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@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ NOTE: Possible middle ways exist between full solar powered system and single so
{ The following is a summary of a simple setup I made and tested. ~drummyfish }
Firstly consider that many tiny devices are powerful enough to run some [GNU](gnu.md)/[Linux](linux.md) and even much weaker [bare metal](bare_metal.md) devices or calculators can still be very useful -- you can take a look at various [free hardware](free_hardware.md) computers, [open consoles](open_console.md), Chinese "retro gaming consoles", programmable [calculators](calculator.md), single board computers etc., even a modified "smartphone" (i.e. with some non-shitty OS installed) can probably do a good job at replacing a computer, you may experiment with all of these. To get a true "desktop like experience" one of the best choices for this is probably **[raspberry pi](rpi.md)**, it's a single board computer capable of running an OS and replacing your laptop, it is powered from USB, "[just werks](just_werks.md)" AND it has super low power consumption (maybe like 5 to 10 watts?) which will make it last very long, compared e.g. to a true laptop. The model tested here was 3B+. You'll plug in keyboard and mouse and then you'll just need some kind of display -- look up portable displays, you want some that's powered from USB as well (mustn't drain too much power though, so go for something small and simple), for example *zenscreen MB165B* is quite cheap and was tested to work with this setup. Then buy some kind of power bank, for example *Xiaomi Redmi 18W 20000mAh* was tested to work well here. This will serve as your battery, the nice thing is that power banks aren't that expensive and can easily just be replaced if they break or die and they're flexible -- you can unplug them, carry them somewhere to be charged in many different ways (if there is no Sun you'll power it up from a wall plug on some public toilet or something :D). Finally you just buy some kind of solar charger to charge the power bank -- you don't need a "real" solar panel, any kind of pocket charger that can power a USB device will probably do; again this won't be that expensive and can be easily replaced or complemented. One possible hardship may be with installing the USB display drivers (if you can get your hands on a similar display that works through HDMI instead of USB, it will probably be better because you won't need special drivers) -- they are usually proprietary, the driver for zenscreen caused some trouble here and crashed the OS sometimes, but it finally worked like this: install the old Raspbian OS (NOT the new Raspberry pi OS); it has to be the lite, command line only version, i.e. without GUI. Then update the system. Install some simple GUI system (e.g. lightdm plus dwm) but DON'T make it start automatically after boot. Then install the zenscreen driver; now the display works if you boot the raspberry with display UNPLUGGED and once it boots up (wait like a minute), plug in the display and start X server (`sudo systemctl start lightdm`, you can make a script named e.g. just *a*, so that you just type *a* on keyboard and press return). This is not ideal but it's a way. Also decrease the display's resolution and refresh rate to get better responsiveness and maybe even lower power consumption. Also turn off wifi if you don't use it, save power. The things will actually last very long, the power bank has great capacity and RPI consumes very little power, so it's much better than a laptop in this sense. You can now download pages and books from the Internet for offline browsing, install some simple games (even Freedoom seemed to work well), set up your programming environment and so on. Enjoy respobsibly :)
Firstly consider that many tiny devices are powerful enough to run some [GNU](gnu.md)/[Linux](linux.md) and even much weaker [bare metal](bare_metal.md) devices or calculators can still be very useful -- you can take a look at various [free hardware](free_hardware.md) computers, [open consoles](open_console.md), Chinese "retro gaming consoles", programmable [calculators](calculator.md), single board computers etc., even a modified "smartphone" (i.e. with some non-shitty OS installed) can probably do a good job at replacing a computer, you may experiment with all of these. To get a true "desktop like experience" one of the best choices for this is probably **[raspberry pi](rpi.md)**, it's a single board computer capable of running an OS and replacing your laptop, it is powered from USB, "[just werks](just_werks.md)" AND it has super low power consumption (maybe like 5 to 10 watts?) which will make it last very long, compared e.g. to a true laptop. The model tested here was 3B+. You'll plug in keyboard and mouse and then you'll just need some kind of display -- look up portable displays, you want some that's powered from USB as well (mustn't drain too much power though, so go for something small and simple), for example *zenscreen MB165B* is quite cheap and was tested to work with this setup. Also check out the smaller GPIO displays for RPI, they're quite cheap and nice. Then buy some kind of power bank, for example *Xiaomi Redmi 18W 20000mAh* was tested to work well here. This will serve as your battery, the nice thing is that power banks aren't that expensive and can easily just be replaced if they break or die and they're flexible -- you can unplug them, carry them somewhere to be charged in many different ways (if there is no Sun you'll power it up from a wall plug on some public toilet or something :D). Finally you just buy some kind of solar charger to charge the power bank -- you don't need a "real" solar panel, any kind of pocket charger that can power a USB device will probably do; again this won't be that expensive and can be easily replaced or complemented. One possible hardship may be with installing the USB display drivers (if you can get your hands on a similar display that works through HDMI instead of USB, it will probably be better because you won't need special drivers) -- they are usually proprietary, the driver for zenscreen caused some trouble here and crashed the OS sometimes, but it finally worked like this: install the old Raspbian OS (NOT the new Raspberry pi OS); it has to be the lite, command line only version, i.e. without GUI. Then update the system. Install some simple GUI system (e.g. lightdm plus dwm) but DON'T make it start automatically after boot. Then install the zenscreen driver; now the display works if you boot the raspberry with display UNPLUGGED and once it boots up (wait like a minute), plug in the display and start X server (`sudo systemctl start lightdm`, you can make a script named e.g. just *a*, so that you just type *a* on keyboard and press return). This is not ideal but it's a way. Also decrease the display's resolution and refresh rate to get better responsiveness and maybe even lower power consumption. Also turn off wifi if you don't use it, save power. The things will actually last very long, the power bank has great capacity and RPI consumes very little power, so it's much better than a laptop in this sense. You can now download pages and books from the Internet for offline browsing, install some simple games (even Freedoom seemed to work well), set up your programming environment and so on. Enjoy respobsibly :)
### How To Learn Compsci/Programming