5 ms·

c100

114 points by tosh 2mo ago

speak_plainly 2mo ago
I'm glad PC manufacturers are taking snack drawers seriously. A shot of the IO would be nice and is the computer in the keyboard or in the snack box?
lapkaaaa 2mo ago
The tray is really funny, but i doubt it'll find many customers
conorbergin 2mo ago
Nice, I've always wanted my desktop PC to be coupled to the keyboard.
- rbanffy 2mo ago
  For the first 20 years or so of my career, mine was. The Apple II, the TRS-80 model 3 (even had an internal screen!) were super chunky blocks of computing.
rnadomvirlabe 2mo ago
Nice design, but the website is vague. What about the actual tech specs (not simply GB of ram and SSD space) or a picture of the "user-replaceable" internals? How about a picture of the port layout? About the workbench operating system, the information is also surprisingly light. Am I missing context here that others have that make this website sufficient?
LoganDark 2mo ago
> Caligra Workbench Operating System This hardware runs an operating system that requires a subscription for commercial use? https://caligra.com/workbench/#pricing https://caligra.com/workbench/#pricing
- deleted 2mo ago
  [deleted]
- roryirvine 2mo ago
  And they don't define what they consider to be commercial anywhere that I can see. It's not mentioned at all in https://caligra.com/legal/terms-of-sale/ https://caligra.com/legal/terms-of-sale/ Does checking work email count? Or buying something from Amazon?
yipinwong 2mo ago
Looks cute, but unsure what it does and why they made it and how i can use for what... Site looks good but it might mean c100 have no substance, thus at least had to make the site and their gadget pretty.
- dgellow 2mo ago
  I’m not sure what you mean, it’s a mini PC. You can use it for anything you want. The esthetic and form factor is the appeal
- john_strinlai 2mo ago
  >unsure what it does and why they made it and how i can use for what... its a computer. it does computer things, and you can use it for whatever computer things you want.
- TheOtherHobbes 2mo ago
  Famous Design House™ decided to make a custom computer. They took a nice PC, made a nice metal box for it, and attached another box to the back. You can put things in this box, which is an unusual accessory for a computer. They also made an OS which will cost a lot of money per seat per year. Then they took many clean smooth fingerprint-free photos and made a web site to try to sell it. The web site makes the box look nice but does a poor job explaining the rest.
  - yipinwong 2mo ago
    Ty for the info. It sounds similar to System76, where they make pretty PC and OS (like Pop! OS) that goes with it Oh yes, no matter how good a product is, if marketing sucks, it might not roll.
LeanOnSheena 2mo ago
I have one of the units from the first run where 96GB of RAM was offered. Personally speaking I was buying it primarily for the design aesthetic (an industrial design partner from Pentagram was involved), but I've come to enjoy the Workbench OS UI features and associated shortcuts; I use it as a secondary work machine for various data science applications. I can attest to the general build quality which so far seems high to me.
- nickisnoble 2mo ago
  Same, it's fantastic, and SIMPLE. Very rare these days.
- indrora 2mo ago
  How's the guts look? There's a lot of flash and pizzaz about aesthetics, but I work with files in the 400-800GB range on a regular basis, so I tend to prefer dumping gigantic SSDs into my work machines (I recently liquidated fortune 5 stock to get an 8tb disk[1]). There's some words about "oh yeah you can upgrade this" but not many details. The only thing I've seen so far has been a single shot from the Pentagram splash where it looks like a fairly standard off-the-shelf mini PC that's been gutted and put on life support like a Raspberry Pi Cyberdeck. [1] https://sabrent.com/products/sb-rkt4p-8tb https://sabrent.com/products/sb-rkt4p-8tb
heyitsmedotjayb 2mo ago
Who came up with this and then designed it around a non-standard keyboard layout... Jail is the only answer.
- Tepix 2mo ago
  Also it's close to ANSI layout, what about ISO? I want a german E1 layout(§), thank you very much. -- § https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/E1_(Tastaturbelegung)#Umfang
- benj111 2mo ago
  Why the number pad on the left? I'm left handed and don't think that's a good idea
mym1990 2mo ago
We're truly living through the cash grab era. $1400 + a yearly subscription for an extremely vague product that will likely lose support in 2-5 years.
- LeanOnSheena 2mo ago
  OS subscription is only for Enterprise accounts. I have one of the first units and I don't pay anything for the OS
  - nolist_policy 2mo ago
    Only for non-commercial usage tho.
  - MerrimanInd 2mo ago
    Even with a free tier, having the gall to charge 20% more than Red Hat does for their enterprise Linux workstation license is pretty ballsy. And Red Hat is putting actual significant software engineering into their offerings to make Linux more commercially viable, I don't know what this ~10 person HW/SW company did to Fedora to add $240/yr of value.
