Linux.com

A few weeks ago, a friend and I came up with the idea to make a laptop from scratch. We've never been ones to take the easy way, so we also decided to give it a touch screen. Our problem is that we want the touchscreen completely integrated into the machine, not acting as a peripheral. the only way that we've seen to do that is to program its capabilities into the operating system itself, this is where Linux comes in. However, with my limited experience in programming, (I've only programmed robots in c and c++) I have absolutely no idea where to even begin deciding which Linux to use and, then, how to use it to fit my needs. if there is anyone who can give us advice it will be greatly appreciated.

When I got started playing with computers, a computer by definition consisted of a control unit, an arithmetic and logic unit, and memory. Everything else was a peripheral. So when you say that you don't want the touch screen to be a peripheral, you want it to be an integrate part of the computer, it doesn't make sense to me. A touch screen by nature is an I/O device. The display is output, and the touch membrane is the input. The display should work like any other display under Linux, and the touch membrane should have a driver that would work very much like a mouse. That should be all it takes.