Can you 'work' with tablet/touchscreen only computers for home use?

eccerr0r · Advocate Joined: 01 Jul 2004 Posts: 2994 Location: USA

Right now I'm making this poll with a smartphone. It sucks. Typing this prose is a pain but it's very doable...but I can't imagine maintaining a machine with it... sshing to my server to emerge --world was painful...and that's not even starting to debug merge failures...

But this is probably 'atypical' use of computers. I suspect that posting this poll on f.g.o the answer would be quite skewed but it's still interesting... can you do without a physical keyboard and mouse and still be as productive for home machine usage?

Remember your financial usage and story writing if you do that kind of stuff on your computer...
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genstorm · Advocate Joined: 05 Apr 2007 Posts: 2238 Location: Austria

For typing, I've got a tablet with keyboard dock. Surprisingly, the keyboard, albeit small, is better to type on than the ThinkPad X230 (which is a shame). That way I can even do regular office work - until I need to print something.

Real work to be done - no chance with a tablet. Home use - mostly ok but you hit some walls.
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backend.cpp:92:2: warning: #warning TODO - this error message is about as useful as a cooling unit in the arctic

aidanjt · Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2013 8:46 am Post subject:

OSKs are horrible. They're tolerable for typing very brief messages, but that's it. If I was typing anything at length I couldn't do without a real keyboard and mouse.
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eccerr0r · Advocate Joined: 01 Jul 2004 Posts: 2994 Location: USA

For home use - is updating/creating a spreadsheet (or using something like Quicken or gnucash) enough to require a keyboard?

What do people use at home that would require a keyboard other than development/running Gentoo (which would drive me bonkers to do with a virtual or even abbreviated (i.e., non 101-key or even 84-key) keyboard...)
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Core-i7-2700K@4.1GHz/8GB RAM/180GB SSD/Intel HD3000 graphics
What the heck am I advocating?

juniper · l33t Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 756 Location: EU

genstorm · Advocate Joined: 05 Apr 2007 Posts: 2238 Location: Austria

eccerr0r · Advocate Joined: 01 Jul 2004 Posts: 2994 Location: USA

As I suspected so far, f.g.o users mostly report so far that keyboards are indispensable. I'm just trying to correlate this with the apparent drop in PC/laptop sales that seems to be happening with increase of tablet sales...
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Core-i7-2700K@4.1GHz/8GB RAM/180GB SSD/Intel HD3000 graphics
What the heck am I advocating?

pjp · Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2013 4:15 pm Post subject:

I'm still waiting for the tablet that is also a real laptop. That is, not some after-market looking keyboard dock BS. (Someone suggested an existing device that kinda-sorta met those requirements, but IMO, not quite).
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In Loving Memory
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eccerr0r · Advocate Joined: 01 Jul 2004 Posts: 2994 Location: USA

How should the keyboard be attached? The unfortunate part is that keyboards add quite a bit - double almost - of area and volume to the tablet computer...
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Core-i7-2700K@4.1GHz/8GB RAM/180GB SSD/Intel HD3000 graphics
What the heck am I advocating?

genstorm · Advocate Joined: 05 Apr 2007 Posts: 2238 Location: Austria

As said, the keyboard dock for the Asus Transformer Infinity is excellent. It also adds loads of battery time, I must say: very well executed.
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backend.cpp:92:2: warning: #warning TODO - this error message is about as useful as a cooling unit in the arctic

pjp · Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2013 5:35 pm Post subject:

pjp · Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2013 5:37 pm Post subject:

genstorm · Advocate Joined: 05 Apr 2007 Posts: 2238 Location: Austria

Nope, it's just like a laptop when docked. The only minor inconvenience: At some angle it becomes a bit top-heavy. Major: it lacks a nipple.
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backend.cpp:92:2: warning: #warning TODO - this error message is about as useful as a cooling unit in the arctic

pjp · Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2013 6:09 pm Post subject:

Yeah, the TrackPoint for me is a requirement, but that aside, what keeps it held in place? It looks like it only rests in the slot.
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lolgov. 'cause where we're going, you don't have civil liberties.

In Loving Memory
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genstorm · Advocate Joined: 05 Apr 2007 Posts: 2238 Location: Austria

It's quite a firm hinge, so the tablet just stays in whatever position you've left it. Only time will tell how solid it actually is though.
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backend.cpp:92:2: warning: #warning TODO - this error message is about as useful as a cooling unit in the arctic

pjp · Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2013 10:35 pm Post subject:

It looks like the tablet is secured into the slot solely on friction. I've not been impressed with that method of securing items together. Maybe it is sturdy enough that they expect it to last the consumable lifetime of the device. I can't see it withstanding the same usage as my x61 (excluding the drop).
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lolgov. 'cause where we're going, you don't have civil liberties.

In Loving Memory
1787 - 2008

genstorm · Advocate Joined: 05 Apr 2007 Posts: 2238 Location: Austria

The tablet is locked into the keyboard with two latches.

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backend.cpp:92:2: warning: #warning TODO - this error message is about as useful as a cooling unit in the arctic