Half out of curiosity and half out of real interest I’d like to know what is the smallest (portable) device with a reasonable quality keyboard that could run an appropriate Linux distro and emacs and people have tested for actual long-term usability.

I’m looking at UMPCs and various 7-inch mini laptops you see on eBay.

Thanks!

  • dejlo@alien.topBEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    It would require more than a little work, but I’d be willing to bet that it’s possible to get it to run on a microcontroller with some external RAM and an SD card attached to it. The work comes from the fact that you won’t really have a full OS in the sense that you’d prefer.

  • Hamilton950B@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I bought one of those 7 inch mini laptops on Ali Express. I’m a touch typist, and I can’t touch type on its keyboard, but I can type pretty fast while looking at the keyboard. Some of the keys are in unusual places, those could be remapped if you have more ambition than me. I find it perfectly adequate for emacs, web browsing, email, even gimp and libreoffice on the road. I wouldn’t want to write more than a page or two on that keyboard.

    • cazzipropri@alien.topOPBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Honestly this was the device that was looking the most attractive to me so far, and your review of the keyboard deflated my excitement…

  • MitchellMarquez42@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Not sure if Bryan Lunduke’s old videos are still up on YouTube or if he pay walled them, but he used to talk about these things a lot. Small Linux handhelds with physical keyboard.

    Of course, “comfortably” is another matter…

  • BowmChikaWowWow@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Any modern phone + a bluetooth keyboard

    Modular, you can pick whichever keyboard you want and choose how you want to trade off size & usability. There are some foldable keyboards that pack down pretty small.

  • EighthHell@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Add a few more inches, add a lot more bucks, meet the x1 Nano, have a ton more power, have a ton less rabbit holes.

  • AuroraDraco@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I have a Lenovo Chromebook Duet 2 and I haven’t regretted it at all. Graphical Emacs is important for me as I want to view my notes on it and I cant do that well with the terminal version. So that removed any Android/Apple tablet. Unfortunate as it may be, I don’t think there is any mature, budget Linux tablet and Chromebooks, which support Linux out of the box are the closest to that.

    It’s lightweight, with a 10 inch screen and I can comfortably use Emacs with the keyboard it comes with. You could go even smaller screen, but imo, after one point it stops being comfortable. So this is a very fine solution for me

  • Ardie83@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Ive considered this question too. But I would opt for something other than a tablet. I want to type on the train. And anything lesser than a small laptop Im saying no. Maybe I have no experience, but tablet with no hinge on my lap, noooooo. Im already typing on my BT keyboard with my mobile, and its not ideal. Still havent bought the Thinkpad x280 that I planned.