standards.

Unfortunately, Tablet PCs are not built on open standards, and will only work with Microsoft's closed, proprietary software. As evidenced several times in their history (such as the current OOXML fiasco), Microsoft isn't exactly too willing to change their practices.

Many of us like to run open systems that encourage users to modify and improve upon, such as GNU/Linux or BSD. However, such systems cannot run on Tablet PCs because Tablet PCs' specifications are poorly documented, and are not built on open standards.

We feel it's a bad idea to require engineering students to purchase proprietary, closed technology pushed by a company with a long history of anti-competitive behavior. It definitely makes a negative impact on a school with such a reputable engineering program.

There are a couple of purported benefits that Tablet PCs have over regular Notebook PCs. The Engineering Department has a list of them here:

http://www.eng.vt.edu/academics/comp_tablet_info.php

However, there are several problems with these supposed benefits:

* Formulas and equations/diagramming - A Tablet PC will allow you to draw equations the way you do it naturally -- by hand. I mean, it's not like you could do that with paper and pencil. It's just not stylish. How can we pass our engineering classes if we don't keep up with the latest trends?

* Collaboration - Use your Tablet PC as a shared whitespace to trade ideas with friends...but only if they have their own Tablet PC running Microsoft (R) Windows (TM) Tablet PC Edition. Sharing proprietary-format files, they'll need the latest version of an entire suite of Microsoft (R) Office (TM) applications.

Vendor lock-in? Antitrust? Nah. If we want to share ideas, collaborate, and be open, then obviously, proprietary, secretive, and closed technology is the most effective way to do it.

* Typing - So regular Notebook PCs don't include keyboards anymore? I must have missed the memo.

* Handwriting recognition - Because handwriting recognition algorithms are clearly sophisticated enough to read your handwriting with reasonable accuracy. Oftentimes, even humans have trouble reading handwriting that's not their own. It's also important to mention that Tablet PCs can't just recognize any arbitrary handwriting. Furthermore, To take advantage of handwriting recognition features, the user must change their handwriting style to one readable by the software.

Granted, machine recognition of handwriting is an active area of research. As soon as better algorithms are developed, we can just implement them into our Tablet PCs ourselves, right? Ah, but since Microsoft keeps their technology under such tight wraps, the only option we have is to wait for them to implement it themselves. Discouraging students from improving their software? Clearly the mark of a good engineering school.

Of course, we can trust Microsoft to improve their handwriting software as fast as they can. They know they'll lose our business if they don't keep up. I mean, it's not like engineering students are required to buy these things if they plan on passing their classes or anything like that.

* Writing on slides without printing them out before class - OK, this one might actually be useful. But this is the only one.

We feel that the ability to take apart, tinker with, and build upon open technology _greatly_ outweighs the ability to write on slides without printing them. We would like the SEC to support us in getting VT's Engineering Department to get rid of the Tablet PC requirement. Please let us know about your thoughts on this. Thanks!

Sincerely,

[Whoever is sending this]

Fardan 13:57, 15 October 2007 (JST)Fardan



Below is another draft of Fardan's letter to the SEC. I tried to keep his ideas and the intention of his words. I did, however, spice up the word usage and try to keep it from sounding like we just hate Microsoft. That would just make us sound like a broken record. Here is my proposed draft.

For the SEC:

Dear [SEC Head],

The Free Culture club at VT, which represents a variety of engineering disciplines, is concerned about the Engineering Department's Tablet PC requirement for incoming freshmen.

As engineering students, we take pride in our ability to tinker with and to improve upon the technology we use. This includes our computers and the software we run on them. Our curriculum is even designed to teach us to be innovative problem solvers. The College’s requirement goes directly against the nature of engineering students and the skills that it seeks to develop. Curious future engineers would benefit from the knowledge and experience provided by technology that is built upon open standards.

Unfortunately, Tablet PCs are not based on open standards. They are inflexible in this area, only working with Microsoft's closed, proprietary software. Microsoft’s attempts to be more “open”, as evidenced recently by OOXML, shows they are not willing to change their practices.

In contrast, many of our members prefer to run open systems that encourage users to modify and improve upon them, such as GNU/Linux or Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). However, as afore mentioned, such systems cannot run on Tablet PCs. Additionally, Tablet PCs' specifications are poorly documented, which makes it difficult to even attempt using other operating systems.

Based on the evidence, we feel it is counterintuitive to require engineering students to purchase proprietary, closed technology pushed by a company with a long history of anti-competitive behavior. We believe it tarnishes the image of a school known for producing creative, competitive, problem solvers.

