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Seems like any laptop booting a minimal Linux distro straight into a similarly simplistic text editor should be able to provide the same experience. Could be ca

Seems like any laptop booting a minimal Linux distro straight into a similarly simplistic text editor should be able to provide the same experience. Could be carried around on a USB stick, effectively turning any available computer into an AlphaSmart.

billfruit 6y ago
Yes, but Alphasmart was self-contained, and had 100s of hours of battery life.
bxparks 6y ago
Except for the part about "Three AA batteries power it for up to 700 hours". Not having to carry a power adapter nor worrying about battery life is really nice.
zelos 6y ago
Dell used to include a minimal Arm/Linux system inside some of their laptops as an instant-on, long battery life option. No idea whether anyone actually bought them though.
- arexxbifs 6y ago
  Got any more info on this? Like what models? Sounds really interesting to me.
  - zelos 6y ago
    Dell Latitude On I think: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latitude_ON https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latitude_ON Doesn’t look like it ever took off - I helped port an office suite to it.
    - arexxbifs 6y ago
      Cool! Just found some youtube videos of it.
asciimo 6y ago
I like this idea. Like having a grub boot option for GhostWriter (https://www.linux.com/news/ghostwriter-linux-distro-writers/ https://www.linux.com/news/ghostwriter-linux-distro-writers/) or something similar.
LeoPanthera 6y ago
I've always liked WordGrinder. It runs in the terminal/console! http://cowlark.com/wordgrinder/index.html http://cowlark.com/wordgrinder/index.html
- arexxbifs 6y ago
  That's what I use! It's pretty minimal by modern standards but might still be too full-featured for AlphaSmart simulation.