Thanks for the conversation. I’m a bit hurrying, so I’d try to squeeze my entire point into the message, in order to not forget to reply later, if I’d to postpone. I think I’d link a blog post at some later point, if you’d ever be interested in a more detailed story.

What I’m looking for is some kind of laptop/tablet mix for very light computing. Basically, I’d like to use some text editing for my blog (it’s not deployed yet, because there are a number of posts that I’d like to finish writing, they’re mostly in the draft state at the moment). I have very little time for it (work, kids, family, exhaustion), so I thought if I’d have some light laptop on me at some times, I’d use it instead of mindless iPhone scrolling. I don’t need Waydroid, since I have an Android smartphone lying around, unused. I’m quite good at Linux, so technically, even a 1 GB device would be useful for me. I think writing/editing texts (markdown files) and reading some epubs/pdfs would be 99% of my use cases for such a device. Hence, I don’t really care about cameras, speakers, even the sensor for rotating the screen (however, that would be handy for some reading-mode). Reading is possible from an iPad though (I have iPad 3 lying around at home, and I think I charged it about 3 times over 6 months, its battery life is insane!). A couple of hours of battery life is good, if I can charge that thing from a lying somewhere charger. Say, USB-C is ideal, microUSB is tolerable too, if I’d have some cable on me. That way, I’d just carry the thing in my backpack, and if I’m free somewhere (not at home), I could power it on, and do some light text editing.

Surface looks overpowered and too good for this, but since they’re quite cheap, and getting cheap over time, I think I’d buy one. Perhaps not very soon, I’ll see. I found some cheapo Chinese no-name brand locally, for $20, I think I’d go with it, just to play with the concept of such a device. I considered Chromebooks, they seem very good at what I’m looking for, but I think I’d just not take it with me all the time. While a 500…600 g device is not much heavier than a smartphone, so I could have it with me all the time. A couple of hours of Linux time with it sounds very good, if from a single charge.

Then, it depends. Theoretically, such a device with Linux… you know, I think I’d prefer it over iPad even for watching videos, but I’m not very sure. I’m having just the very first generation of iPad Pro, and it looks like even the next model (not to say about the next-next models) is very good for media consumption, the screen is just very good. But apart from consumption, I think I’d like such a device. My research today returned me the results that most of the things are supported quite good, and you confirmed it that the mainline kernel just works. I thought it’s quite ironic the device from Microsoft no less is such a good Linux tablet! I didn’t know Linux tablets were even a thing! It’s all about Android vs iOS these days, you know. On the software department, I find Linux mostly good, by the way. It covers most of my basic needs well, frankly, I realised it covers most of my needs. I haven’t used Windows for like 15 years now, but it’s not fair to say that since I am was an Apple guy. Last time I used macOS was in 2019, I think. I use SwayWM, it’s very lightweight, so I expect it would work quite good with any cheap and underpowered laptop. I cannot do much work-related tasks with such a device, and there’s no point. My main machine has 32 GB of RAM, however I don’t think I use more than 16, I just bought +16 a year or two ago, and it was a right decision, as I’ve got them for like $30 or something. But I think a device like that (a Surface with Linux) can do quite a lot, and not in an irritating way (looking at both Windows and iOS). Apple’s Desktop system, macOS, was very good last time I used it. But I still like Linux more, due to its do-it-yourself nature. (I use mostly Arch on my computers, and Fedora on shared computers, where less nerdy people might use them.)

Have to go now, thanks for your input again, have a nice rest of the day!