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A small notebook for a system administrator

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Re: A small notebook for a system administrator

#261

Post by bigbugbag »

Redoubts wrote: post #230
keepper wrote: post #186

This is SUCH a niche system, that I don't understand why carrying adapter is a bad thing. There are already laptops that kinda fit his keyboard/pointer/size requirements. - His "video subsystem" idea already has a solution for many years. KVM2USB. https://www.epiphan.com/products/kvm2usb-3-0/ - His "let me turn this into a boot device" also has a solution. Many virtual cd rom devices exist, for example https://www.am…

Yeah, this guy already has a bag of dongles anyways. I'd just carry a 12" MacBook at that point.

I would not carry a macbook, too expensive, significant chance of being biten by their history a defective design[1], very difficult to upgrade or repair, etc.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUaJ8pDlxi8

Re: A small notebook for a system administrator

#262

Post by bigbugbag »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #24

Well now. I'd probably buy one for novelty if the price wasn't absurd. Bonus points for trackpoint. More bonus points for the USB in power supply brick. I do wish that was standard rather than usually one "power" USB port in the laptop. Lots of interesting ideas, many of which simply don't seem that useful any more. Having to carry around a bag of gender changers, PS2 USB and all the rest is thankfully becoming rarer…

Sorry but the trackpoint is probably gonna be dropped from this design. This is thing is heavily patented and costs a fortune that makes it unrealistic to add to a niche market product.

This is learned from experience by the team who designed the openpandora.

Re: A small notebook for a system administrator

#263

Post by bigbugbag »

rwmj wrote: post #156

I submitted this link for the new Pinebook Pro which was released a couple of days ago. It didn't get much traction but here goes: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19038420 It doesn't have the crazy keyboard or "sunshade", but it's fairly similar in other ways and only costs $199 so I guess you have money left over to drill extra holes for indicators and extra external ports.

I own several pine64 and they're not delivering on the promises and expectations. This is why I'm staying far away from the pinebook pro.

Also imho the pinebook pro is crippled by a lack of ram, arm cpu (lack of support from major OS), lack of upgrability, etc. it's more in line with a olpc laptop than the sysadmin notebook presented here.

Re: A small notebook for a system administrator

#264

Post by tluyben2 »

bigbugbag wrote: post #260
tluyben2 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, look at the Gemini or the Pocket (2). Niche systems which are apparently worth making.

look at the pyra: https://pyra-handheld.com/

Yep I bave the Pandora snd paid for the Pyra as well. Lovely things.

Re: A small notebook for a system administrator

#265

Post by SamReidHughes »

bigbugbag wrote: post #262
NeedMoreTea wrote: post #24

Well now. I'd probably buy one for novelty if the price wasn't absurd. Bonus points for trackpoint. More bonus points for the USB in power supply brick. I do wish that was standard rather than usually one "power" USB port in the laptop. Lots of interesting ideas, many of which simply don't seem that useful any more. Having to carry around a bag of gender changers, PS2 USB and all the rest is thankfully becoming rarer…

Sorry but the trackpoint is probably gonna be dropped from this design. This is thing is heavily patented and costs a fortune that makes it unrealistic to add to a niche market product. This is learned from experience by the team who designed the openpandora.

Patents have expired since then, and a trackpoint in some form is now viable.

Re: A small notebook for a system administrator

#266

Post by gglitch »

black-tea wrote: post #28
fuball63 wrote: post #26

I recently found my old netbook while going through some stuff. The netbook trend was short lived, but I really like this machine (Acer Aspire One ZG5). Ethernet and card ports, plenty of USBs. And it has VGA, which for some reason I still have more use for than HDMI. They keyboard and mouse were better than my current laptop, a Lenovo Yoga 2 that I can't seem to get the hang of. And it has an Atom processor and real…

I still have a Dell Mini 9. Everything still works apart from the battery which doesn't last long. I recently built a very minimal Gentoo on there and it's very quick. I use it as a coffee table computer in my living room.

I got the Dell Mini 10v and I think it's still my favorite machine of all time. I've dj'ed several weddings with it, using mocp. It was the only machine I used in grad school. That was a truly righteous machine.

Re: A small notebook for a system administrator

#267

Post by taude »

0xCMP wrote: post #145
ubermonkey wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm super tempted by the Brydge, but I already have a Logitech Slim Folio that's almost as good, but also provides all-around protection. Unfortunately, it's not backlit, which is something I'd really enjoy, but since the SF is so good I can't see dumping it to switch to the Brydge. I also love to use it as a stand for reading at lunch or whatever, which is nice. (ZOMG native emacs on iOS would be KILLER.)

I bought both. The Brydge keyboards always had quality issues with wobbly keys and such. You have to keep sending it back until you get one that's acceptable. I prefer the Slim Folio for everything except it can't do the clam shell mode.

This is true. I bought my Brydge keyboard at Microcenter and had to look through a couple packages to get one that had even keys.

Re: A small notebook for a system administrator

#268

Post by belenos46 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #50
hasperdi wrote: post #47

If you want something that you can buy now, or soon... here are some options: - GPD Micro https://liliputing.com/2019/01/first-look-gpd-micro-pc-handh... - GPD Pocket 2 Mini https://liliputing.com/2018/12/gpd-launches-a-cheaper-pocket... - Clones / look alike of the GPD Pocket

Whatever happened to the 'netbook' form factor? That just seemed to disappear overnight.

Microsoft and Intel happened to them.

For example: https://www.pcworld.com/article/169919/5_netbooks_microsoft_...

Re: A small notebook for a system administrator

#269

Post by ubermonkey »

raihansaputra wrote: post #149
ubermonkey wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm super tempted by the Brydge, but I already have a Logitech Slim Folio that's almost as good, but also provides all-around protection. Unfortunately, it's not backlit, which is something I'd really enjoy, but since the SF is so good I can't see dumping it to switch to the Brydge. I also love to use it as a stand for reading at lunch or whatever, which is nice. (ZOMG native emacs on iOS would be KILLER.)

Have you tried iSH?

I'm all about Blink, actually.

Re: A small notebook for a system administrator

#270

Post by jachee »

hinkley wrote: post #213
Arnt wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of us (I assume OP is one of them) think that since your screen won't be large anyway, there is little point to having a screen bigger than your preferred keyboard size. And since your battery won't be large enough to support compiling LLVM in reasonable time anyway, it's better to just get used to do CPU-heavy stuff by ssh-ing to a rackmount somewhere use the laptop for terminal-ish tasks.

But whose preferred keyboard size is this design? I think the old Fujitsu Lifebooks with the ~16:9 screen size and the nearly full sized keys is probably about the size you want on one of these things.

If I'm standing in front of a rack, plugged into another box—which is the primary purpose of this little guy—I'm gonna be holding it with one hand and typing with the other.

In that scenario, I'd rather have a keyboard of this size than a full-size one.

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