convolvatron 2mo ago
why does it come with attached storage unit for my calipers?
- floren 2mo ago
  Cuz you're a MAKER, just see the box of BOJACK-brand screws on top of the power supply in the action shot.
- tartoran 2mo ago
  > why does it come with attached storage unit for my calipers? You could store the primary tools you use there as to declutter your desk. In my case though the storage box would end up probably covered with clutter over time. I don't dislike it though, this is not for a person like me.
Caracas288 2mo ago
Here are some more informative photos: https://www.pentagram.com/work/caligra-c100-developer-terminal https://www.pentagram.com/work/caligra-c100-developer-termin...
- amarcheschi 2mo ago
  I accidentally read "performative photos" and it still made sense. Mouse looks painful
  - swiftcoder 2mo ago
    > Mouse looks painful There is something very "Apple 1-button mouse" about it, for sure
- nolist_policy 2mo ago
  So from these pictures they just put an off the shelf minipc in a aluminium case and ship it with a matching keyboard.
kelseyfrog 2mo ago
Why does it have a frunk?
- ge96 2mo ago
  You can put your w in there
JR1427 2mo ago
> The case is CNC milled from a solid block of aluminium What a waste of material and machining time!
- torginus 2mo ago
  Not sure on the first. Apparently almost all alumninum is recycled, and reused, as its melting point is super low compared to most metals, so its not quite as wasteful as it seems at the first glance.
- syntaxing 2mo ago
  iPhones are iPads have a milled CNC “unibody” as well… Being able to dictate where to have more thickness helps a ton on the luxury feel. Most of the chips are recycled anyway into new billets.
  - xnx 2mo ago
    Unibody is a very appropriate technique for a small portable device that needs to be strong from force in many directions. It is overkill for a keyboard.
    - syntaxing 2mo ago
      Overkill is the point. Same thing for iPads and iPhones. It gives a luxury feeling. That and Chinese manufacturing have made milling a very cost effective manufacturing method.
- ffreire 2mo ago
  Why?
- benj111 2mo ago
  How would you make a low run product? Casting requires molds.
  - yencabulator 2mo ago
arn3n 2mo ago
Usually the ads on hacker news are accompanied by a press release or a technical writeup so that I at least learn something new.
hmokiguess 2mo ago
For a second, I thought that top part was like a tmux screen where I could run a multiplexer with agents and ... geez I'm tired, so much AI ugh. (Worst part is that I think I'd have fun with something like that)
erickhill 2mo ago
I smell Amiga, especially if it is "designed to run Workbench."
ppnpm 2mo ago
So a toolbox attached with a keyboard that has opposite layout, some new shortcuts and an OS that can be reproduced easily. So what's the point? One can go for design and hardware but is this really something that stands it out in 2026? I was wondering what I would put in the toolbox, maybe earphones, mobile stand, stationary?
- iammjm 2mo ago
  The mouse seems like the most obvious choice for mobility. Other than that: pens? Or maybe lock the phone inside for a distraction free environment
ramijames 2mo ago
I found the UI really interesting. Nice to see a group really trying something new. This really feels a lot like the raw experimentation of computer types and styles in the 80s. https://customer-i8ks9tgi5lkllj0i.cloudflarestream.com/c60aa9e23b55f4ef62eb31bb4ce3c7e5/iframe?autoplay=true&muted=true&loop=true&controls=false https://customer-i8ks9tgi5lkllj0i.cloudflarestream.com/c60aa...
- torginus 2mo ago
  I think they are going for the super premium polished user experience, yet they waste space with adding foreign window decorators to apps that are supposed to integrate them (Chrome, Zed). And not sure why having a single smallish window and tons of empty space is good practice, when tiling wms have shown how to manage lots of windows and large screen estate efficiently..
  - Bluestein 2mo ago
    What I really really really do not understand is the toolbox - it seemed like an LCD screen at first glance, but, no.-
    - ramijames 2mo ago
      It felt like they are targeting EE labs, because that's what they personally are using them for. It felt out of sync with the video of Workbench.. doing web development work. I don't know. I think it's a cool idea and maybe for $500 I'd buy one. For $2000? No thanks.
      - torginus 2mo ago
        I'm an EE by training and tinker on the side, but I wouldn't want a huge conductive metal slab on my desk, plus that tool compartment has no pockets, and would get scratched by my tools.
rvz 2mo ago
After seeing the price and the build quality, there's no more excuses for developers to suggest that they can't afford a Mac or Windows or Framework computer after buying this. This should be the standard quality for Linux machines.
ZihengQin 2mo ago
Good look. What are the advantages over MAC or cloud VMs? If it is $500~$1000 it could be a good gift. And is the current size a little big? Could it be put into a bag?
