6 ms·

I have one of these in a closet and wondered for years about how to turn it in a distraction free word processor/simple digital typewriter. Always loved the ne

I have one of these in a closet and wondered for years about how to turn it in a distraction free word processor/simple digital typewriter. Always loved the netbook form factor, and they were cheap! Funny thing is that probably I also have some 2GB DDR2 stick somewhere. Last thing I need to check for is the battery, I presume it is completely down after all those years. Anyway, this article will be very handy for this side project. Thank you!

atoav 2mo ago
I would say, you install a lightweight Linux, boot directly into your favorite distraction free editor at full screen and sync the files back to phone and big computer via something like syncthing/Nextcloud/etc. As for which editor that is, it depends a little bit on your needs, but there are ones specifically geared towards being distraction free like https://ghostwriter.kde.org/ https://ghostwriter.kde.org/ Although markdown may not be what you're after. I personally consider formatting another form of distraction, ao this would be a plus for me. But if you write math-heavy papers, going with something else like Typst or LATeX may be a better choice.
- achairapart 2mo ago
  Thanks! Ghostwriter is a really good candidate. I mostly use iA Writer on my mac and they seem to share the same philosophy.
pjerem 2mo ago
I'd install HaikuOS on it.
drdexebtjl 2mo ago
I tried this a while back. The main problem was that their keyboards are usually terrible.
marttt 2mo ago
Re: distraction free writing machine -- another option would be a FreeDOS/SvarDOS-based system: https://www.theregister.com/software/2025/04/26/build-your-own-antisocial-writing-rig-with-dos-and-a-usb-key/807864 https://www.theregister.com/software/2025/04/26/build-your-o... No kidding. Lots of fun to see a system actually boot in about 1 second. That aside, I've installed all kinds of systems on my trusty 2009 Dell Mini 9, a fanless netbook. For years, this was a CLI-only Tiny Core Linux system, currently running SvarDOS. While on Linux, I even used it to live record 1,5-hour long radio shows via an old Mbox2 audio interface and some CLI recording software. Created a huge ramdisk just in case, but everything went well. Netbooks are weird and interesting machines.
- achairapart 2mo ago
  Thanks! This is really really tempting, but I guess this leaves Wi-Fi on the table, right? I want to run it offline, but still be able to sync my writing on-demand when I'm done.
  - marttt 2mo ago
    Yeah, wifi on DOS is doable, but very limited in speed and not exactly straightforward to set up (so much that I haven't seriously considered trying myself). Here's an overview and a writeup: https://help.fdos.org/en/hhstndrd/network/wifi.htm https://help.fdos.org/en/hhstndrd/network/wifi.htm https://www.os2museum.com/wp/wireless-networking-in-dos/ https://www.os2museum.com/wp/wireless-networking-in-dos/

atoav 2mo ago

I would say, you install a lightweight Linux, boot directly into your favorite distraction free editor at full screen and sync the files back to phone and big computer via something like syncthing/Nextcloud/etc. As for which editor that is, it depends a little bit on your needs, but there are ones specifically geared towards being distraction free like https://ghostwriter.kde.org/ https://ghostwriter.kde.org/ Although markdown may not be what you're after. I personally consider formatting another form of distraction, ao this would be a plus for me. But if you write math-heavy papers, going with something else like Typst or LATeX may be a better choice.

achairapart 2mo ago
Thanks! Ghostwriter is a really good candidate. I mostly use iA Writer on my mac and they seem to share the same philosophy.

pjerem 2mo ago

I'd install HaikuOS on it.

drdexebtjl 2mo ago

I tried this a while back. The main problem was that their keyboards are usually terrible.

marttt 2mo ago

Re: distraction free writing machine -- another option would be a FreeDOS/SvarDOS-based system: https://www.theregister.com/software/2025/04/26/build-your-own-antisocial-writing-rig-with-dos-and-a-usb-key/807864 https://www.theregister.com/software/2025/04/26/build-your-o... No kidding. Lots of fun to see a system actually boot in about 1 second. That aside, I've installed all kinds of systems on my trusty 2009 Dell Mini 9, a fanless netbook. For years, this was a CLI-only Tiny Core Linux system, currently running SvarDOS. While on Linux, I even used it to live record 1,5-hour long radio shows via an old Mbox2 audio interface and some CLI recording software. Created a huge ramdisk just in case, but everything went well. Netbooks are weird and interesting machines.

achairapart 2mo ago
Thanks! This is really really tempting, but I guess this leaves Wi-Fi on the table, right? I want to run it offline, but still be able to sync my writing on-demand when I'm done.
- marttt 2mo ago
  Yeah, wifi on DOS is doable, but very limited in speed and not exactly straightforward to set up (so much that I haven't seriously considered trying myself). Here's an overview and a writeup: https://help.fdos.org/en/hhstndrd/network/wifi.htm https://help.fdos.org/en/hhstndrd/network/wifi.htm https://www.os2museum.com/wp/wireless-networking-in-dos/ https://www.os2museum.com/wp/wireless-networking-in-dos/