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Open Source Hardware

All-Open Source 7-Inch MNT Reform Pocket Laptop Ships In October (arstechnica.com) 36

Posted by BeauHD from the what-to-expect dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The creators of the all-open source MNT Reform laptop are getting nearer to launching its handheld counterpart: The crowdfunding campaign for the 7-inch MNT Pocket Reform has officially launched and is also serving as a de-facto preorder system for the device. The cheapest version of the Pocket Reform starts at $899, and it's also being offered in purple for $969 or in a bundle with a 1TB SSD, carrying case, handbook, and poster for $1,299. All versions are currently slated to ship in mid-October.

Like the full-size Reform, the pocket version uses open source hardware and a mechanical keyboard (buyers can choose either white or red Kalih switches). But the pocket version uses a 7-inch 1920x1200 LCD screen instead of a 12.5-inch version and comes with fewer and smaller ports (two USB-C, one micro HDMI, a microSD port, and one ix industrial mini Ethernet port). Its keyboard also comes with an individually programmable RGB backlight, and its trackball-style pointing device has been downsized to fit into the smaller design. The Pocket Reform also includes built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, 128GB of built-in eMMC storage, and an expansion slot for 4G cellular connectivity. The device will also boot from microSD cards or an NVMe SSD installed in the device's M.2 slot. Its 8000 mAh batteries will allow it to run for about four hours. MNT warns in its blog post that "risks and challenges" could delay the October shipping timeline:

"Pocket Reform has hundreds of electronic components. We tried to pick them so that there will be enough stock when we get around to manufacturing the boards, but it's always possible that there could be a sudden component shortage or increase in price. If that should happen, we would have to re-engineer the affected PCB and exchange the part, causing a delay in continued production. We had to adapt our products several times during the global chip crisis, so we are confident that we'll be able to work around any difficulties. Should any situation arise that would delay the estimated shipping timeline, backers will be informed promptly via project updates."
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All-Open Source 7-Inch MNT Reform Pocket Laptop Ships In October More

All-Open Source 7-Inch MNT Reform Pocket Laptop Ships In October

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  • I wish them luck, because I think the only customers they'll have are those buying it as a matter of principle or in support of their cause / organization. The keyboard keys aligned in columns (ie the rows are not offset in the standard fashion) and the trackball would make it unusable for me. Especially at that price point.

    • True. For myself I'm now finding that 14 inch laptops are not a good replacement for 15 inch laptops, but leave it to marketing campaigns by Apple to stylize 14 and 16 inch models instead of the venerable 15 inch size. I have no use for a 7 inch laptop.

      • I have no use for a 7 inch laptop.

        I took an EEE701 to Panama and it was surprisingly adequate, at the time. I was running Jolicloud. Screen resolution was really my only issue.

        • Yup, my Eeek lasted several years and was most useful. Im just wondering why they selected dreadful keyboards for the MNT - that sure wasnâ(TM)t necessary.

        • I took an EEE701 to Panama and it was surprisingly adequate, at the time. I was running Jolicloud. Screen resolution was really my only issue.

          Those EEEPCs were awesome. Mine still works but nothing useful runs on it any more. I wish they'd bring them back with a high-def screen.

          You can actually get 7" laptops on Aliexpress.

          eg. https://www.aliexpress.com/ite... [aliexpress.com]

          • I can't go to aliexpress any more. I have only normal blockers and nothing of theirs blocked with noscript and the site no longer loads. So I guess I won't be buying any chinese 7" laptops :)

            I didn't change anything since I was able to go there, so I presume they feel they made some kind of improvements.

  • There is an important legal distinction, critical to the Free Software Foundation and the progress of vital tools like the Linux kernel itself.

  • This laptop reminds me of the original Asus Eee Netbook [wikipedia.org], except that thing was extremely inexpensive. This looks horribly cramped and tiny for what it costs. I'm not sure who the target market is for this thing.