- iammjm 2mo ago
  But is mobility really what they were going for? I’m not sure, because they also purposefully increased the size and weight by adding the frunk
  - ygouzerh 2mo ago
    I felt as well that they miss their window. This kind of rectangular shape with keyboard + computer would be great actually for digital nomad / people going to coworking spaces, but looks way to heavy.
    - watusername 2mo ago
      > digital nomad / people going to coworking spaces Laptops with built-in screens make infinitely more sense for this population.
xnx 2mo ago
The children yearn for the Osborne.
xnx 2mo ago
I forgot all about the slabtop form factor: https://www.howtogeek.com/what-is-a-slabtop/ https://www.howtogeek.com/what-is-a-slabtop/
zerkten 2mo ago
My fingers are curling up at the look of the angle on that keyboard. I love the idea and the aesthetic, but I could never use this full time.
insanitybit 2mo ago
Looks extraordinarily unergonomic and I don't get why I would need a number pad as a developer.
- torginus 2mo ago
  As someone who does CAD on the side, I couldn't live without one.
  - insanitybit 2mo ago
    Yeah fair enough.
jordand 2mo ago
I got an unsolicited LinkedIn connection request from a Sales Rep at Caligra (who wrote in the note) offering to 'send one over' to me essentially as a "trial" of this workstation. Says a lot that this is a serious part of their sales strategy.
torginus 2mo ago
Dunno, they're promoting this to run their custom OS (which is Fedora based, but has brew apparently?) Not sure what is this, is this a cloud thing, hence the subscription? But the HW too expensive/powerful for that? Considering that is the main differentiator, yet they barely say anything about it, and it's quite hard to find screenshots, or any demos.
futuraperdita 2mo ago
This is an expensive design object that just happens to contain a laptop.
- dsr_ 2mo ago
  Comparable to https://store.minisforum.com/products/minisforum-um790-pro-mini-pc https://store.minisforum.com/products/minisforum-um790-pro-m... but much larger, heavier and with a specific keyboard.
iririririr 2mo ago
flagged. this should be on showHN. pretty much an Advertisement
dist-epoch 2mo ago
Basically Teenage Engineering doing a laptop.
Aurornis 2mo ago
I feel sorry for any company trying to launch a new compute product during this window of extremely elevated RAM and SSD prices. This looks well built with a lot of attention to detail. It’s impressive that the price isn’t higher for this level of machining and build quality on a low volume product. I could see this doing well in some niche studios where they value design of all of the products in the office, but it’s a tough niche. The graphic and video designers are all going to be buying Apple. The CAD and engineering people want something with a real GPU. Most developers want a laptop that they can take with them. It’s nice that parts can be upgraded, but anchoring to that CPU is tough.
- wang_li 2mo ago
  Cost of RAM and SSD seems like a secondary challenge. Trying to piss up a waterfall is more in line with the reality that products that are first about design and second about capability face when entering the current workstation and laptop markets that have been iterated on for decades and haven't seen a dramatic new redesign ever. The closest such advance in recent years didn't happen and instead turned into the macbook neo. Apple could have released an OS for the iphone pro max model of phones that allow them to boot Mac OS when attached to a docking station. And sold a laptop formfactor docking station.
  - floren 2mo ago
    > The closest such advance in recent years didn't happen and instead turned into the macbook neo. Apple could have released an OS for the iphone pro max model of phones that allow them to boot Mac OS when attached to a docking station. And sold a laptop formfactor docking station. I find it more likely that Apple are working furiously the other way: to make Macbooks boot iOS.
- applfanboysbgon 2mo ago
  > window of extremely elevated RAM and SSD prices Is it a window? It seems likely to me that we're going to be paying the LLM tax on all of our consumer electronics for the rest of our lives.
rpcope1 2mo ago
There's a lot of WTF here, including paying $1400 for a Linux workstation with 32GB of RAM and what looks like a mobile CPU, along with an integral keyboard that seems like it would give you RSI just looking at it. Who on earth is buying this?
- roryirvine 2mo ago
  The form factor and "designed to run Workbench" bit made me think it was aimed at nostalgic Amiga enthusiasts without running afoul of whoever-owns-Commodores-trademarks-today. But https://caligra.com/workbench/#pricing https://caligra.com/workbench/#pricing suggests it's an awkwardly-reskinned Fedora with a $240/year subscription fee. So, er, yes. WTF?
  - deleted 2mo ago
    [deleted]
esperent 2mo ago
Price aside, I'm all for mobile form factors that are not laptops. Laptops are an ergonomic disaster. But I'm not a fan of connecting it to the keyboard instead. Why not just a mini pc with a built in battery?
