On Mon, 2005-05-09 at 11:23 -0500, Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom wrote:
> I tried doing some photo editing this weekend, and got really frustrated by
> my crappy old trackball (6 years old and a bit worn) when trying to do fine
> graphics work.  
> 
> I've wanted to get a graphics tablet (pen tablet) for a while. Any
> suggestions for a good but not excessively expensive model? This isn't
> something I'll use on a regular basis, so using a small tablet shouldn't be
> too problematic.
> 
> Wacom used to be *the* brand to go with. Are they still the ones to use; or
> is there a competitor now who's just as good and easy to use with Linux?
> 
> Is installing one of these tablets just as easy as plugging in the USB cable
> and letting the kernel auto-detect the right driver and load it? 

My wife was given an old serial 12x12in Wacom Intuos by someone who
moved to a Mac and can't use it anymore. Just had to plug it in to a
serial port and add some stuff to xorg.conf/XF86Conf. Works greatr but
there doesn't seem to be support out of the box for function keys and
switching mouse/tablet mode like the windows drivers can.

Most Wacom's seem to be supported these days. Including USB.

There's also a series of tablets from Aiptek, and widely OEM-ed, with
drivers available:

http://aiptektablet.sourceforge.net/

However these tablets are cheapass, flimsy, and require a bulky AAA
battery in the pen/mouse. Unlike Wacoms. I also have one of these.
There's an odd quirk using the mouse it comes with. If you don't hold it
perfectly straight up and down, when you click, the cursor jumps away
about 20 pixels. Really really annoying. I'd avoid these.

Sadly, the drivers for the Aiptek now seem to have a nice GUI tool to
configure it, whereas the Wacom doesn't seem to have one. Bleh.

If you want to save some cash, I'd look around for an old serial Wacom.
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