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found my old tablet & had the idea of using it as a music player or something - its an x86 based thing that currently dual boots Android 4.4 and Windows 8.1, but honestly the Android side is so old as to be useless, can't install shit for apps on it
I found there is an Android 5 rom kicking around but is it even worth installing that? or should I just maybe try and repartition the whole thing and stick Windows 10 on it?

god I actually did some web dev on this thing on the Windows side at one point? on this pissy 10 inch atom machine with a pissy bluetooth keyboard and mouse attached? i could never do that today. i need my 2 big monitors. i have become weak and decadent

@lion I'd say go for straight Linux on it, drivers might be a pain in the ass if it originally had Windows 8.1.

@NekoEd tbh though according to what i've seen on forums Win 10 should work, they even shipped it on later units - apparently it only needs some Intel drivers

@lion Should work for another two years, until Win 10 is EOL. How much storage and RAM?

@NekoEd 2GB RAM 64GB storage (currently split with android so windows has 32)

@lion That's super tight, and 2GB if RAM will thrash that eMMC with swap....

@NekoEd well it's running 8.1 passably at the moment & I didn't think 10 was much heavier?

@lion I've run 10 on less, but it had to be the 32 bit version and it was good for maybe three Edge tabs. Double the RAM might get you 6? X3

@NekoEd oh maybe that's why it shipped with 32-bit 8.1 then? Didn't realise that made a difference

@lion Yeah, the 32 bit version is a little more compact and has reduced minimum requirements.

@lion@computerfairi.es Android x86 or its forks (I heard Bliss OS is very good) should run well on this hopefully.

@Rib oh interesting! didn't even know those existed 🤔🤔🤔
Suppose I might even be able to keep the dual boot setup with bliss and Windows or maybe I could just fuck off windows entirely

@Rib tbh the main thing keeping Windows in consideration for me now is the netflix factor, if i'm gonna use this as a media player i'd probably want to use mainstream streaming services which are notoriously picky about what OS & HW they support for their android apps so probably would be a no-go on some open source android fork on a weird old tablet... whereas in Windows I can just stream any of them in HD from a browser no problem

@lion@computerfairi.es ah yeah that's a thing, though I think there are workarounds for netflix?

but even on windows some services limit max resolution (disney+ doesn't even do 1080p) which sucks. just wish companies would at the very least allow full HD streaming on everything

@Rib couldn't find anything definite but it seems like it might be possible to get an older version of netflix working? but i'm not a fan of these kinds of workarounds tbh, theyre rarely very sustainable, at least in a browser on windows it'll work and be supported for the foreseeable future

it is a shitty situation overall though yeah, its all done for DRM reasons but pirates still manage to rip every show anyway, it just inconveniences legit users and ironically drives them to piracy

@lion@computerfairi.es yep, it sucks. don't understand how they can't see how they are working against themselves at this point.

@Rib standard case of out of touch execs i suppose. we have to Protect Our Shit, because, well, we just have to

and even if the streaming services themselves see sense, they still have to deal with the studios licensing content to them insisting on DRM as well

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