Tinker ☀️Apr 3

Introducing the Tinker WriterDeck OS!

Convert any laptop and most chromebooks into a writer deck: A device designed solely for writing.

No distractions.
No internet.
No apps. No games. No social media.

Just writing.

The Tinker WriterDeck is very light weight and specifically seeks to lower the barrier of entry to creating writer decks. It converts older, reused, refurbished, or inexpensive laptops into a dedicated writing machine.

A digital typewriter.

The Tinker WriterDeck sits on top of a "headless" Debian Linux image and boots directly into a console based text editor.

We're using the Tilde Text Editor because it is a simple text editor, has an intuitive User Interface, and allows for customized color schemes for light and dark modes.

Operating System download and instructions on how to convert your laptop into a dedicated writer deck for free are found here: https://tinker.sh

See below for an example of the writer deck in light mode and dark mode.

If anyone has any questions or needs any help setting your laptop up, let me know here!

#solarPunk #linux #writerDeck #bookstodon #writing #writingCommunity #author #libraries

Tinker WriterDeck

A Writer Deck Operating System

Tinker WriterDeck
Show threadAlisonW ♿🏳️‍🌈♾️Apr 3
@tinker
You could even call it a "word processor" 🤔😉
Show threadTinker ☀️Apr 3

@AlisonW - That's EXACTLY what it is.

Here's the post that kicked it off: https://infosec.exchange/@tinker/114218443976182863

Tinker ☀️ (@tinker@infosec.exchange)

They used to make word processors... Like. Just turn the laptop on, and it was a word processor. A portable, electronic, type writer with a screen. I looked up the modern equivalent. The Freewrites and the like... and holy crap they're like $500. Are you kidding me?! I'm going to make a word processor. Be right back...

Infosec Exchange
Show threadAlisonW ♿🏳️‍🌈♾️
@tinker
(I designed the -possibly first- UK screen based word processor for Olivetti back in 1978*)
[edited to correct the year]
Apr 3 at 8:47pmWeb
Show threadTinker ☀️Apr 3

@AlisonW - WHAT?!?!?! NO FLIPPIN WAY!!!!

That is SOOOO fricken cool!

In pursuing this, @cinimodev introduced me to this community of folks who are buying and DIYing "Writer Decks" (Just a modern word for Word Processors now that Word Processor also (and typically) means the software itself and not the dedicated machine) - here https://www.reddit.com/r/writerDeck

There's still a desire and need for those old word processors. Some of the "modern" ones still cost a few hundred dollars (USD).

I was like... I have an old laptop... why can't I just have an OS that boots directly into a Text Editor / Software Word Processor right away instead of buying or building a new dedicated device.

That fact that you designed the original ones?!?! Holy flipping bits!

So cool.

Show threadAlisonW ♿🏳️‍🌈♾️Apr 3
@tinker @cinimodev
Yup, I even kept a copy of the program on 8" floppy for many years! Unlike modern editors where the page content stays still while the cursor / insert / edit point moves up and down I coded the line being edited to always be about ⅔rd the way down and the rest of the text to move up and down line by line. Much easier to design (so limited in storage back then!)
Show threadTinker ☀️Apr 4
@AlisonW @cinimodev - That's a really cool hack. I'm so used to the text adding a line below, but I can envision it staying at the same line.... heck it might even be preferable. Huh.
Show threadCaptain of the SS El FaroApr 4
@AlisonW @tinker @cinimodev 🤩
Show threadDom 🦻Apr 4
@tinker @AlisonW Both are so freaking rad. An OS that is just a text editor to boot on any* machine and then fedi meet a person who designed and created word processors! My wife and I both used the traditional word professors when we were in school in the 90s.