Ask HN: Linux Palmtops?

3 points by sauruk 2 years ago | 5 comments

I really liked the form factor of the old Vaio P's, and got a Gemini PDA from the most recent sale so I could use VSCode a bit while traveling. However, the fork of Debian that it uses seems to have stop being maintained years ago, and not much was upstreamed. Are there any good options in the 6"-8" screen size that can run a mainline (or close) kernel?

mattl 2 years ago |

https://www.crowdsupply.com/mnt/pocket-reform

cheaprentalyeti 2 years ago |

I guess look at the gpd pocket and similar machines. There are a fair number of no-name clones out there.

Look on ebay under the keywords 'gpd pocket' or 'nanote p8' to see what I mean.

sauruk 2 years ago | |

It does look like all the pocket models can run mainline, hadn't thought about the older ones

rektide 2 years ago |

Shout out to your Vaio-p! I bought a Vaio-p waaayyy after the fact (2018?) & used it for a while. What a machine! Incredible. 1600x768 8-inch screen is the star of the show.

I replaced the battery but it still wouldn't run off it's own battery alas. I had a crazy ass lipo & dc-dc converter I'd use it with. Now a days with usb-pd I could just make a simple dc adapter cable for it, but I got rid of it. One of the only laptops I've ever actually discarded. But great machine.

fsflover 2 years ago |

10" screen: https://www.pine64.org/pinetab.