Praxis - Part I

I'm hoping that it's going to work like this:

Firstly, I'll get the Mac OS running on a standard PC. I've got access to a couple of recent-ish (18 month or younger) laptops which should take OS X, even if not every device or peripheral works correctly. This should allow me to get the hang of cajoling the system to run on foreign hardware.

Next comes the part where I load OS X onto a Tablet PC. Now, the most import bit of kit which will need to be supported at this stage is the digitiser. From what I've been able to discover, most of the Tablet PCs available at the moment simply have a Wacom-compatible screen connecting into the system just like any other peripheral. Fingers crossed that all it will take are the appropriate drivers and away we go. Success.

In case it doesn't quite work like this, I can take heart in the fact that there are already various Linux distributions for Tablet PCs out there. I've no idea exactly how good their hardware support is, but I'm willing to bet that they have working digitiser drivers I can steal study steal and then jury-rig into OS X. (I mean, they must have working digitiser drivers, right? They wouldn't be Tablet PC distributions otherwise, would they? Unless they're just standard distributions without keyboard drivers which display pithy "So what are you going to do now, eh?" messages upon booting.)

Anyway, sounds easy, doesn't it? There are a few complications, of course. Like the fact that I don't actually own - or otherwise have access to - a Tablet PC. Still, where other people may see a gaping great problem, I see the opportunity for loads of blog entries where I prevaricate over which Tablet to buy.

Stay tuned.