Tablets are much like laptops in the respect they’re not meant to be taken apart. And while with most laptops you can upgrade the RAM and primary storage device (HDD or SSD), with a tablet it’s basically “what you get is what you get and have to live with”.

Where you can get creative with a tablet however is with the operating system. For a small while now (about 2 years), the ability has existed to custom build your own OS, provided there is a way to “root” it, or if the OEM is “open enough” to allow it.

And, of course, the OS is choice to do this with is Linux-based.

For example, a Motorola Xoom can be rooted and have Ubuntu installed on it. Yes, it goes waist-deep into nerdy territory in order to do it, but the point is it can be done.

If that sounds like too much of a hassle, ARCHOS tablets are much more open about installing alternative OSes and even allow for dual-booting. Pretty slick, eh?

The Zenithink C71 tablet, which is DIRT CHEAP (as in under $100), can run Android or you can run a custom image of Vivaldi Linux on it.

As to the question of whether you can DIY a tablet, the answer is yes on the software end of things.

Installing a custom OS on a tablet isn’t really that different than installing a Linux distribution on a PC or laptop. However you do have to get used to how an OS works on a tablet. It’s nothing that will take you weeks to learn, but it’s not something you can learn overnight either.

The best part of course is being able to install an OS and have it run how you want it to work. And that’s just cool.

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