i'm seriously considering permanently abandoning laptops in favor of tablets. i spent a day working on my wife's tablet today and it was fine enough for when you're on the go that the small screen isn't too much of an issue. plus, you get an extended battery life, no noise, more comfort carrying it around, and the best of all, for much less money
the biggest downside is that, since tablets are technically embedded devices, they're much more locked up and you basically have no access to the system with the stock rom
so im looking for a cheap tablet ($100-$200), around 10 inches, that i can easily (or at least reliably) install linux to. any recommendations?
FWIW I do use a PineTab2 on a daily basis and... it works.
I can warmly recommended it but some caveats :
WiFi didn't work for a while, it's good now though (mostly stable, AFAICT no instability for me)
BT still does not work (not ideal if you need a mouse)
USB-C is a single port for charging, single port for devices, iirc usb-C hubs don't work, only usb-C to A single converters
it's... not fast, so if your workflow is a bit of Web browser or a text editor great, if it's Blender or Gimp or anything that can be a bit demanding, it might test your patience
Overall while keeping such limitations in mind, still recommended! (if you can get it shipped somehow)
honestly that wouldn't be reliable enough for me to daily drive at work, but i'm definitely getting one to play with once i have a little money to throw away
Depending on your country you can use a remailer. I used to use one when I lived in the middle east and couldn't order from the US. I has a bunch of addresses worldwide you can use to order and they aggregate and forward the packages.
I used shop and ship but there wasn't much choice in the UAE. It belonged to Aramex at the time which was a respected UPS like in the region. It was a while back. I can't speak for what they are worth now and how they work in places where Aramex isn't as well implanted.