> Can we stop with this absolute fantasy about PCs that "fit in your pocket"?
No, because it isn't fantasy and i want those PCs that "fit in my pocket" - after all they do exist, see GPD's pocketable PCs.
> Smartphones have been "pocketable PCs" for more than a decade already
Smartphones have their on OSes, UX, applications, etc. The point of projects like GPD Win or the one linked above is to run the same programs, OS, etc as you'd run on a regular laptop or a desktop PC.
And this is something that can be useful, even if it isn't at the same frequency as a smartphone - they do not have the same use after all.
Personally i have a GPD Win 1 which is pretty much the same form factor as the pocketable PC linked in the article (actually it is better IMO because the joysticks and back buttons it has are used very naturally to move the mouse cursor on the desktop and act as a mouse). I do not use it daily but whenever i want to go somewhere briefly and need a PC (e.g. i need to show a project of mine to someone), i pick that up instead of my laptop: it is much lighter (its weight barely registers), it fits in my fanny bag next to my smartphone and provides pretty much the same functionality as a regular laptop - it is just weaker and slightly more awkward to type on. But i'm not going to write code for hours straight on it anyway, so it doesn't matter. However i do use the keyboard frequently, for command line or shortcuts or whatever, and it is miles better than something like Termux and/or the virtual touchscreen keyboards you'd find in smartphones (which with swipe typing are decent but fail at everything else).
The main issue with the linked PC is that it is ARM instead of x86 which IMO limits its utility. I can run any old application on my GPD Win 1 and for my own applications i can just copy the binaries to it directly but for something like the MNT Pocket i'd need to cross compile just for it and it is limited to stuff that i can do that.
I think you're being extremely vague about the things you are using your GDP for. Nothing you've written strikes me as something that couldn't be achieved with a proper I/O module attached to a smartphone.
I could actually work on it. Good luck getting any reasonable IDE experience, a compiler, a debugger, etc working on Android or iOS. Real image editing, the Godot editor, Blender, web dev tools, LMMS, etc.
The most limiting bit about phones is the OS itself. You could hypothetically get most of these things working on phone OSes, but only for a massive amount of effort to port something for a single-digit number of users. I don't even know how you'd get a compiler going, but I suspect it would be a non-starter on iOS.
> Smartphones have their on OSes, UX, applications, etc. The point of projects like GPD Win or the one linked above is to run the same programs, OS, etc as you'd run on a regular laptop or a desktop PC.
Sure, an Android device could probably be hacked to do that. But most Android devices are usually locked-down, whereas the GDP & friends make it a point to be open.
I guess we should probably push for more openness from smartphone vendors (including Apple) instead of having yet another different device. Especially since now everything and the kitchen sink connects via USB-C. I'd absolutely love to be able to plug my phone in the USB-C dock at work instead of lugging around a laptop (which I use on top of a desk tethered to some fat screen and external keyboard like 99% of the time anyway).
At one point, I remember Samsung had something like that on their Galaxy line (DEX? can't remember the name). I was actually ready to pull the trigger on a tablet with that feature. Luckily, I found out they had just or were about to remove it.
DEX was and still is a thing. There newer were plans to remove it. The only thing that was abandoned was the full Ubuntu VM support. But majority of that capability can be replicated with termux
No, because it isn't fantasy and i want those PCs that "fit in my pocket" - after all they do exist, see GPD's pocketable PCs.
> Smartphones have been "pocketable PCs" for more than a decade already
Smartphones have their on OSes, UX, applications, etc. The point of projects like GPD Win or the one linked above is to run the same programs, OS, etc as you'd run on a regular laptop or a desktop PC.
And this is something that can be useful, even if it isn't at the same frequency as a smartphone - they do not have the same use after all.
Personally i have a GPD Win 1 which is pretty much the same form factor as the pocketable PC linked in the article (actually it is better IMO because the joysticks and back buttons it has are used very naturally to move the mouse cursor on the desktop and act as a mouse). I do not use it daily but whenever i want to go somewhere briefly and need a PC (e.g. i need to show a project of mine to someone), i pick that up instead of my laptop: it is much lighter (its weight barely registers), it fits in my fanny bag next to my smartphone and provides pretty much the same functionality as a regular laptop - it is just weaker and slightly more awkward to type on. But i'm not going to write code for hours straight on it anyway, so it doesn't matter. However i do use the keyboard frequently, for command line or shortcuts or whatever, and it is miles better than something like Termux and/or the virtual touchscreen keyboards you'd find in smartphones (which with swipe typing are decent but fail at everything else).
The main issue with the linked PC is that it is ARM instead of x86 which IMO limits its utility. I can run any old application on my GPD Win 1 and for my own applications i can just copy the binaries to it directly but for something like the MNT Pocket i'd need to cross compile just for it and it is limited to stuff that i can do that.