I tend to be practical about my tech, trying to keep using things as long as they’ll work. That said, it’s been an interesting thought experiment to imagine what my setup would look like in my ideal world, both hardware and software.
computers
This is probably the most fanciful (and expensive) adaptation of my current setup, so I’ll go ahead and lead with it.
Since developing an interest in analog tools, I’ve also been adapting my expectations toward computer use:
- I want using analog tools to be my default mode, and any use of computers to be an intentional choice.
- I would like to have a dedicated space for using computers, and not to lie around anywhere on my laptop.
- I still do need to be able to travel with my setup without losing any major functionality.
- I’m trying to make more and more of my tasks possible to complete offline or with intermittent network connections. For example, I’ve altered my email setup to run off of a local copy of all my emails that syncs with the server when I’m online.
With that in mind, let’s catalog essential tasks I’ll need to be able to do with my devices:
- I need to be able to write; even though I do much of that on paper, now, I eventually transcribe and edit work digitally. I’m not worried about this, since my preferred editor,
neovim, should work on any hardware/software platform. - I need to be able to work on my coding projects. While development work can be compute-intensive, I mostly do web development or work on otherwise-lightweight projects. Again, this should work on most hardware/software platforms.
- I need to be able to keep in contact with friends and family. Most people I’m close to live in different time zones, so messaging and video calls are a requirement (a little more on that later).
- I need some entertainment. While I don’t necessarily need my full video game library when traveling, it would be nice to be able to carry and use a decent supply of e-books, videos, music, and maybe a few lightweight or emulated games. This imposes some storage requirements, as well as the computing resources to use whatever entertainment I stockpile.
Considering all this, I think my ideal setup would involve two main computing devices (I’ll mention my phone later):
- A desktop-style computer that stays in place at a desk.
- A lightweight laptop of some sort to travel with. It wouldn’t need very intense computing resources, though strong battery life would be nice.
My Framework Laptop is pretty great, but a lot of that greatness is in the computing power, which I’m very happy with, and not the peripherals, form factor, etc. As a main computing device, I don’t see myself being able to pass it up with a desktop computer that’s more useful to me.
So, my idea? Convert it into a desktop. Framework sells a specially designed case for the mainboard which is very compact and fits my desires perfectly with hardware I already mostly have. Implementation cost: $40 (plus whatever a decent monitor costs)
For the travel device, I have to go with my dream portable device: the MNT Pocket Reform. Notably, I don’t think this would work as my primary computing device, but as a traveling tech setup? It would be amazing and perfect. (With the possible exception of battery life, but I could make it work.)
As an ARM device, software support would be more limited than my Framework laptop, but for my main productive tasks, this shouldn’t be an issue. While it likely wouldn’t be able to play most of my games, I should be able to get a couple lightweight emulated games running to keep me engaged, and it would of course be able to manage my e-books, downloaded webcomics, music, and so forth, particularly equipped with a 1TB SSD to store downloaded media. Implementation cost: $1250
I don’t see myself actually putting up the cash to buy a Pocket Reform any time soon, and without it, it doesn’t make sense to convert my Framework Laptop into a desktop. But it’s nice to know the dream. And, knowing the basics of what I need, if I spy a different, cheaper device that would fill in the “travel device” role, I can recognize that.
Alternatively: I already have an old Inspiron n411z which is an amazing device, but more bulky and I don’t have a working battery for it. If I can track down a reliable battery replacement (tips welcome; I’ve been burned once already), it would be a great secondary device, though, again, it’s a little bulky and heavy. I could also look into replacing the hard drive with a solid state drive. Implementation cost: $25-125
reading
To me, the ideal case is doing most of my reading in physical books. That would rock. But realistically, I’m gonna be doing a ton of reading digitally:
- I have digital magazine subscriptions, most notably to Clarkesworld
- I read a ton of blog posts, notably via web feeds
- I simply don’t have the space to store or money to buy all the physical books I wish I had
- E-books are far better when I’m traveling, for both space and weight.
books
I think the obvious top contender for e-books is an e-reader (reading on a computer or phone is a pain). I have a Kindle, managing books for it through Calibre, which works just fine for this task.
