I feel like it’s almost too generic to be useful. All the “standard” attachments make it a thing that already exists (and those things are usually much stable and supported). If they get enough 3rd party attention prior to launch, that could change.
I wish they would have spent the time and effort just committing to the smartphone idea. Linux and the Linux community could greatly benefit from more open source smartphone devices.
I see a lot of negativity in the comments. And yeah, this thing probably isn’t something I’m going to get, but at least they are trying something that isn’t a generic rectangle of glass like all the others. I miss the days of fun gadgets.
Well that looks cool. I just hope I would have use for such device.
I wonder how they plan to keep updating this Mechanix OS after initial sales slow down
It's going to be just like my pocket chip and die quickly after in terms of software support. Where I had to run my own hacks and also run archive debian repositories for the hardware itself only for the flash to die a year afterwards. I can say though it was the coolest device I had and hacking it was really neat especially with the UI and scaling apps on the device.
Cool emulation machine and design, even if it isn't the most practical thing ever.
Can I just send you five years worth of „we’re sorry we’re behind schedule” messages and then ghost you instead? If so send me $159
My first thought: If this ever ships, I'll eat an outboard motor.
one cylinder 5hp or eight cylinder 300hp? Or maybe an electric?
3gb RAM? 32gb emmc? This feels a bit like a raspberry pi project. Up the specs at least 6gb to at least no[t look like yet another microdeck with emulators, please... I like the concept, but as is, it leaves plenty to be desired
Netbooks need to come back with modern hardware.
If I need an ultra-portable computer one in a usable form factor would be amazing.
Ooof. After having a pinephone, I know what 2 or 3GB of RAM can handle these days. Not much, really. Specially the moment you open the browser. I'm going to pass from any project that doesn't attempt to at least get close to this decade's standards.
Website currently lists 4gb
My current Android phone has 4GB and it's really smooth. I've got 90 Firefox tabs open and several apps. I'd love to see that level of optimization in a startup, but more RAM will just mask the bad optimization.
As an ex-Andrpid dev, all this optimization is what killed the creativity. Every feature you currently have is hyperoptimized (even with dedicated battery optimizations turned off for the most popular apps), and as a result nothing you can't easily change is changeable anymore.
Want a widget that self updates every couple minutes by connecting to the internet? Can't have that, even if the user explicitly accepts it. Want to customize behavior of things in the settings? Nope. Want to hook into the phone memory and do crazy hacks? Not even with root. Want to keep running some checks to determine when to send a notification? Can't do that either, non-push notifications are all scheduled in advance.
What I like about this is that I could theorhetically install a non-QWERTY keyboard instead of being locked to such an inefficient layout. Yes, eventually you can learn to touch type, but learning it would be nice to have the keys since it will be a nonstandard layout at that size & when you hand it off to other folks, it’d be completely unexpected to hit q & get a '.
That looks amazing.
... For 2008.
2008 was awesome!
Let's make 2025 2008 again!
Being on Lemmy sometimes makes me feel like everyone here is old. Y'all talking about the years that I was born in as if it was like yesterday.
Worry not: in 20 years' time people born in 2028 will all pretty much look like kids to you.
It looks cool and all, but its probably going to have like 400mb of ram and an rp2040 like every other linux handheld device.
rp2040 can't run linux?
thats part of the joke.
yet an other hardware from 10+ years ago. here we have an ARM Cortex-A53 from what it seems to be 2012. Maybe it is actually compatible with OpenGL 3...
I would really love a return to a concept where you have a tablet that docks into a full size laptop form factor. Even better if the dock can have a graphics card.
Agree. Sometimes I want a tablet, sometimes a laptop but I don't need or want 2 separate devices of that size. I recall quite a few Android projects (Mirabook, Project Linda) that would use a phone with a laptop dock but I'd prefer a phone as a standalone device and a secondary, larger & more powerful, device that can have multiple forms.
Sorry, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. If you can't make this stuff at scale, no way you could sell it at $160 a unit.
Those look really cool, I would be pleasantly surprised if they ever came to fruition
A little worried that with swapping those components like that, it's trying to be too many things for too many different groups of people instead of one exact thing.
I think all I really want is something shaped like this with a keyboard, like an old Blackberry that could be used as a terminal.
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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