    • Re:Wow, so bezel, such price (Score:4, Interesting)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday March 15, 2023 @08:55PM (#63374521)
      You can get those Asus EEE PCs for under 50 bucks now all day on eBay and I'm almost tempted to get one just to have it but I can't think of a use for it. I thought they were incredibly cool back in the day I remember the CEO of Asus going on a drunken angry rant because Microsoft basically shut down their Linux division by threatening the pull their OEM pricing for Windows.

      Pretty annoying though in hindsight that no antitrust investigation ever came from that. Heck I don't even think it made the news outside of here and a few other tech forms that we link to
      • I have fallen victim to every miniature laptop since the HP 200LX, then the Toshiba Libretto 50CT, and finally the ASUS EEEPC. The only one to this day that I genuinely liked (and used extensively) was the 200LX (the Libretto is a very close second though). I had a friend that had a Sony VAIO miniature laptop (don't remember the model) back in the late 90's that was really cool looking but under powered. Come out with powerful mini laptop with the same form factor as the 200LX loaded with Linux and I'll tak

        • I'm a sucker for mini laptops too - I had one of the eeePCs, would have loved an HP200LX and came very close to buying the DragonBox Pyra.

          At the end of 2021 I bought a GPD microPC. https://www.gpd.hk/gpdmicropc [www.gpd.hk]

          It depends on your definition of "under powered" but mine has an Intel N4120 CPU and 8GB of RAM. Linux doesn't come pre-installed but I found that Mint installed flawlessly from a USB drive. This little computer has spent a lot of time in my pocket riding public transport, with the inevitable knocks a

        • I think he might be asking for a little too much from a mini laptop. The focus on them is always been battery life and basic document management. In the early days that would have been word processing spreadsheets and maybe connecting to a database and maybe some terminal emulation and in the later days that means web browsing and maybe some light video use. As in watching some lower res videos online.

          There were Sony Vaios they could do what you wanted but they were crazy expensive. As in five or six th

      • I had one of the first gen Eee models. Those old Intel Celeron-M CPUs required a lot of patience to use, and I can't say I miss it. These days, if I just want to passively consume information, a tablet gets that job done fine. However, if I'm going to sit down and do something productive, I prefer a full-size laptop.

        If the price was right, I probably would still be up for buying a netbook sized laptop if it was powered by a Raspberry Pi CM4, since it would be something interesting to toy around with. Bu

      • No need to pay for 'em anymore, a guy I know heard I was "into computers" and last year he gave me an EeePC 1000.

        I installed a Ham Radio centric Linux distro on it, and it's up to the low power tasks I ask of it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DrXym ( 126579 )

        I still have one (in the cupboard) and it was a handy size, easy to use and tinker with although the storage capacity was too small. Biggest issue was the ASUS homebrew Linux on it really sucked and anyone considering the device would have seen that pretty fast. I had to reflash mine with Ubuntu and spent hours trying to get the wifi working properly.

        I later bought a more conventional HP Netbook running Windows 7 which I think was a more useful machine than the EEE PC. It worked out of the box for one thing

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dskoll ( 99328 )

          I also had an Eee 701, reflashed with stock Debian. I quite liked it, but it was painfully slow a lot of the time and it eventually just stopped working.

          I still have an Acer Aspire One running Debian. It's also painfully slow and a lot of software is dropping support for 32-bit x86 processors.

          Right now, I have a Pinebook Pro and it's decent. Fairly light, and although slow, it's not painfully slow for light editing / email / web browsing. And it was significantly cheaper than USD $899. That price p

    • I still use my EeePC 701 (Crunch Bang Linux) for writing and several other low power tasks, it's a great box.

      Certainly more svelte than this new MNT Reform box.

  • Would love to spend 14hrs straight without piss-breaks playing VIRUS on one of these. MNT's stuff makes Stacey's Mom look like week-old oatmeal. Did somebody hide my meds? Couchato. VIM. >

  • Damn, I'm a sucker for small form factor boxes and I still have my HP 200LX, Eee PC 701, GPD Pocket, and Eee PC 1000.

