My Ideal Libre Computer+Phone

I agree with the need for more hardware that runs free software with no black boxes.<p>But I disagree with the single device for everything mantra. A phone and a computer have vastly different usage contexts. And until we invent some sort of magic 100% efficient electronics, if that&#x27;s even possible, heat management of both will need to be different. On a similar vein, until we invent some sort of magic battery with orders of magnitude more energy storage density, energy management and consumption for both phone and computer will need to be different.<p>Until we make those physics-defying break thoughts, merging both use cases into a single device will either mean a constantly overheating, minutes-long autonomy phone, or an underperforming, underwhelming computer.

A man after my own heart! Thanks for explaining this. I&#x27;m looking for the same thing. We may quibble over details but the philosophy is spot on.

The weak link of a sound system is typically the speakers&#x2F;headphones. Speaking for myself the weak link for computing was monitors until about a decade ago, about the time everything was getting smaller.<p>I should switch to just a phone because the lack of multitasking (not in the cpu sense but the ordinary sense), the small screen, and the onscreen keyboard with no easy way to edit would make me use a computer about 95% less.<p>You can have my dual 27 inch 4k monitors, and my real keyboard with tons of customized shortcuts, my virtual desktops, and my EMACS 29 with lots of modes when you pry them from my cold dead hands.

The steam deck is a step in this direction.<p>Apple could easily do this with the iPhone and have it switch to macOS when docked, but obliviously won’t because they want to sell you two devices.

So get a 3D printer, a SBC devkit, altium license and subscribe to some online courses and go build it. No excuse today. I think you want it enough to write a blog post, but that doesn&#x27;t cut it. Is the idea everything? I don&#x27;t think this even qualifies as an idea actually, you just want an expensive iPhone&#x2F;Pad and an external monitor, and freedom from the fantasy that open source software is therefore automatically audited and more secure.