caust1c 2mo ago
My RSI flared up just looking at this keyboard. Hard pass!
themaxdavitt 2mo ago
Cute, but for a device targeted at us "experts" (see the Pentagram design brief linked elsewhere in-thread), this feels like a missed opportunity to explore the last couple of decades of advancements in HID design that many of us have benefited from (e.g., a mouse designed off hand curvature, or a split keyboard). If you want to see computers for experts (albeit in a more restrained design space), look at Framework.
anentropic 2mo ago
Can you get one with the numeric keypad on the right side?
- Gormo 2mo ago
  Putting the numpad on the left is actually a potentially great idea. It lets you keep your right hand on the mouse or arrow keys, while entering numbers with your left, rather than having to switch your right hand between them constantly. If you could retrain your muscle memory to use the numpad with your left hand, it'd be convenient for any use case that requires numeric data entry with more complex navigation than just tab/shift-tab between fields.
kensai 2mo ago
Are there any independent reviews of the c100? I want to know more about the keypads and bindings they added.
juliend2 2mo ago
Wait, what's the ruler that can stay over any open program, in the demo video?* Is it coming from another project or is it built-in? I also like the multi-modal scratchpad on the bottom half of the screen. Edit: ok this is not a distro in the classical sense. Edit 2: call me perv. but I'd love to see the back of the box where all the connectors are. * link: https://customer-i8ks9tgi5lkllj0i.cloudflarestream.com/c60aa9e23b55f4ef62eb31bb4ce3c7e5/iframe?autoplay=true&muted=true&loop=true&controls=false https://customer-i8ks9tgi5lkllj0i.cloudflarestream.com/c60aa...
zemlyansky 2mo ago
tool storage -> egpu dock
- roryirvine 2mo ago
  You'd need better ventilation for that, surely?
orbital-decay 2mo ago
This looks like a cursed mix of different Apple eras. And has a paid Linux distro inside, amazingly powered by Homebrew of all package managers.
- kube-system 2mo ago
  it looks like it took design inspiration from the Apple ADB mouse: https://i0.wp.com/applerescueofdenver.com/wp-content/uploads/adbmouse-a3.jpg https://i0.wp.com/applerescueofdenver.com/wp-content/uploads...
- Gormo 2mo ago
  Looks much more Amiga/ST inspired to me. Apple never had a "wedge" form factor Mac, and the OS design seems to be both named after and visually reminiscent of the Amiga's. The command key and use of Homebrew seem to be the main Mac-like things here.
serf 2mo ago
underwhelming specs, price, ergonomics. marketed for pros, but gated from them by a $240/yr contract for a fedora reskin. another step back towards unix I guess, but bell didn't charge yearly. (edit, remembered it wasnt at&t)
boguscoder 2mo ago
Im mostly curious if R&D was self funded or its a problem of kickstarter-like bakers now? This wont pay off
iamleppert 2mo ago
No specs on the CPU or anything but the memory and storage? This looks like a product for a wealthy, trendy maker studio.
rjrjrjrj 2mo ago
Cool, but in the way the computers on Silo and Severance are cool. Not "I'd actually use this" cool.
ee334y5rthsrth 2mo ago
[dead]
MerrimanInd 2mo ago
I don't understand this at all and I've deployed Linux machines to workstations and factory environments. It's an "all in one" in that it has compute and a keyboard. But the mouse isn't integrated (literally just a wired mouse you lug around with it) and no display. So you can't actually walk it right up to a bench and start using it like a laptop. It has built in storage for your "stuff" but again, it's not fully portable so what else are you going to be carrying with it? Is it supposed to be used by a developer or a technician? And if a technician, why portable and why a non-standard keyboard layout? I haven't even gotten to the Workbench software yet, which seems to be appealing to neither an engineer nor a technician and is a Linux OS that somehow costs more than Windows. This is silly and it bothers me more than it probably should that they say this "is designed for offices, workshops, labs, and factories" when this doesn't seem like they've spent any time in those environments. I'm just gonna keep shipping Asus Nucs running NixOS to my technician workstations and let my engineers use laptops.
- benj111 2mo ago
  Yeah, I'm just reading it as hobyists putting it in the workshop next to the 3d printer. It isn't even well thought out. You can fold the keyboard away while you're doing work. But you can only access the storage while the keyboard is open.
1001111 2mo ago
Wayland is a display server protocol for window management. Installing software: #ssh-keygen #ssh -T git@github.com
glimshe 2mo ago
I hated this product and would never buy it. Non standard keyboard with white keys (!), waste of space with that storage area and hefty price for the specs. I'd much rather buy a Mac mini I was in the market for a premium mini PC.

