For those into writing (and writing tools/process) here's my distraction free writing setup. GPD P2 Max 2022 netbook, with Olivetti mode, and Fountain mode.

Posting just for fun. And maybe it'll inspire some of the writers here. Emacs is a great writing tool!

I love writing in emacs! Thank you for sharing

What is this? A laptop for ants?

That looks effing tiny like the old sony vaio ucg2 or whatevers. How goods the battery life? Might make for a fun "FOCUS DAMMIT" portable emacs station though, how decent is the screen/battery life?

I just looked up the GPD P2 Max 2022 netbook. It's pretty beefy and expensive, right? High-end ultra-portable. I always wonder, if you're an author, and looking for no distractions, why do you need to spend like $700 or $1000 on a laptop? Why not a < $200 chromebook? It can run emacs just fine, in Linux, with no need for hacks like it used to need in the past. Now chromebooks support linux "officially", so, you've got all you need there. I recently bought a HP tablet chromebook for \~ $170, super portable, and I use it for development / coding and web browsing / video watching / anything except gaming. P.S. and chromebooks have this huge, juicy CTRL button there that I cannot find in other keyboards. As an emacs user, this is a selling point for me. The only downside is that ALT-Backspace doesn't work, one has to press ALT-SEARCH-Backspace to delete the last word.

If you look closely, there is no ALT on the left side! As an emacs user, this is casus belli. :-)

Subversion tho

Classical guitar, eh?

Doesn't Ctrl+backspace do the same thing?

Yes, and it also works in most applications.

this tiny laptop is very cute

I think it does in X11 mode. But not in terminal mode. It also doesn't work in the bash command line in general. Maybe there is a setting to change that, if so let me know. But the canonical way to delete the last word is META-backspace I think. (Muscle memory for me.)

Not in terminal. Not in bash command line, or in `emacs -nw`.

heck yes! I said "distraction free", but with the classical there, those in the know, know it's a lie, lol.

It's what I know. Besides, I'm too much of a toddler for git.

It checks all the boxes that other things I've seen didn't, and I wasn't all that worried about price. Of course, one of the big ones was the size. It's just right for me, being small enough to take with me everywhere all the time (which I more or less do), and big enough (and powerful enough) to be actually usable for real work. And fwiw, I'm no author. But it's fun to try.

What's the last piece you were working on?

I remedied this! I use KeyTweak to remap: win --> left alt right alt --> win Also, notice there is no right shift. I didn't realize how badly I missed this, so I remapped: ' " --> right shift caps lock --> ' " And I have no caps lock key, but that's not a real problem for my uses.

The battery life is about 5.5 hours of typical use (emacs, web browser), with battery saver on. Could be better, but good enough that I never get batter anxiety from it.

I like to do finger picking arrangements of pop songs, mostly oldies. I'm pretty happy with an arrangement I did of "Because" by the Dave Clarke 5, if that means anything to ya, haha. I'm currently working on a simple version of "Angel of the Morning". What do you play?

Bach mostly when I have time. I recorded the fugue from bwv 997 during the pandemic. Took many months to learn and it wasn't the first te I tried to tackle it. I probably play for a couple months a couple times a year and work something up only to wonder why I am bothering.

Hey that's serious business, and quite awesome. I'm not good enough for that. Share your recordings if you have them online! And as for why you play...I say why question it? I mean, if you enjoy learning something, that's reason enough, is it not?

Ah, so you're using Windows! Are you running Emacs compiled for Windows or through WSLg? If the former, any bugs?

This looks just like my writing setup. Love emacs! Tip: If you get and M-x activate imenu-list, you get an overview of scene-headings, notes and also any of the the stuff you preface with #'s Don't know if you already knew this, but I wanted to share because I just found out myself and after a few weeks of writing on my play, it has come in very handy to get back into i. What do you use for exporting ?

I am a bot. Use km for kilometres instead of KM and never kms, Km’s.

