To reply to the posts above:

I don't need an immensely powerful machine, just something which would run Debian smoothly, and the openoffice Writer and Impress in case I need to edit documents or presentations.

I'm thinking about a tablet with a "book cover" keyboard, something along the MS Surface Pro but less expensive. Anyone using something like this?.

First, have a look at the Lenovo Miix 510; it's not yet shipping, but it looks like it's going to be the best-priced reasonably equipped Surface Pro clone. Should be shipping any day now; the slightly pricier Miix 700 would also be an option.

Their various Yoga models aren't exactly the same form factor, but they tend to be some of the nicest all-in-one hybrids.

Dell makes two Surface Pro clones (somewhat related) -- the XPS 12 on the consumer side, and the Latitude 7275 on the business side. Both aren't much cheaper than the Surface Pro when new, but both are available much cheaper as refurbs (with full warranty) via Dell Outlet and both are even cheaper with the 25%-35% off coupons that are running most of the time. Should be able to get one really nicely equpped < $800.

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I'm using something vaguely like that, although the keyboard is a full clamshell and has a battery in it -- they have a soft-cover keyboard for it.

It's 11" but on the heavier side; delightfully compact and the battery life is absurdly good (I've made it through 12+ hours of light use), and it was really inexpensive as a refurb (under $400 - for something with a real, non-eMMC SSD, 8gb of RAM, and an i5, albeit a Y-series one -- e.g. the equivalent in the newer generations of the Core m5. The model is Dell Venue 11 Pro (7130); I don't think they're still available.

They also have a last-generation detachable clamshell, the Latitude 7350, which is probably heavier than you'd like in total weight, but which seems very practical for my "mostly a netbook, only occasionally a tablet" use. They're running around $450 on outlet after coupons.

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As for power, Debian will run on almost anything, and if you're patient, so will OpenOffice. It's just a question of how patient you are. Personally, I am on the impatient side even for "general use" and would want something at least as fast as an i5-4200U or i5-2520M -- the Y-series or Core m processors all feel very slow to me, even simply browsing.

Here's a tiny option, a computer the size of a usb-drive

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/...ute-stick.html

Thanks, I've seen those before. But it needs something to be plugged into + a screen & a keyboard, so it's not something I could just turn on and resume working wherever I am.

I tried to make the move to a SurfaceBook, and I don't think I've found a more dysfunctional product. I've had good experiences with the surface tablets, but I'm hesitant to recommend them after having so many issues with the SurfaceBook.

Both the Yoga 2 and Yoga 710 look like good options, and the 2 is a great deal at $330. Lenovo makes some fantastic stuff, and often has a hard to beat price point.

An Android phone can do most of what a laptop does, and should be fine as a short-term replacement. Otherwise, what's your budget? If money is not an issue, I'd check out either the LG Gram or the Asus Zenbook UX3xx.

For Linux compatibility avoid nVidia GPUs (usually not present in the "thin and light" segment anyway), other than that it should work fine; you might not be able to get the same battery life though.

I've had pretty good luck with Nvidia graphics and Linux with the latest (Haswell and newer) generations. OTOH, it's definitely still a "some assembly required" software and not something any of the common distributions support very well out of the box.

I use an iPad Pro + Google Remote desktop as my "backup." This means my "backup" is my personal mac sitting in my home office, which I access with Google Remote desktop via the iPad.

I also have OpenVPN on the iPad and an MS RDP client for accessing PCs on my network. I can use either method... and either way I'm not dead in the water in case of my main PC failing.

I was thinking of using an android phone as a backup, but there are two issues:
1. Screen size is way too small to allow any productive work. This could probably be solved by using an Android sub 10" tablet instead of a phone.

2. Getting a proper Linux OS installed side-by-side to Android seems like a risky affair.

Have you tried this? is the android device running some dual-boot loader which allows to select between Android or the Linux distro?.

Thanks

Even with a tablet, the need for a keyboard to do real work can be a problem. One of the smaller Chromebooks would probably be better than an android device, but from the "dual boot" (indeed, probably not strictly necessary; there are builds that can run real Linux software alongside the ChromeOS shell/apps) perspective and not dealing with an external keyboard these are preferable.

Also cheaper than the nicer Android 10" tablets, if slightly pricier than the cheapo tablets.

I haven't tried dual booting as I've never had the need. It's certainly doable on some devices if you wanted to do it this way (details to be found somewhere on forum.xda-developers.com) but I wouldn't bother and just install whatever UN*X stuff you need into Android (assuming it's shell-based).

Personally I find the 5.7" screen on my phone large enough for temporary work. The biggest issue is of course the lack of physical keyboard. One way to address it would be to get a BT keyboard -- something like the K480 from Logitech even includes a holder for the phone/tablet.

Or, you could SSH into the phone from any other computer you have access to at the moment: use Dropbear daemon as the server and set up public key authentication, keeping the key on a removable USB device you carry for basic protection against keyloggers.

There's also the "Hacker's Keyboard" for Android that emulates a full keyboard with all the modifier keys, and could work for very light, casual use although if you have to use it frequently this way it's obviously beyond inconvenient.

Android also does well with USB keyboards -- you just need a $2 OTG cable. I've found pairing bluetooth keyboards to be a bit fiddly, and even for wireless ones prefer the cheaper ones with a dedicated receiver.

Thanks for the detailed reply.

Say I needed LibreOffice apps like Impress or Writer, how can I install them onto an android system? they heavily depends on Linux libraries.

Agree. a BT connection can be a hit or miss, plus need to have spare batteries around, a bit too much hassle for travel.

Any suggestions for a usb-based compact keyboard with a phone/tablet built-in stand?

Cheers

I'm not aware of any solution for running X-based applications on Android, and for things designed for a traditional mouse and keyboard, the experience would be miserable.

There are some very cheap-to-very-cheap 8" Atom-based Windows tablets which can be reformatted to Linux, if you want something smaller than a Chromebook or Windows netbook-ish system.