114 points by tosh 2mo ago

I'm glad PC manufacturers are taking snack drawers seriously. A shot of the IO would be nice and is the computer in the keyboard or in the snack box?

lapkaaaa 2mo ago

The tray is really funny, but i doubt it'll find many customers

conorbergin 2mo ago

Nice, I've always wanted my desktop PC to be coupled to the keyboard.

rbanffy 2mo ago
For the first 20 years or so of my career, mine was. The Apple II, the TRS-80 model 3 (even had an internal screen!) were super chunky blocks of computing.

rnadomvirlabe 2mo ago

Nice design, but the website is vague. What about the actual tech specs (not simply GB of ram and SSD space) or a picture of the "user-replaceable" internals? How about a picture of the port layout? About the workbench operating system, the information is also surprisingly light. Am I missing context here that others have that make this website sufficient?

LoganDark 2mo ago

> Caligra Workbench Operating System This hardware runs an operating system that requires a subscription for commercial use? https://caligra.com/workbench/#pricing https://caligra.com/workbench/#pricing

deleted 2mo ago
[deleted]
roryirvine 2mo ago
And they don't define what they consider to be commercial anywhere that I can see. It's not mentioned at all in https://caligra.com/legal/terms-of-sale/ https://caligra.com/legal/terms-of-sale/ Does checking work email count? Or buying something from Amazon?

yipinwong 2mo ago

Looks cute, but unsure what it does and why they made it and how i can use for what... Site looks good but it might mean c100 have no substance, thus at least had to make the site and their gadget pretty.

dgellow 2mo ago
I’m not sure what you mean, it’s a mini PC. You can use it for anything you want. The esthetic and form factor is the appeal
john_strinlai 2mo ago
>unsure what it does and why they made it and how i can use for what... its a computer. it does computer things, and you can use it for whatever computer things you want.
TheOtherHobbes 2mo ago
Famous Design House™ decided to make a custom computer. They took a nice PC, made a nice metal box for it, and attached another box to the back. You can put things in this box, which is an unusual accessory for a computer. They also made an OS which will cost a lot of money per seat per year. Then they took many clean smooth fingerprint-free photos and made a web site to try to sell it. The web site makes the box look nice but does a poor job explaining the rest.
- yipinwong 2mo ago
  Ty for the info. It sounds similar to System76, where they make pretty PC and OS (like Pop! OS) that goes with it Oh yes, no matter how good a product is, if marketing sucks, it might not roll.

LeanOnSheena 2mo ago

I have one of the units from the first run where 96GB of RAM was offered. Personally speaking I was buying it primarily for the design aesthetic (an industrial design partner from Pentagram was involved), but I've come to enjoy the Workbench OS UI features and associated shortcuts; I use it as a secondary work machine for various data science applications. I can attest to the general build quality which so far seems high to me.

nickisnoble 2mo ago
Same, it's fantastic, and SIMPLE. Very rare these days.
indrora 2mo ago
How's the guts look? There's a lot of flash and pizzaz about aesthetics, but I work with files in the 400-800GB range on a regular basis, so I tend to prefer dumping gigantic SSDs into my work machines (I recently liquidated fortune 5 stock to get an 8tb disk[1]). There's some words about "oh yeah you can upgrade this" but not many details. The only thing I've seen so far has been a single shot from the Pentagram splash where it looks like a fairly standard off-the-shelf mini PC that's been gutted and put on life support like a Raspberry Pi Cyberdeck. [1] https://sabrent.com/products/sb-rkt4p-8tb https://sabrent.com/products/sb-rkt4p-8tb

heyitsmedotjayb 2mo ago

Who came up with this and then designed it around a non-standard keyboard layout... Jail is the only answer.

Tepix 2mo ago
Also it's close to ANSI layout, what about ISO? I want a german E1 layout(§), thank you very much. -- § https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/E1_(Tastaturbelegung)#Umfang
benj111 2mo ago
Why the number pad on the left? I'm left handed and don't think that's a good idea

mym1990 2mo ago

We're truly living through the cash grab era. $1400 + a yearly subscription for an extremely vague product that will likely lose support in 2-5 years.