The Engineering Department, in its defense, has released a list of the benefits it sees in Tablet PCs. http://www.eng.vt.edu/academics/comp_tablet_info.php However, we find the following problems in their reasoning:

Writing on slides: Writing on slides without printing them out before class is a good and valid reason to recommend a Tablet PC. However, it assumes that the majority of students find this an effective form of note taking. Requiring every student to purchase a Tablet PC simply for this reason would be equivalent to telling students all notes must be written in cursive with a blue, ink pen. Additionally, it works directly against the popular belief in different learning styles to force this particular. Although it is beneficial, it should not be required on this reason alone.

Diagramming/Handwriting recognition: Handwriting recognition has indeed shown improvement in recent years. At the least, handwriting recognition still requires a willingness to go back and correct errors in the text. There are still those of us who do not have neat writing and may have no success with recognition. Although, error checking is time consuming and inconvenient, it is not impossible to overcome.

Machine recognition of handwriting is an active area of research and it would be a great benefit to students if we could implement them ourselves as better algorithms are developed. Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, lack of documentation and openness prevents us. We are currently forced to wait for Microsoft’s development instead of improving student’s development skills and experience. Again, this is not what the image of our College should be.

Formulas and equations: This benefit has a similar argument to that of “writing on slides.” A Tablet PC allows us to draw equations the way we naturally do -- by hand. Unfortunately, it is not as natural as writing with a pen or pencil. The tablet senses a single point as opposed to the rounder tip of a pencil or pen. Which means that as a person’s grip shifts while writing, it changes the angle of the pen producing virtual ink slightly off from where the pen actually touches the screen. This is made more difficult for those people who want to use different colored pens. A student moves the pen to press the button for a different color only to end up with something completely different, because no one naturally adjusts the angle of a pen to tap on something new.

Collaboration: Collaboration is made extremely easy through a Tablet PC but only if collaborating with others who are running Microsoft (R) Windows (TM) (XP, Vista, or Tablet PC) and OneNote 2007. In comparison to more open collaboration tool, such as wiki, this reason also falls short.

Typing: Regular Notebook PCs still include keyboards. The writing capability, if desired, can easily be added through a comparatively inexpensive USB graphics tablets. Additionally, transitioning from one to the other is not instantaneous; it takes time to adjust. Then, if it becomes locked up, as computers sometimes do, a student is stuck waiting unable to take any notes at all.

The benefits listed by the College of Engineering are somewhat valid, but overall do not seem to justify requiring every incoming freshman to purchase one. All of the above could be accomplished better or equally through other means.

We feel that the ability to dissect, experiment, and build upon open technology greatly outweighs the reasons presented. We would appreciate the SEC’s support in asking Virginia Tech’s Engineering Department to lift the Tablet PC requirement. We welcome your thoughts and hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely, [Whoever is sending this]

--Spuddy 08:44, 18 October 2007 (JST)

Conley's version:

Dear [SEC Head],

Free Culture at Virginia Tech, which, in part, represents a variety of engineering disciplines, is concerned about the Engineering Department's Tablet PC requirement for incoming freshmen.

As engineering students and technology enthusiasts, we take pride in both our and other's ability to tinker with and to improve upon the technology we use. This includes our computers and the software we run on them. Curious future engineers could benefit from the knowledge and experience of having the option to use an open platform.

Unfortunately, many components of Tablet PCs are not based on open standards. They are inflexible in this area, rarely working with an operating system other than Windows. While we wouldn't suggest taking away a student's choice to use Windows, we think it is a rash decision to take away a students choice of using another platform, such as MacOS, Linux, or BSD.

We feel it is counterintuitive to require engineering students to purchase restrictive technology. We believe that instead of improving, it tarnishes the image of a school known for producing creative, competitive, problem solvers. The benefits of Tablet PCs listed by the College of Engineering are valid, but overall, they do not seem to justify requiring every incoming freshman to purchase one. It's a fatal trade-off of choice and open standards for novelty and image.

We feel that the choice to use the variety of worthy platforms available outweighs the few benefits given by requiring all students to purchase one technology. We would appreciate the SEC’s support in asking Virginia Tech’s Engineering Department to lift the Tablet PC requirement. We welcome your thoughts and hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely, [Whoever is sending this]

General Information

SEC Mtg

Here are the dates for the SEC mtgs through the end of the semester.

