News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was... by benjiweber on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @01:11AM (#18226715)
Nokia n900. Portable linux box, real keyboard. http://neo900.org/ doesn't seem to have gained much traction. https://www.planetcom.co.uk/ seems to be the closest thing we have now.
Re:Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was... by Twirrim on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @10:00AM (#18229412)
An N810 was the first thing I bought when I got my on-call bonus money (first job I had that had On-Call responsibilities, paid extra money for our on-call week.) My cell phone had bluetooth, and I could tether from it. Meant I could do all my on-call stuff without having to lug a laptop around or be stuck in the house.

That thing was awesome. Maemo, the linux OS on it, wasn't.

Re:Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was... by marasal on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @02:21AM (#18227070)
Yes, phone with real keyboard. Last one I had was Nokia E7, five to six years ago, and I still miss the keyboard.
Re:Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was... by gardaani on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @02:36AM (#18227147)
There is SailfishOS, which is a Linux running on phones: https://jolla.com

Your can purchase it and install it on Sony Xperia X and lots of 3rd party supported devices:

https://jolla.com/sailfishx/ http://verdanditeam.com/device/list/

Here's a picture of various devices (some with a keyboard): https://twitter.com/Mister1Magister/status/10510971372101509...

Re:Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was... by AsyncAwait on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @11:28AM (#18230138)
It doesn't have a physical keyboard, but if the Librem 5 pans out, it should scratch that 'real linux on a phone' itch.
Re:Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was... by lgbr on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @03:55AM (#18227500)
Have you tried Termux on Android? You essentially get a Linux container, complete with package manager. I have actually used it for development on the road.
Re:Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was... by dpflug on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @04:39AM (#18227716)
That's a far cry from a full Linux install with X, though. Not to mention the hardware keyboard. I've not seen a phone in 6 years that had one.
Re:Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was... by jonaswi on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @02:24AM (#18227086)
The N900 was such a cool idea and also a pretty decent phone. I owned two of them but then had to eventually let it go..
Re:Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was... by lewisflude on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @06:59AM (#18228261)
I had one of these, was a lot of fun!
Re:Ask HN: What discontinued company/product do you wish was... by mintplant on Tuesday October 16, 2018 @02:25AM (#18227087)
GPD Win 2; DragonBox Pyra (upcoming).