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Here you have some answers to who'd use a laptop like this:

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31394866

> A separated device to write my blog or some short stories would be a godsend to me.

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31395049

> I'd love to use this for programming, or writing.

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31394890

> I would buy this indeed. I like working outside and it's not very good at the moment.

I already wrote in my comment that at most I can see very motivated writers wanting this device, so your first link is not an answer.

I already wrote in my comment that programming would be impossible unless you literally mean just writing code without actually compiling it and running it and testing it. If you have a stack to take care of, unless you are working with some mind-boggling lightweight stuff, this underpowered hardware would not work, so your second link is not an answer.

Third link is about some genering work that could be done which doesn't really tell me anything, so it's not an answer.

I used to hack on blender with a mind-boggling underpowered chromebook running fedora. And on a slightly less-boggling desktop box. Then they upped the minimum OpenGL version so I was left behind.

Also would compile pretty much anything I felt like playing around with where the only real limitation was memory…well, and time.

The world would probably be a better place if these “full stack” devs were forced to use underwhelming hardware so you don’t end up with 200mb downloads to view a simple webpage. Just my opinion.

You could've asked these questions without being so dismissive. This is clearly (currently) a single person's passion project, you don't need to come at them so hard.

As someone who switches between a Freewrite Traveller and an iPad with external keyboard for my creative writing workflows, let me be the first to say that there is an audience for that.

e-ink is for reading and writing, an underpowered laptop will work just fine for that. Heck, AlphaSmart Danas are doing fine for that and they have Dragonball CPUs at 33mhz.

Do not discount how pleasant it is to split the screen into two regions, have an eBook on one and and editor in the other so that you can write and research at the same time. I've used a 10'' Surface Go for a long time, it was a wonderful little machine. Being underpowered made me proactively conscious of what I was doing with it, which led to more focused work. Still, starting at the LCD for extended periods of time was not fun. I'd love to replicate that kind of setup with this new laptop.

The cult of model M has some truth in it. Yes it is a wonderful keyboard, but guess what, there are other good keyboards out there. They might not be Model Ms or unikey (or whatever the new makers of Model M are), but that doesn't mean they are crap.

You seem to be a developer since your comment is very focused on using this for development, which in my opinion is not where it would shine the most. Still, you could totally use an underpowered e-ink laptop as a development machine if you have an internet connection and leverage cloud services for a ton of stuff. A lot of developers are just pushing stuff to CI/CD pipelines anyway.

You're clearly not in the audience for this, but if you just do a bit of research around how much creative writers love their Freewrites, AlphaSmarts (no e-ink unfortunately), Pomeras, and other distraction free devices, you'd see that maybe some people would find this very appealing.

Honestly, your tone is horrible. You seem to be venting and I'd suggest you think about why, for your own sake.

Your dismissive tone is almost comical.

I'd personally love to have an e-ink laptop. Currently it's unthinkable for me to be in a beautiful spot in the sunshine while doing some light coding or writing. Seems like this product would make it viable to some extent. I wouldn't expect it to become a daily driver though.

If it were convertible (folding) it would be even better.

It's a cool open-hardware and open-source project. What are you so worked up about?

>It's a cool open-hardware and open-source project.

this is very disingenuous. it's a product being developed by a company. this isn't some github repo with a few images of an open source e-ink reader made by some hacker guy, this is a proper thing that is being designed, developed and maybe pushed to the market.

and to me, if you're a company developing a product you should at least make sure its basic existence is justified. nobody has yet told me why this product has any real use.

Isn't that for the market to decide? It's not like they're using public funds for R&D, if people want it they'll pay for it and if they don't they won't.

>Isn't that for the market to decide?

I couldn't care less about the market. I am personally not in the slightest convinced by this product and I specifically asked other people to please tell me why they would want it. I just really dislike bullshit products (not projects) that lead nowhere and brain drain the open source world.

Personally I’d probably be a lot more productive without the YouTubes sucking me in whenever I have time to do stuff other than my job.

I read pdfs on my laptop, code using gedit without any fancy plugins for code highlighting or whatever and drop to the terminal if I need to mess with stuff. Hell, the majority of the time surfing the interwebs is in reader view on my iPhone, like a good 90% of the time.

Plus, you are in no way entitled to the brain power of anyone who you are not directly compensating for their labor.

> nobody has yet told me why this product has any real use.

Maybe nobody owes you an answer?

There's one reason alone that I'd be interested, but it's a pretty big one: to work outside in the sunshine without a washed-out screen. For this purpose all I'd need is Emacs to run, and I'd be golden.

Being able to work outside would be fantastic for my well-being, and I'd accept quite a lot of compromise to get that.

I'm unclear, how you feel about this project. :P

Joking aside, I still think this could be an interesting product for a certain small niche of writes that want an easy to read, and to work slowly with a keyboard based experience.

The sort of person that would write using either WordStar or Vi. The sort of person that might still use a typewriter. very niche.

You mention keyboards but that's te thing about them, preference is very subjective.

My self I have an original Made in Scotland Model M and a Cherry Brown Pok3r sitting on a shelf, gather dust.

They're not for me and I don't enjoy using them.

It turns out I find typing on short travel laptop keyboards much more comfortable. I do almost everything via the keyboard so it one of the most important aspects of any computer for me and I choose something different from you.

Different users, different use-cases, different products.

ps I love eInk but this is not probably not for me either but I'm not discounting that it is for someone.

This product ? I don't know,it's still vaporware so far. But e-paper is very comfortable on the eyes, is readable in sunlight and requires low power.

The person you're replying to suggested they already have a 10.1" e-ink tablet that meets the criteria.

Oh and it must have a keyboard and run Linux.

I never understand the argument for less distractions, it is as if one cannot manage to focus themselves, and needs an external entity to behave properly.

Don't want to be distracted by XYZ? Turn it off.

This sounds just like the "Don't be poor" solution for economic problems that has been floating around.

Your devices are made to extract attention from you these days. The companies that makes them and the online services most of us use derive their money from the time we spend using their services (so they can profile us or upsell us). It is all designed to interrupt you and draw your attention in.

As a writer, let me say that it is increasingly hard to be focused for extended periods of time while writing if I don't switch to a either a distraction-free device or switch all the stuff off like you said. These distraction-free devices reduce friction in being focused, not only they don't provide distractions but since they are built around the notion of focus, just picking one up puts you on a more focused mindset. Much like putting on some apron puts some people (mostly me) into a cooking mindset. I'm totally able to cook without my apron, but wearing it is part of the ritual. These devices are a tool and also a prop to help us focus.

Still looks like nany state, kind of thing to me.

Be careful of thinking that your own personal experience of something can be extrapolated to other people. Each of us experience distraction and lack of focus differently. What may not be an issue for you, might be a big thing to others.

That manifestly doesn't work very well

If people need someone else to focus themselves, yes it isn't working very well.