LeanOnSheena 2mo ago
OS subscription is only for Enterprise accounts. I have one of the first units and I don't pay anything for the OS
- nolist_policy 2mo ago
  Only for non-commercial usage tho.
- MerrimanInd 2mo ago
  Even with a free tier, having the gall to charge 20% more than Red Hat does for their enterprise Linux workstation license is pretty ballsy. And Red Hat is putting actual significant software engineering into their offerings to make Linux more commercially viable, I don't know what this ~10 person HW/SW company did to Fedora to add $240/yr of value.

convolvatron 2mo ago

why does it come with attached storage unit for my calipers?

floren 2mo ago
Cuz you're a MAKER, just see the box of BOJACK-brand screws on top of the power supply in the action shot.
tartoran 2mo ago
> why does it come with attached storage unit for my calipers? You could store the primary tools you use there as to declutter your desk. In my case though the storage box would end up probably covered with clutter over time. I don't dislike it though, this is not for a person like me.

Caracas288 2mo ago

Here are some more informative photos: https://www.pentagram.com/work/caligra-c100-developer-terminal https://www.pentagram.com/work/caligra-c100-developer-termin...

amarcheschi 2mo ago
I accidentally read "performative photos" and it still made sense. Mouse looks painful
- swiftcoder 2mo ago
  > Mouse looks painful There is something very "Apple 1-button mouse" about it, for sure
nolist_policy 2mo ago
So from these pictures they just put an off the shelf minipc in a aluminium case and ship it with a matching keyboard.

kelseyfrog 2mo ago

Why does it have a frunk?

ge96 2mo ago
You can put your w in there

JR1427 2mo ago

> The case is CNC milled from a solid block of aluminium What a waste of material and machining time!

torginus 2mo ago
Not sure on the first. Apparently almost all alumninum is recycled, and reused, as its melting point is super low compared to most metals, so its not quite as wasteful as it seems at the first glance.
syntaxing 2mo ago
iPhones are iPads have a milled CNC “unibody” as well… Being able to dictate where to have more thickness helps a ton on the luxury feel. Most of the chips are recycled anyway into new billets.
- xnx 2mo ago
  Unibody is a very appropriate technique for a small portable device that needs to be strong from force in many directions. It is overkill for a keyboard.
  - syntaxing 2mo ago
    Overkill is the point. Same thing for iPads and iPhones. It gives a luxury feeling. That and Chinese manufacturing have made milling a very cost effective manufacturing method.
ffreire 2mo ago
Why?
benj111 2mo ago
How would you make a low run product? Casting requires molds.
- yencabulator 2mo ago

arn3n 2mo ago

Usually the ads on hacker news are accompanied by a press release or a technical writeup so that I at least learn something new.

hmokiguess 2mo ago

For a second, I thought that top part was like a tmux screen where I could run a multiplexer with agents and ... geez I'm tired, so much AI ugh. (Worst part is that I think I'd have fun with something like that)

erickhill 2mo ago

I smell Amiga, especially if it is "designed to run Workbench."

ppnpm 2mo ago

So a toolbox attached with a keyboard that has opposite layout, some new shortcuts and an OS that can be reproduced easily. So what's the point? One can go for design and hardware but is this really something that stands it out in 2026? I was wondering what I would put in the toolbox, maybe earphones, mobile stand, stationary?

iammjm 2mo ago
The mouse seems like the most obvious choice for mobility. Other than that: pens? Or maybe lock the phone inside for a distraction free environment

ramijames 2mo ago

I found the UI really interesting. Nice to see a group really trying something new. This really feels a lot like the raw experimentation of computer types and styles in the 80s. https://customer-i8ks9tgi5lkllj0i.cloudflarestream.com/c60aa9e23b55f4ef62eb31bb4ce3c7e5/iframe?autoplay=true&muted=true&loop=true&controls=false https://customer-i8ks9tgi5lkllj0i.cloudflarestream.com/c60aa...

torginus 2mo ago
I think they are going for the super premium polished user experience, yet they waste space with adding foreign window decorators to apps that are supposed to integrate them (Chrome, Zed). And not sure why having a single smallish window and tons of empty space is good practice, when tiling wms have shown how to manage lots of windows and large screen estate efficiently..
- Bluestein 2mo ago
  What I really really really do not understand is the toolbox - it seemed like an LCD screen at first glance, but, no.-
  - ramijames 2mo ago
    It felt like they are targeting EE labs, because that's what they personally are using them for. It felt out of sync with the video of Workbench.. doing web development work. I don't know. I think it's a cool idea and maybe for $500 I'd buy one. For $2000? No thanks.
    - torginus 2mo ago
      I'm an EE by training and tinker on the side, but I wouldn't want a huge conductive metal slab on my desk, plus that tool compartment has no pockets, and would get scratched by my tools.

rvz 2mo ago

After seeing the price and the build quality, there's no more excuses for developers to suggest that they can't afford a Mac or Windows or Framework computer after buying this. This should be the standard quality for Linux machines.