That said, I do wish my e-reader had physical page turn buttons. I still have an old Kindle 4 with them, but the screens on those were really sensitive and this one’s has acquired issues with partial refresh that can make the screen unreadable.
Estimated implementation cost: $0 if I stick with my current hardware (most likely), $30 if I buy a refurbished Kindle 4 to get back those page turn buttons (but this would be less durable and wouldn’t have a light for reading in dark environments), $100-150 if I bought a current model of e-reader, most likely from Kobo (I don’t see myself doing this unless my current Kindle breaks; the cost isn’t worth the gains, but hey, we’re talking about my dream setup).
Hey, and while I’m dreaming, I wish there were more sources of DRM-free, affordable e-books out there. I can make do with what exists, though.
feeds
Currently, I read my feeds on my laptop or phone. In my ideal setup, I’d have my feeds on my e-reader like my books.
Calibre has some built-in RSS feed functionality, but in my experience it feels a bit clunky and not really the way I want to consume my feeds. KOReader’s support for feeds seems like a better bet to me, though I haven’t been able to get KOReader running on my main Kindle, so that might not be a feasible solution for me at the moment.
Whatever device I end up reading my feeds on, I want to make some adjustments. I think a serious problem with my feed reading habits is that I place an expectation on myself to read every item that comes in, which isn’t really healthy.
I want to read these posts, but I’d rather make intentional choices to read feeds for a set amount of time than compulsively check for new articles. I’d let any posts I don’t get to simply disappear after a certain amount of time, to keep the queue from becoming overwhelming or giving me an excuse to procrastinate on my work to get things read.
I’ve done some brief work experimenting with building a tool for this, but haven’t gotten far as of this writing.
listening
I have two primary categories of listening: music and podcasts.
Ideally I’d like to have one dedicated device that takes care of both tasks. Now that I have a Tangara, I can do that, at least with regards to hardware.
That said, I haven’t actually started listening to podcasts on it, as the support is still being worked on. Most important to me, I listen to podcasts at 1.5x speed, which the Tangara does not yet support. I’d have to transcode the audio files themselves when I load them on to the device, which I haven’t taken the time to script, yet.
Estimated implementation cost: $0 (my ideal music setup is fully achieved; podcasting requires some software work.)
messages
This is the most fanciful section of this post.
I want to be able to use a single messaging app with everyone I communicate with that doesn’t require a phone to be i the loop. I’d want to be able to run a lightweight client on my computer, ideally in the terminal. End to end encryption would be nice.
The closest possibility I see is Delta Chat, though some work would be needed, particularly toward the “lightweight client” end. Also, I don’t know anyone who uses it.
Estimated implementation cost: $0 (it’s just a software wish, but not likely to happen without a lot of social/community work to get everyone I contact to adopt whatever I land on)
Another note, it would be nice to have a way to separate out general chat messages and discussion from time-sensitive requests that need my immediate or quick attention.
phone
I’m gonna be honest, I don’t actually care about my phone and actively avoid using it. Barely at all. All I need:
- Calls.
- Basic SMS, I suppose.
- I’ll admit, having a camera built-in is rather nice (though I wish I had a better workflow for backing those photos up to my computer).
Most things people do on a smartphone I preferentially do on my computer, so see that section above.
I currently use an iPhone SE (2020). It completes all my needs and I’ve tried to cut it down to be as minimal as possible. I could probably make do with a dumb phone, but I currently need to be able to use a couple apps for uni, and I figure someday might have similar requirements for something even after uni, and of course there are stupid messaging apps like Signal that require you to have a smartphone even if you only use the desktop client. I’ve had it since 2022 (handed down) and I don’t see myself replacing it for at least five more years, maybe a decade or more. The only hardware short-falling is that the charging port has been increasingly finicky.
Estimated implementation cost: $0
conclusion
When I first started writing this post, I was expecting to have a lot of pricey desires. (Worth noting: I didn’t have a Tangara yet at that point.) The more I look at this problem, though, the more I’ve realized how close to this I can get with the hardware I have and a little time working on software or finding replacement parts.
It may not be my “dream” to do things that way, but there’s no reason not to move my current setup closer to that dream just because I can’t completely reach it yet. After all, the pursuit of that dream will help me better evaluate it and create new and better dreams.
What’s your biggest dream for your tech setup? I’d love to hear about it.