Fifth General Assembly Meeting RAND/331 11/1/2007 5:00 PM 11/1/2007 6:00 PM
Sixth General Assembly Meeting RAND/331 11/15/2007 5:00 PM 11/15/2007 6:00 PM
Last General Assembly Meeting RAND/331 11/29/2007 5:00 PM 11/29/2007 6:00 PM

--Spuddy 22:55, 18 October 2007 (JST)

Some Notes from a 2011 Engineering Freshman

By "Nerox"

Tablets, Generally

  • It's very distracting to have the kids sitting in front of you playing flash games during class.
  • The tablets are nice for storing digital copies of the work students do by hand, but is it really useful to have archives of repetitive water tower homework problems?
  • Tablet keyboards are cramped and hard to use for effective typing. I believe their upgradability and expandability is significantly less than that of most laptops. The university does say they anticipate the requirements of the next few years in the minimum specifications they publish, however.
  • The only usage scenario where tablets really have an advantage is when the user is standing up without a podium. This campus is wonderfully supplied with things to sit in and on and although a lap generally suffices, there is a good deal furniture at this university upon which one can rest their laptop while seated comfortably.

OneNote

  • Jarnal is multi-platform and works (although I haven't tested the network collaboration tool). Tomboy, Xournal and BasKet are other FOSS note-taking applications.
  • Shared OneNote sessions are in no way dependent on tablet functionality. Normal laptops equipped with Windows and OneNote are perfectly capable of them. There is no protocol-compatible FOSS.
  • OneNote's "napkin math" is unsuited for engineering calculations. It cannot understand powers and is generally stupid.
  • OneNote's handwriting OCR is useless.
  • OneNote is incapable of adding the headers that we're supposed to have on every page of homework to pages other than the first one.
  • The vast majority of Computer Engineering and Computer Science can probably type faster than they can write, math without a numpad excepted.
  • OneNote doesn't run under wine. I presume it'll run in a VM.

Other Parts of Office

  • OpenOffice.org is generally a great, full-featured replacement.
  • I haven't gotten Novell's OpenDocument converter working. This means no .pptx for me.

Other Programs

  • LabVIEW is probably millions of times better than ALICE.
  • The university doesn't distribute LabVIEW for *NIX, although it's out there.
  • PDF Annotator (part of the Freshman Engineering Software Package) is an expensive ripoff of Jarnal. If you're going to pay money, you should at least get something good like Foxit Reader.
  • DyKnow is extremely invasive, although if the application-blocking it's capable of was actually put into effect, my first complaint would no longer hold. Just as a side not, it's possible to escape the full-screen teacher-to-student screencast mode with keyboard combinations. I imagine the professor looks at who is playing games every now and then and silently deducts their attendance/participation/professionalism grade.
  • DyKnow doesn't install under wine; it is reported to run in a VM; there is no protocol-compatible FOSS. I have no idea if there's a FOSS replacement.
  • I'm skeptical of how secure DyKnow is.
  • The current deployment of DyKnow is completely dependent on wireless working. On one of the first days of class, the access points were overloaded and I couldn't get a dhcp address and login to DyKnow for all of the class. The ethernet jacks in the lecture hall don't seem to be enabled.

Requirements in General

  • It makes more sense to require certain functionality or results but only support one platform than to require a certain platform.
  • They preach to us about ethics but when it comes to helping out a friend by giving them a copy of useful software, they make us sign our souls away.
  • One of the first actions you take as an engineer is to promise not to tinker with or even look under the hood of the software you'll be required to use throughout your introductory courses.
  • I've heard rumors that it could be an honor code violation to use a Mac (OMGWTFBBQ?! I sincerely hope that's FUD).

Some Notes from a 2010 Engineering student

  • DyKnow runs very well in a VM. I refused to install it on my machine for EngE 1104 last fall because it is spyware. To be able to access the class sessions, I installed it in a VM and ran it from that. I created a light version of XP Pro for it to run in using nLite. It's an easy to use tool to strip the bloat from XP (or Vista, using vLite). You really don't need the extra bloat to go from XP Pro to XP Tablet. I just typed my answers and name whenever required. *Do not* remove Microsoft IIS from your stripped version of XP because DyKnow needs it to run. DyKnow is a RAM hog, so I allocated 512 megs to the VM. It ran perfectly.
  • The Linux Wacom Project is awesome. My tablet (Fujitsu T4215) uses the stylus beautifully. I had to edit the xorg.conf file to get it to work after installing the drivers, see here. That solution worked fine for me even though I'm running Fedora Core 9 instead of Ubuntu.
  • (Fedora 9 x64, other distros unknown) When the laptop resumes from suspend-to-RAM, you can't see the screen at all. However, the computer is running and responsive - the screen just isn't bright at all. Put it into a pitch black room and you can faintly see this. I have not found out how to fix this, but there is a (crude) workaround. Hit ctrl + alt + backspace to restart X upon resuming. You will lose all unsaved work! Save everything and politely close your running programs before putting the laptop to sleep.
  • I haven't gotten OneNote to work nicely in Wine, but if/when I do, I'll share the knowledge.
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