Its very hard to beat the laptop form factor for productivity, but i wish there was more laptops out there with all the ports and hardware features i would like. too bad that some of them are only really available in obscure cyberdecks
I had one of the original netbooks (Asus EEEPC) back in the mid 2000s and I absolutely loved that thing. It was really great for bopping around college and travelling and such and had a killer battery life of like 8 or 10 hours or something like that. I used to run Win 7 dual booted with Ubuntu
Same had a little acer mini laptop in early 2000s I used it for notes, office apps, etc during college and between the battery life and how much more portable it was than the giant laptop I had at the time it was great, it ran BSD without any fuss too.
There’s some talk somewhere else yesterday about how PC/laptop sales are tanking. It’s mostly because people don’t want “AI” computer.
Out of all the things in the past 20 years I miss - it was my netbook. It was amazing in college for me too.
Some say tablets killed the netbook, but there have been so many failed tablets that are not “iPad.” It’s a real gap in form factor and need
I don’t really see the point in low powered small devices like this, when something like an iPad/Galaxy Tab/eInk tablet is far better suited to the typical tasks you’d use them for.
I fucking hate touch screens personally, and will always prefer a good physical keyboard. Don’t like mobile OSs either
Keyboards exist and are widely supported for them.
I said a good keyboard. Plus the OSs are garbage
There are many good keyboards for iPads and Android tablets, especially since they support Bluetooth.
How are the OS’s garbage for reading and writing?
The devices you listed are either locked down, or are low powered devices themselves. None of them have a keyboard which is essential for linux.
Being “locked down” is irrelevant for a device used to read and write on. All those devices are also significantly more powerful than this thing.
They all also have keyboard attachments readily available across all sizes and prices.
Linux isn’t at all necessary for the use cases the author talks about. Windows would be massively overkill.
we don’t do things because we need to. we do things because we can.
playing doom on a iPod or Zune is completely awful. so why does it exist? because someone willed it into existence. why? because they could.
Not really applicable here though. Can you use a terrible keyboard on an 8" screen? Absolutely. Can you use a much better keyboard on a much better screen the same size or smaller/bigger on preference by using a more common device? Also yes.
you’re looking at one aspect in a negative light.
on the flip side to your argument, maybe op travels by train 8 hours a day (4 there 4 back) and they only have one of those tiny little trays as a desk. I’d rather do something unusually instead of doing nothing boringly.
besides, wth have you done that makes your shitty opinion valid in this context?
I wrote a 16 page term paper on a Note 1 on a train while going back and forth to school. I also wrote some crappy android apps on the same phone for school. all on a crappy bluetooth keyboard and a 5.3inch screen. I think that gives me some idea of why such a thing exists.
want to know why I did it?
because:
- I could and so I did
- I had to because I was broke af in college and didn’t have a device at home that could do half the shit my phone could
- I had the time on the train so why not use it
so, to put it bluntly, I think it’s pretty fucking applicable here.
You have COMPLETELY misread my comments and missed the point.
My point was that there are plenty of other better devices suited to these tasks than a little obscure laptop with a crappy keyboard, such as an iPad or Android tablet or eink tablet, or even a phone. My argument wasn’t “hurr durr doing nothing would be better”.
My opinion is “valid in this context” because I’ve spent countless hours RDPd in to various machines and servers in trains, buses , passenger seats of cars, on the side of the road,etc fixing issues and making changes that saved literal millions of dollars at a time, and the last thing I’ve wanted in those situations was a worse device to do it on simply because it’s “different”.
Mobile Apps really are really lacking in terms of usability. There really is a use case for a real laptop experience
For reading and writing like the OP talks about?
Yes - I was surprised recently how useless the text selection and editing features on Android are. I had to edit a bigger document (like 70 pages) where I had to move some paragraphs, delete some and so on. No problem on a desktop even on a smaller screen, but Android was surprisingly unusable
I used to travel a lot and didn’t need a full sized laptop but did need something more powerful than a phone, this would have been perfect. I might get one anyways for transferring files on the go from my cameras.
It arguable it’s not more powerful than a phone, but the keyboard would certainly be useful.
Phones are capable of a lot, but even something basic like a network ping is buried and they prefer you to install some crappy app with adverts and in app purchases, rather than let you use the PC in your pocket.
but even something basic like a network ping is buried
Termux on Android solves a lot of that. But the touchscreen keyboard is definitely a tricky issue.
You all know what would be the most awesome thing for 90% of people? Fully developed Linux Phones + Lapdocks.
- Just one device you carry all the time anyway
- Super powerful phones make more sense
- All data in one place without all sync stuff
- Battery for daaays when docked
- 2 displays
- Super portable setup
Samsung screwed it up with Dex and other companies didn’t want to create reasons not to buy more. Luckily devs working on projects like aftermarketOS do not give a fart about such things, and what’s currently possible and being worked on is really promising.
Imagine all you need for general computing and light gaming / editing on the go on any display or TV you come across would be a USB-C dock and perhaps a small keyboard & mouse combo. I want that future.
Samsung screwed it up with Dex
What do you mean by this? Dex is pretty awesome.