I'm using a version that was compiled for windows. Specifically, this: https://github.com/m-parashar/emax64/releases I've not noticed any problems with it! I'm not a power user though. I've only been using emacs for a few years (since 2018).

I don't have numbers off hand but git locally is very fast, probably faster than svn. That said there's nothing wrong with svn.

I'm sure git is much faster! Though I use svn as a sort of personal cloud/sync mechanism, so I have can my files anywhere. So it's not just a local setup for me. Also my webhost supports svn out of the box, so aside from familiarity, that helped make svn the easy choice.

I just tried, this. Great tips, thank you!

I would cry at every keystroke on that keyboard.

It's not for everyone, that's for sure! For better or for worse, I have small hands, so it works out for me in this case.

Always loved the idea of working on a small laptop. Then had a small laptop and a bigger laptop and now if it’s less than 15, not gonna use it

As an after thought, I wonder if using an m1 air would be perfect for a ultra portable terminal

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

With git, you have all the power of Magit, which is fantastic!

>I recently bought a HP tablet chromebook for ~ $170, One of the 2-in-1 models?

14.0" (too heavy)->10.1"(ok, but let's try something a bit bigger)->11.6"(fine, but nothing lasts forever)->14.0"(a company one)->12.5" Finally, I'm happy with the size/weight/etc. Though, the next one is most likely going to be 13.3", since Thinkpad Xs are not available in smaller sizes anymore.

>That said there's nothing wrong with svn. Well… 😉

OSOM !!! It's a pity that I have such big hands that even on a 13" MacBook feels like locked in a barrel ...

Classical Guitar Emacs Writing gang checking in here! OK I actually haven't played for many years, unfortunately (having 2 kids and doing a Ph.D. means very little time for anything else) but still try to brush it up every now and then.

That's what the guitar in the background is for. I think this Jack is good.

I am sorry, no Ctrl on the right side is bad enough, but no right shift is to much. Also the keyboard is not special in any other case, like the new typical low hub keys. I would rather put arrow keys on some fn layer and use in emacs my modal mode with arrow keys on jkli and have the normal keys there.

it's a classical one, I suppose it doesn't have a jack :D

That's amazing

Missing the right Control and left Alt keys.

A genuine tablet, but the cover is a keyboard too. The cover consists of two parts that attach magnetically, the front is a (surprisingly sturdy) keyboard and the back is a stand. The only bad thing is it doesn't have a headphone jack. This can be easily fixed with a $7 adaptor, or with Bluetooth headphones. It also has a stylus it comes with, which attaches magnetically on the side. I don't like it much because it could fall and be lost, and I don't need it much, so I keep the stylus in my bag usually. I wish it was a smaller stylus that doesn't need charging and hides inside the device, like the Samsung s-pen. But, again, for the price point I think it's a very good product. Oh, it was refurbished BTW. New it would be a little more expensive.

Just googled it, an almost $900 netbook? what in the world

Olivetti is really good.

It really is. It's what got me to start using emacs!

Yeah, I had to use KeyTweak to remap some of the keys (I noted which in another comment). For my use, it's totally usable for real work, but I can see how some of the form factor compromises would be show stoppers for many.

I used KeyTweak to give me back the Right Shift (details in another comment). Also needed to map a Left Alt. I don't use Right Ctrl at all, so that one was not a problem for me at least.

Awesome! We could start our own subreddit. :b What's your Ph.D. in?

Gotcha thanks, its a bit spendy at 800 but looks like it could be a neat system to go coffee shoppe..ing with a small backpack or just a folder. When I need to heads down focus my emacs doesn't need a ton of stuff and i'm normally full screen anyway. Now that I found nov.el I can read my epubs in emacs directly so emacs+terminal+browser and i'm gtg. Though the rust compiler can use a fair amount of joules thats a future me thing to solve.

At this point I'm paying extra for a nice screen and touchpad. I can't wait for HiDPI screens and glass touchpads to make their way into the budget laptop space.

You should crosspost to r/digitalminimalism

Agreed. I use it almost exclusively for text. With pandoc it is unstoppable.