    I gotta say, that EeePC 701 was my fave and I used it a lot, especially after I installed Crunch Bang #! Linux (RIP).

    I've been following the progress of this MNT Reform Pocket Laptop for quite some time and keep being tempted to get one.

    But as much as I love the form factor, I hate the low spec's, so it's a reluctent pass for me.

    I really hope someone makes a smokin' netbook some day, I'll be

  • Damn, I just watched the "ad" for the first time, and now I want one sooo bad, but I just can't.

    The ad is very well produced and and it rings all my bells, but I just don't want to be disappointed again, dammit.

    Love the form factor so much, also because I don't own a car, only motorcycles, so travelin' light is the only way to fly.

  • I've had a Reform laptop for a few months. The MNT Research team is actie on their forum and answer questions from novices and experts alike. The CAD plans are online and FOSS. The software is online, being pulled upstream regularly, and builds are well-documented so you can run Debian, OpenBSD, etc. If you don't like the way a part looks or feels you can 3D print it the way you like it, and MNT may even "adopt it" as a purchaseable enhancement or you can do it yourself.

    There are no custom blobs for t

  • Remember those "Netbooks" from 2009? They're baaaaaaak!

    • The EEE701 was amazing in its day, but its Celery 900 (normally underclocked to 700) is worthless now and the screen is so small you'd be better off getting a budget cellphone and adding a keyboard.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DrXym ( 126579 )

        I still have one in my cupboard gathering dust. Didn't have much storage but I was able to squeeze an Ubuntu on it at the time and it was decent enough to whip out on a train trip to play around with.

  • Add a SIM slot and for god's sake (what a joke is 'optional'?), get rid of that bezel...

    Frankly if I had my way, which I seldom do in consumer products, I'd make a HTC Desire Z in 7 inch format with a current midrange CPU.

    • It has a whopping 4 hours of runtime. Nobody'd buy it as a phone.

      How can a tiny ARM laptop only have 4 hours of runtime?!

      And am I misreading this - it's 1.75 inches thick and weighs 2.4 pounds?!

      Sheesh, instead you could buy a used 11-inch Intel Macbook Air and put Linux on it. It'll be bigger, lighter, and have better battery life.

    • Add a SIM slot and for god's sake (what a joke is 'optional'?), get rid of that bezel...

      It's designed for a global market, so having a built-in GSM module would be tricky unless they want to remix the thing for every different region, and there would _still_ be people complaining that they used the "wrong" module. It uses an M.2 slot which are pretty standard, and this way it should also be a bit more future proof.

      But yeah, that's a big bezel. I'd love it if they had used that space for more screen real estate.

      • ...although at 1920 * 1200, that little screen does have good resolution. Better than many 14 inch laptops out there.

      • Actually, the situation with phones is worse than that. Thanks to 5G, there's basically no such thing as a carrier-agnostic global phone anymore. In countries like the US, your can't even settle for 3G and limp, because all the networks shut it down, and LTE is *barely* more interoperable than American CDMA2000 was.

        As of this moment, AT&T is basically locked down as hard as Sprint used to be... If your phone isn't literally AT&T-branded (or an iPhone, or small subset of Google-branded phones), AT

  • What the hell is that thing, and why would anyone want it in all seriousness? Yeah it's nice that it's open source and all, but it's underpowered and fugly. Apparently the keyboard can have disco LED backlights but can't have an ergonomic layout or even a space bar? Would it somehow take away from the project ethos if the thing was actually designed to be usable?

  • Are they still crushing beetles to make the purple?

  • For me, it would be hard to see and keyboard too small. For $900- 1299, I could buy a decent Windows laptop !

  • As mentioned, the CPU specs for this price is ... yeah, it isn't good.
    The 4 hour battery life? That is abysmal.

    A few people have mentioned these look more or less like what were called "netBooks" back in the day, which had a brief lifespan until tablets killed them off.

    So, who is this "reform" laptop actually aimed at? Where's the market?

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