ZihengQin 2mo ago

Good look. What are the advantages over MAC or cloud VMs? If it is $500~$1000 it could be a good gift. And is the current size a little big? Could it be put into a bag?

iammjm 2mo ago
But is mobility really what they were going for? I’m not sure, because they also purposefully increased the size and weight by adding the frunk
- ygouzerh 2mo ago
  I felt as well that they miss their window. This kind of rectangular shape with keyboard + computer would be great actually for digital nomad / people going to coworking spaces, but looks way to heavy.
  - watusername 2mo ago
    > digital nomad / people going to coworking spaces Laptops with built-in screens make infinitely more sense for this population.

xnx 2mo ago

The children yearn for the Osborne.

xnx 2mo ago

I forgot all about the slabtop form factor: https://www.howtogeek.com/what-is-a-slabtop/ https://www.howtogeek.com/what-is-a-slabtop/

zerkten 2mo ago

My fingers are curling up at the look of the angle on that keyboard. I love the idea and the aesthetic, but I could never use this full time.

insanitybit 2mo ago

Looks extraordinarily unergonomic and I don't get why I would need a number pad as a developer.

torginus 2mo ago
As someone who does CAD on the side, I couldn't live without one.
- insanitybit 2mo ago
  Yeah fair enough.

jordand 2mo ago

I got an unsolicited LinkedIn connection request from a Sales Rep at Caligra (who wrote in the note) offering to 'send one over' to me essentially as a "trial" of this workstation. Says a lot that this is a serious part of their sales strategy.

torginus 2mo ago

Dunno, they're promoting this to run their custom OS (which is Fedora based, but has brew apparently?) Not sure what is this, is this a cloud thing, hence the subscription? But the HW too expensive/powerful for that? Considering that is the main differentiator, yet they barely say anything about it, and it's quite hard to find screenshots, or any demos.

futuraperdita 2mo ago

This is an expensive design object that just happens to contain a laptop.

dsr_ 2mo ago
Comparable to https://store.minisforum.com/products/minisforum-um790-pro-mini-pc https://store.minisforum.com/products/minisforum-um790-pro-m... but much larger, heavier and with a specific keyboard.

iririririr 2mo ago

flagged. this should be on showHN. pretty much an Advertisement

dist-epoch 2mo ago

Basically Teenage Engineering doing a laptop.

Aurornis 2mo ago

I feel sorry for any company trying to launch a new compute product during this window of extremely elevated RAM and SSD prices. This looks well built with a lot of attention to detail. It’s impressive that the price isn’t higher for this level of machining and build quality on a low volume product. I could see this doing well in some niche studios where they value design of all of the products in the office, but it’s a tough niche. The graphic and video designers are all going to be buying Apple. The CAD and engineering people want something with a real GPU. Most developers want a laptop that they can take with them. It’s nice that parts can be upgraded, but anchoring to that CPU is tough.

wang_li 2mo ago
Cost of RAM and SSD seems like a secondary challenge. Trying to piss up a waterfall is more in line with the reality that products that are first about design and second about capability face when entering the current workstation and laptop markets that have been iterated on for decades and haven't seen a dramatic new redesign ever. The closest such advance in recent years didn't happen and instead turned into the macbook neo. Apple could have released an OS for the iphone pro max model of phones that allow them to boot Mac OS when attached to a docking station. And sold a laptop formfactor docking station.
- floren 2mo ago
  > The closest such advance in recent years didn't happen and instead turned into the macbook neo. Apple could have released an OS for the iphone pro max model of phones that allow them to boot Mac OS when attached to a docking station. And sold a laptop formfactor docking station. I find it more likely that Apple are working furiously the other way: to make Macbooks boot iOS.
applfanboysbgon 2mo ago
> window of extremely elevated RAM and SSD prices Is it a window? It seems likely to me that we're going to be paying the LLM tax on all of our consumer electronics for the rest of our lives.

rpcope1 2mo ago

There's a lot of WTF here, including paying $1400 for a Linux workstation with 32GB of RAM and what looks like a mobile CPU, along with an integral keyboard that seems like it would give you RSI just looking at it. Who on earth is buying this?

roryirvine 2mo ago
The form factor and "designed to run Workbench" bit made me think it was aimed at nostalgic Amiga enthusiasts without running afoul of whoever-owns-Commodores-trademarks-today. But https://caligra.com/workbench/#pricing https://caligra.com/workbench/#pricing suggests it's an awkwardly-reskinned Fedora with a $240/year subscription fee. So, er, yes. WTF?
- deleted 2mo ago
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esperent 2mo ago

Price aside, I'm all for mobile form factors that are not laptops. Laptops are an ergonomic disaster. But I'm not a fan of connecting it to the keyboard instead. Why not just a mini pc with a built in battery?

caust1c 2mo ago

My RSI flared up just looking at this keyboard. Hard pass!

themaxdavitt 2mo ago

Cute, but for a device targeted at us "experts" (see the Pentagram design brief linked elsewhere in-thread), this feels like a missed opportunity to explore the last couple of decades of advancements in HID design that many of us have benefited from (e.g., a mouse designed off hand curvature, or a split keyboard). If you want to see computers for experts (albeit in a more restrained design space), look at Framework.

anentropic 2mo ago

Can you get one with the numeric keypad on the right side?

