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Comment by strulovich | Hacker News Reader

For the majority of my studies I took notes in Word and it’s equation editor (LaTeX syntax is most of what you need to know for it)

It was great for sharing and searching notes, but definitely challenging.

Once in a while when a diagram was needed it would be really challenging to do (no stylus or touchscreen back then), and when a new math symbol showed up for the first time it would be a challenge.

In other times it could be useful, like if there’s a lot of matrices being written copy and pasting helps.

Overall, it was a good experience since for later math research I needed to know LaTeX well anyhow. But the flexibility of pen and paper can’t be matched.

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I did this back in 2011, though I used OpenOffice (and now I believe it's LibreOffice) at first, its equation editor syntax was a lot like LaTeX. I didn't realize MS Word had a text input option for its equation editor.

Eventually I decided to switch to Vim and LaTeX though (I was pretty new to both). The OP's setup looks much fancier than what I did, I just used pdflatex and mupdf. Diagrams I would draw by hand on paper.

I am grateful to have my notes in a nice clean searchable pdf now 10 years later, but unfortunately my career in software has yet to have me actually do differential equations again.

I have to ask because I miss it so dearly: is there any modern alternative to a 10" netbook like what I had back then? Besides the GPD win that was posted a few days ago. And I don't like the idea of a super expensive tablet with its heavy screen.

What do students take notes on now?

And despite my love of netbooks from that era, part of what had me switch to Vim/LaTeX was my cheap ~$100 netbook not being very quick with large documents in an editor like LibreOffice.

Also a random thought: the netbook had also come with "windows 7 starter edition", which didn't let you change the wallpaper, much to my frustration. They went so far as (I believe) hashing the image, so if you edited it at all then it would show a black screen. [1]

I think that was what got me into Linux, despite years of losing access to wifi every time I updated and lost the Broadcom wifi drivers. My current laptop doesn't even have an ethernet port, I wonder how people get into Linux now.

[1]: The argument of "this laptop is resource constrained so it needs a simpler version of windows" seems weak when they go to such great lengths to enforce it. Maybe it was more about selling it for cheap and expecting some people to upgrade? Imagine paying $60 for windows for a <$150 netbook. (Maybe it was actually $200, I forget)

An 11" Chromebook maybe?

I'm done with classes as of last year but I just used pen & paper in all my schooling. I would rewrite my notes on a tablet after class though. It's more common to see people using iPads and Surfaces than when I first started.

I have heard that the latest chromebooks make it easier to switch into linux mode. I bought one a few years ago and had to go through some hacks to run linux, and every time I power it on, it would tell me to press space bar to "fix" everything and wipe the harddrive.

Was the tablet not a good fit for real time handwriting? Is it a bit slower than pen and paper?

Linux is better supported on Chromebooks now. Some of them have been officially blessed by Google to do it so there shouldn't be any problems like that.

Haha it was fine for real time handwriting, I just did that because it forced me to go through my notes again and I felt like using a tablet may have been more distracting for me and other people.

I used a Microsoft Surface Pro for a math course. It was great. The pen could be better but you learn to write with it.

Cool, did it have a physical keyboard? And if so, what was it like when using it like a laptop? That's my main aversion to a tablet, I would prefer a laptop so I could precisely angle a screen and the screen wouldn't be so heavy.

Also the price since I would almost exclusively use it for traveling.

Ah, I did. The type cover/keyboard is necessary. It works well in laptop mode while on a table. It is harder to use in laptop mode on a lap, but possible with practice.

The price is worth it, I think -- I have a friend who I convinced to get one, and lo after his research group saw him using one handful of people bought them as well :)

You can use a USB keyboard on it, and a tablet is more ergonomic when its not attached to a keyboard so you can position them differently. I really like the better ergonomics of a magic keyboard from Apple, but its too expensive compared to a USB/BT keyboard you can positon anywhere. Tablets are actually better for positioning, since you end up bending your back when using keyboards. https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MJQL3LL/A/magic-keyboard-...

Surface Pro 3 works great with linux when I used it, but you can't replace anything on it. If you just want to use a laptop you already have this is a good option. https://www.amazon.com/XP-PEN-Graphic-Drawing-Digital-Teachi...

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