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  • Hacker News
  • lol banana slice
    by pellmellism
  • "Oh gee, we'd definitely contribute to the open source driver if the repo name didn't have wacom in it." Yeah, uh huh.
    by edflsafoiewq
  • Besides Wacom, which tablets would you recommend as good quality?
    by abdullahkhalids
  • quite happy with huion on linux
    by Palomides
  • huion and Xp-Pen are pretty good. I've had both working well on linux computers as well.
    by fl4regun
  • I'm using a screen XP-Pen 24" Gen 2 on Arch+Wayland+KDE right now, it has been a much better experience than on Windows. The tablet worked flawlessly out of the box.

    However, there aren't any drivers for the included remote, and to calibrate the tablet itself you'll need to use OpenTabletDriver.

    by dtn
  • I updated from a screenless Wacom to an XP-Pen screen tablet. The tablet hardware itself is good (but also I moved up several product categories) for less money than the Wacom, but the experience getting it to work on Linux was reminiscent of trying to get wifi to work 15 years ago. I got there in the end, but it was not smooth.
    by Macha
  • This entire debacle just screams only use Wacom since they're the only ones making their hardware usable on Linux.
    by giancarlostoro
  • To me, this response shows that there is a great opportunity to convince them with things that will bring them good publicity. Things like "drivers" with their name, etc...
    by greatgib
  • All they have to do is publish a technical PDF with descriptors and stuff. That's it. Why not ask for that? They should see the benefit of their product "just working" with FOSS systems.
    by edg5000
  • One thing I miss from Windows is the tablet driver GUI. "cinnamon-settings wacom" doesn't let me map buttons to keys (important for software like FireAlpaca, which pans with the space key instead of supporting the middle mouse button like everybody else in the planet), and it also doesn't let me remap the tablet area to arbitrary screen coordinates. These are things I could do on Windows that I can't do through the GUI.

    I wrote a Python script to do it using xsetwacom, but I don't know if it would work for anybody else. I don't know if xsetwacom is only for wacom tablets, or if xsetwacom is only for X11 (I'm not on Wayland yet).

    by AlienRobot
  • xsetwacom does not work with Wayland. I doubt it ever will. Someone could probably build a similar tool that does work with Wayland.

    It's just another reason why Wayland isn't ready for daily use.

    by nosioptar
  • have you tried OpenTabletDriver?
    by Palomides
  • fork and rename the https://github.com/linuxwacom/wacom-hid-descriptors project, strip all wacom references. then share w/ the other tablet brands. problem solved.
    by fouc
  • Name it something really confusing like... Linuxtablet
    by __mharrison__
  • Good point. You don't even need to rename the upstream project. Just create a new project, and get the code there. Since it's open source, it will eventually make its way into the upstream libwacom as well.
    by toomim
  • It’s not like they collaborate on closed-source drivers either. If you have two different brands of tablets in your life then you get to deal with weird bugs from their drivers fighting. And if you’re on Windows they may fight with MS’ attempt at default drivers, too.
    by egypturnash
  • Feel free to reply to that email and let them know that your readers just discovered that instead of considering Wacom alternatives, they now believe that Wacom is the only brand they can use on Linux. It seems like the only valid response to that is to give money to the people who make their hardware usable on my software.
    by giancarlostoro
  • The venn diagram for Linux user and an artist is so small they probably wouldn’t bother.

    You can continue to use Wacom (only)

    by vachina
  • > Well, because it's true: many of the repositories are named after "Wacom". It's a historical legacy on GNU/Linux. It's also a decade-long debate that these repos should be renamed differently.

    Okay... let's rename them then? I know it's silly, but, well, we've went through the whole pointless `master` -> `main` branch rename in so many projects which was much more disruptive -- at least this one could serve a purpose?

    by kouteiheika
  • I find it interesting that you think this rename serves a purpose when the master to main rename does not.

    Neither change has any technical reason. The only reason why either name change was desired is because some contributors were upset by the names.

    by cortesoft
  • > Well, because it's true: many of the repositories are named after "Wacom". It's a historical legacy on GNU/Linux. It's also a decade-long debate that these repos should be renamed differently.

    If the project being named after Wacom is actively causing other companies to not contribute because they believe it’s a Wacom lead project and they’d be helping a competitor, I don’t understand why this is even a debate vs. just changing the name to something vendor neutral.

    by ndiddy
  • Devil's advocate: why should the project have to rename because some companies want them to? That just shifts the window slightly closer to corporate control, something that millions of people worldwide bemoan.
    by LocalH
  • Its most likely a debate because making such a major refactoring effort is actually a heavy work load, there are lots of bits and pieces to tie together and cut out and so on, and the folks capable of shepherding this change through all the parties out into the distro's are already underpaid/under-appreciated too much as it is ..

    Hopefully, this situation will get some traction with a bit of noise about it, and the distros can actually put some effort into handling the rename - or maybe a hero will arise in the midst of all the fuss, who just does the full renaming properly, tested, and so on - in a fashion that it simply can't be ignored.

    It's definitely an interesting thing to see this happening, anyway. Open Source has many, many troublesome facets when it comes to fairness and equity, but it also has a lot of bright, shining moments. The fact that the technical ability to build these drivers is already a given, and really the thing holding everything back is just the corporate brand obsession, is kind of hilarious though, also.

    Duh, you own your competitor by pushing your tech into their brand-space, dummies. This is an opportunity for brands-not-Wacom to eat Wacoms lunch in a delightfully technologically significant way - but, alas, the brand cult reared its maw, instead...

    by MomsAVoxell
  • Yes. It feels like the article was leading towards a reason for not doing that, but then suddenly it just ends.
    by otikik
  • And it's been a decade long argument? Sounds like someone is just emotionally attached to something not changing. Those are the hardest problems to solve.
    by burnte