Gormo 2mo ago
Putting the numpad on the left is actually a potentially great idea. It lets you keep your right hand on the mouse or arrow keys, while entering numbers with your left, rather than having to switch your right hand between them constantly. If you could retrain your muscle memory to use the numpad with your left hand, it'd be convenient for any use case that requires numeric data entry with more complex navigation than just tab/shift-tab between fields.

kensai 2mo ago

Are there any independent reviews of the c100? I want to know more about the keypads and bindings they added.

juliend2 2mo ago

Wait, what's the ruler that can stay over any open program, in the demo video?* Is it coming from another project or is it built-in? I also like the multi-modal scratchpad on the bottom half of the screen. Edit: ok this is not a distro in the classical sense. Edit 2: call me perv. but I'd love to see the back of the box where all the connectors are. * link: https://customer-i8ks9tgi5lkllj0i.cloudflarestream.com/c60aa9e23b55f4ef62eb31bb4ce3c7e5/iframe?autoplay=true&muted=true&loop=true&controls=false https://customer-i8ks9tgi5lkllj0i.cloudflarestream.com/c60aa...

zemlyansky 2mo ago

tool storage -> egpu dock

roryirvine 2mo ago
You'd need better ventilation for that, surely?

orbital-decay 2mo ago

This looks like a cursed mix of different Apple eras. And has a paid Linux distro inside, amazingly powered by Homebrew of all package managers.

kube-system 2mo ago
it looks like it took design inspiration from the Apple ADB mouse: https://i0.wp.com/applerescueofdenver.com/wp-content/uploads/adbmouse-a3.jpg https://i0.wp.com/applerescueofdenver.com/wp-content/uploads...
Gormo 2mo ago
Looks much more Amiga/ST inspired to me. Apple never had a "wedge" form factor Mac, and the OS design seems to be both named after and visually reminiscent of the Amiga's. The command key and use of Homebrew seem to be the main Mac-like things here.

serf 2mo ago

underwhelming specs, price, ergonomics. marketed for pros, but gated from them by a $240/yr contract for a fedora reskin. another step back towards unix I guess, but bell didn't charge yearly. (edit, remembered it wasnt at&t)

boguscoder 2mo ago

Im mostly curious if R&D was self funded or its a problem of kickstarter-like bakers now? This wont pay off

iamleppert 2mo ago

No specs on the CPU or anything but the memory and storage? This looks like a product for a wealthy, trendy maker studio.

rjrjrjrj 2mo ago

Cool, but in the way the computers on Silo and Severance are cool. Not "I'd actually use this" cool.

ee334y5rthsrth 2mo ago

[dead]

MerrimanInd 2mo ago

I don't understand this at all and I've deployed Linux machines to workstations and factory environments. It's an "all in one" in that it has compute and a keyboard. But the mouse isn't integrated (literally just a wired mouse you lug around with it) and no display. So you can't actually walk it right up to a bench and start using it like a laptop. It has built in storage for your "stuff" but again, it's not fully portable so what else are you going to be carrying with it? Is it supposed to be used by a developer or a technician? And if a technician, why portable and why a non-standard keyboard layout? I haven't even gotten to the Workbench software yet, which seems to be appealing to neither an engineer nor a technician and is a Linux OS that somehow costs more than Windows. This is silly and it bothers me more than it probably should that they say this "is designed for offices, workshops, labs, and factories" when this doesn't seem like they've spent any time in those environments. I'm just gonna keep shipping Asus Nucs running NixOS to my technician workstations and let my engineers use laptops.

benj111 2mo ago
Yeah, I'm just reading it as hobyists putting it in the workshop next to the 3d printer. It isn't even well thought out. You can fold the keyboard away while you're doing work. But you can only access the storage while the keyboard is open.

1001111 2mo ago

Wayland is a display server protocol for window management. Installing software: #ssh-keygen #ssh -T git@github.com

glimshe 2mo ago

I hated this product and would never buy it. Non standard keyboard with white keys (!), waste of space with that storage area and hefty price for the specs. I'd much rather buy a Mac mini I was in the market for a premium mini PC.