Re:Introduction to Open Source Laptop Project by Lukas Henkel
by cph123 on Thursday June 01, 2023 @08:53AM
(#36150416)
I've got one of these, you are right about the keyboard and trackball, they aren't great.
I have probably only used it a few times, it is very cool to look at but less so a functional device one could use for serious work comfortably.
Re:Introduction to Open Source Laptop Project by Lukas Henkel
by rbanffy on Saturday June 03, 2023 @06:39PM
(#36181189)
A shame. It could be a little bit bigger and get a good keyboard and a bit more of a display, and still look like a TRS-80 model 100.
What I like about it (thinking about getting one) is the upgradeability - the RPi CM4 adapter should give it a couple extra generations, but I'm not a fan of the 480-line display idea unless one could use Wayland to extract more virtual pixels.
From what I could see from some videos is one of its weakest points. The input device (in my opinion) in this case has to be excellent, I wouldn't care to pay a bit more for this. I would sacrifice the gaming buttons for a bigger regular keyboard and use a trackpoint instead of a tiny trackball.
The thing with the trackpoint is that almost requires no lift of hands from the keyboard, it takes a bit getting used to but in my opinion is one of the best input devices that a notebook or small computer can have.
The devterm seems to follow the Dynabook layout which I think is great, if you could also bend a bit the screen a that would be terrific.