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GPD do an impressive line of pocketable x86 computers. Some of them have keyboards designed to be touch-typed on, though I can't comment on their ergonomics. I

by dTal 5y ago

GPD do an impressive line of pocketable x86 computers. Some of them have keyboards designed to be touch-typed on, though I can't comment on their ergonomics. I can comment on the ergonomics of the GPD MicroPC, which I got a few days ago and have been using ever since: it's awesome. I can do about 50 wpm on the thumb keyboard, which I'm sure is as good as I ever got on those tiny EeePC keyboards. It's very satisfying to hold and use, and it comfortably supports a full Plasma desktop. Look no further for a pocket laptop.

iagovar 5y ago
What do you do with such PC? I mean, I'm pretty sure it's very difficult to code, use excel, and the like.
- gumby 5y ago
  Like an iPad: read some web pages, mail, etc; a little light editing. But in a lightweight, long battery life with the benefits of a keyboard rather than the crappy virtual keyboard. I used to have an Apple “MacBook” which at 2 lbs (900 g) was great for carrying around, flying all over the world, etc. As I develop in Emacs, development was great, though complication was slow; I’d often compile in the cloud. It was a great machine. I use an m1 air these days which is half a pound heavier and is a great development machine. Despite what I said about crappy virtual keyboards I am typing this comment on about 450 g of ipad.
- dTal 5y ago
  You'd be amazed. The screen is high-res, the touchpad is precise, and the keyboard is complete. You occasionally find key combos that are hard to type - switching VTs springs to mind - but otherwise, it's almost as usable as a full size laptop. I haven't tried it yet, but I think (light) coding on it would be quite practical. Actually, let's try it: #include <stdio.h> int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { while(1) { printf("All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!\n"); } } Seems okay.
  - iagovar 5y ago
    IDK man, less than 13" is a struggle for me, specially outdoors. If you need to scroll, or change between stuff and such, I don't how such small device won't get in the way. It looks cool, but a bit casual.
- Nextgrid 5y ago
  I’ve used a 12-inch MacBook for years as my daily driver for backend web development. It’s perfectly usable if you don’t run any Electron crap or Docker (on Linux it would actually be fine, but Docker for Mac is terrible) and the portability and battery life is amazing.
aasasd 5y ago
I had a Samsung NC10, 10-inch, and touch-typed on it just fine. Perhaps 10" is larger than what some people mean by ‘netbook’, but it fit in a shoulder bag and weighed about 1.3 kg, so was pretty light. Guess Macbook Air and copycats snatched this form-factor, so they stopped being called ‘netbooks’.
- cout 5y ago
  The NC10 was a great device for its time -- lightweight, long battery life, nearly full size keyboard. I used it as my primary computing device for years, and would still be using it had it not suffered the pinched display cable problem, and I broke the hinge trying to fix it. What killed the netbook was the ultrabook -- similar weight and battery life, but with a larger display and full size keyboard.
- rbanffy 5y ago
  Netbooks had one enormous advantage: they were cheap. That also means they are expendable. I used one (Acre Aspire One) as my mobile workhorse for quite some time and it never felt unusable. Of course, the tests an i5 runs in 30 seconds the Atom runs in 2 minutes, but you can spend that time thinking what to do next. Now you can get a reasonable entry level laptop for more or less the same price, so, even if the name is no longer a thing, the product is still quite available.

by dTal 5y ago

iagovar 5y ago

What do you do with such PC? I mean, I'm pretty sure it's very difficult to code, use excel, and the like.

gumby 5y ago
Like an iPad: read some web pages, mail, etc; a little light editing. But in a lightweight, long battery life with the benefits of a keyboard rather than the crappy virtual keyboard. I used to have an Apple “MacBook” which at 2 lbs (900 g) was great for carrying around, flying all over the world, etc. As I develop in Emacs, development was great, though complication was slow; I’d often compile in the cloud. It was a great machine. I use an m1 air these days which is half a pound heavier and is a great development machine. Despite what I said about crappy virtual keyboards I am typing this comment on about 450 g of ipad.
dTal 5y ago
You'd be amazed. The screen is high-res, the touchpad is precise, and the keyboard is complete. You occasionally find key combos that are hard to type - switching VTs springs to mind - but otherwise, it's almost as usable as a full size laptop. I haven't tried it yet, but I think (light) coding on it would be quite practical. Actually, let's try it: #include <stdio.h> int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { while(1) { printf("All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!\n"); } } Seems okay.
- iagovar 5y ago
  IDK man, less than 13" is a struggle for me, specially outdoors. If you need to scroll, or change between stuff and such, I don't how such small device won't get in the way. It looks cool, but a bit casual.
Nextgrid 5y ago
I’ve used a 12-inch MacBook for years as my daily driver for backend web development. It’s perfectly usable if you don’t run any Electron crap or Docker (on Linux it would actually be fine, but Docker for Mac is terrible) and the portability and battery life is amazing.

aasasd 5y ago

I had a Samsung NC10, 10-inch, and touch-typed on it just fine. Perhaps 10" is larger than what some people mean by ‘netbook’, but it fit in a shoulder bag and weighed about 1.3 kg, so was pretty light. Guess Macbook Air and copycats snatched this form-factor, so they stopped being called ‘netbooks’.

cout 5y ago
The NC10 was a great device for its time -- lightweight, long battery life, nearly full size keyboard. I used it as my primary computing device for years, and would still be using it had it not suffered the pinched display cable problem, and I broke the hinge trying to fix it. What killed the netbook was the ultrabook -- similar weight and battery life, but with a larger display and full size keyboard.
rbanffy 5y ago
Netbooks had one enormous advantage: they were cheap. That also means they are expendable. I used one (Acre Aspire One) as my mobile workhorse for quite some time and it never felt unusable. Of course, the tests an i5 runs in 30 seconds the Atom runs in 2 minutes, but you can spend that time thinking what to do next. Now you can get a reasonable entry level laptop for more or less the same price, so, even if the name is no longer a thing, the product is still quite available.