A terminal shaped like a laptop?

January 26, 2007 6:46 PM

I would like a dumb terminal - keyboard, mouse, and monitor - that's physically shaped, more or less, like a laptop.

I would like to be able to connect to my main (tower case) computer from various places in my house.

I know that I could run some sort of remoting software. I'm not interested in that. I just want a dumb terminal. Doesn't have to have a drive, or even a CPU.

And I know that I could get a KVM splitter/extender, run over ethernet, to a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. That's basically what I want to do, but:

I find laptops physically convenient. I like having one on a end table right next to my easy chair, picking it up and actually using it on my lap, and folding it up and putting it back in its unobtrusive spot on the end table.

So I would like that keyboard and monitor to be shaped, more or less, like a laptop (the mouse is not as much of an issue - worse comes to worse, I would hook up directly to the KVM extender).

Any ideas? Thanks.

posted by Flunkie to computers & internet (5 comments total)

I don't know of any laptop shaped dumb terminals, but you can emulate one with an x86 laptop and COMM software.

I used a Toshiba 1200 like this a long time ago - a 3.5" floppy disk had DOS and booted directly into the COMM software.

Just find the oldest and cheapest machine you can. Most of the old ones will still have serial ports.
posted by b1tr0t at 6:58 PM on January 26, 2007

A Toshiba 1200 is not going to give you a color display, let alone work on the end of a KVM splitter. But you can probably pick up an old (say, P3-500) Thinkpad and a 802.11b wireless card for less than the price of an Ethernet-based KVM, let alone KVM and a laptop-shaped display and keyboard.

I used a Thinkpad 570E for this for a while. I ran Linux and X because that's what I needed, but running Linux or Windows and a terminal server/RDP client would work just as well. These days I'd expect a similar laptop to go for around a hundred bucks on ebay. For extra savings, go for one with a dead battery, since it sounds like you'll be within adapter range when you're using it anyhow.

(I specifically mention Thinkpads because they tend to have a better chance of having survived all that time than many other makes, because parts are easy to find, and because the manuals needed to take them apart to replace parts when necessary are available online from IBM.)
posted by mendel at 7:38 PM on January 26, 2007

They make these kind of things for use in server racks, but they are stupid expensive. Most cost well over a grand and at that price, you might as well get a laptop and use VNC or the like. Here's a random one I googled up if you care to check it out.

Rackmount LCD, keyboard, touchpad thingy
posted by advicepig at 8:17 PM on January 26, 2007

Neoware m100 is a laptop thin client. I can't find for sure what it supports, but I assume it supports RDP, SSH, Telnet, and VNC like the rest of NeoWare's products. At about $800 however, I would suggest you go find a used laptop.
posted by fief at 12:15 PM on January 27, 2007

Wow, I was just was telling someone that if I could buy such a thing (cheaply) for my home, I would. 90% of the time I use a laptop via wireless, but I'd much rather invest in a monster desktop and have all my files and software in one place without bothering to set up a home network.

If I dump some wine on the dumb terminal keyboard while I'm cooking from an online recipe, I'm only out $250 or so. And with no fancy processor or hard drive running, the power consumption should be minimal.
posted by nev at 12:18 PM on January 27, 2007