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DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

clockworkpi.com

41–50 of 171 posts

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#42
For everybody wondering what this is:

  DevTerm is a retro-entertainment terminal. Powerful hardware allows you to smoothly relive the history of various famous video games, software, and even vintage systems. DevTerm provides you with the latest open-source OS, rich applications, and development tools, from Web browsers, multimedia APPs to many indie-game engines.

  One more thing, just like LEGO, Gundam, Tamiya, the unique unboxing experience will be as exciting as many assembled toys.
As many have noticed, it is quite expensive and unergonomic. Their selling point is entertainment, nostalgia and cyberpunk feel, not really a useful tool. Quite cool if you are into that.

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#44
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally. A portable KVM/crash cart could be useful.

take a look at NexDock - laptop form factor, without the innards. just a keyboard, trackpad, screen, and battery waiting to connect to a phone, server rack, pi, or what have you.

I second this, have one of the Touch models - the build quality is great. Yes it works with my Samsung on which I have Ubuntu via VNC running on the phone. But also and more useful for me is it has HDMI in and USB out for keyboard and mouse, works perfectly for when you need a kvm setup. did I say the build quality is great?...

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#46
OT: I fell into the rabbit hole of designing hardware (something like this). Just don't do it, it's super fun but it doesn't pay off: every SoC is different and you start with every SoC from scratch and waste tons of time. Prototyping is slow, you need min 2 weeks for every iteration (for smaller endeavors) and the worst, 98% of hardware-based business models are weak and don't provide any lock-in.

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#47
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would buy something like this if it had HDMI and VGA in , and could let me use as a portable console to plug into machines.

So much this. I want a display, a VGA in, a keyboard and something that is capable of running a terminal and a switch for VGA in and the built-in Raspberry/Odroid/whatever. I would pay anything up to $500-600. Found nothing so far. Edit: forgot RJ45.

I mean this thing has plenty of room in the case and should be compatible with TinyPilot: https://mtlynch.io/tinypilot/

It's not a turn-key solution, but it's not that far off.

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#48

The flat design would seem to make this even less ergonomic than a laptop (an already low bar). Is this meant to be placed on a desk? The user would basically have to hang their head down to look at the display, which is just in front of their fingers. There is no possible way to maintain a healthy posture without an external display. Otherwise, the retro hardware aesthetic is cool. Reminds me a bit of the early brie…

> There is no possible way to maintain a healthy posture without an external display.

I know a physical therapist who would strongly disagree with this; in fact he explicitly recommends to use a laptop for ergonomic reasons unless you can achieve a proper, ergonomic setup with an external screen. The reason being that if used properly(laptop far back so you can rest the whole forearms and elbows on the table) the angles and positioning are supposed to be pretty good.

I'm not an expert in this area myself, but some of my problems were alleviated by following his advice and he only uses a laptop himself, so I believe him on that one.

That said you're right in that this flat design without a foldable screen is not exactly made for long work hours. I'd say for a session on the go with the device sitting on the lap it could be worse, though at least a detachable/external keyboard would help a lot.

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#49
If you like this you may like the cyberdeck subreddit. It's mostly homebrew computer cases (often using Raspberry Pi's) with various displays, keyboards, radios, etc., intended to look futuristic/cyberpunk.

https://old.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/top/?sort=top&t=year

Re: DevTerm - An Open Source Portable Terminal for Every Dev

#50
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it looks like a nice tool if you take it to debug on-site devices.

I would buy something like this if it had HDMI and VGA in , and could let me use as a portable console to plug into machines.

You can order a USB HDMI capture dongle for around USD 10 on AliExpress, e.g., from AIXXCO. It's not perfect but it should suffice to setup or debug a headless system. TinyPilot uses such a dongle for server KVM purposes.
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