Wacom Bamboo and Ubuntu

Last year I invested in ten Wacom Bamboo Fun drawing tablets for the ICT classroom and with the recent upgrade to Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid have been stoked to find they are now plug ‘n play and work really well. The only issue noted so far is the eraser nib not working but so far students have not noticed as they tend to use the eraser tool in GIMP. Maybe if I don’t raise it no one will notice until it’s fixed … Gimp, Inkscape and Blender all work really well with a drawing tablet and the tablets have taken a somewhat higher status than the poor old mouse in class with students requesting them.

It is great to see the increase in hardware support for Linux, especially for schools who have invested in hardware but may be looking to open source software / operating systems. It has been interesting upgrading the machines this year and noting that Ubuntu has taken position as the primary operating system in students’ minds as well as mine.