Dubai Stu

PCs on a stick are available but I think commandeering a screen, internet, and keyboard might be a chore. If you were going to a hotel room it might work with a foldable keyboard and a portable mouse, but not with hiker's accommodation. We are so close to having a laptop shell for a smartphone that works. Motorola tried with Atrix. Samsung has a Dexx workstation adapter which is close. Sentio has announced one for Android, but hasn't shipped it. Then there was the failed Canadian kickstarter project called Casetop. The newest one of these projects is the Mirabook.

I think you might be best with a cheap Chromebook that you don't care about with your data on a thumb drive that you keep with you.

LordHamster

I have a 12.9 inch iPad Pro and I love it. I use Google sheets for all my spreadsheet needs... and the large keyboard is very serviceable for all applications. Honestly if it weren't for a few legacy apps my firm uses, it would be all I travel with.

nkedel

I'd second the suggestion of a Chromebook. Many in the 1KG/just over 2lb category and very inexpensive -- e.g http://amzn.to/2mCivvP -- and I thought I'd seen a few as light as about light as about 1.8lb; lighter than an iPad Pro 12.9 + external keyboard would be. They're extremely cheap compared to a decent laptop and often cheaper than a tablet + external keyboard. They're MUCH handier than a tablet + keyboard (let alone something like a Raspberry Pi + monitor + keyboard.)

The cheaper ones won't have as nice a screen as a mid-range tablet let alone the higher-end Apple/Samsung ones, but the lower cost and handiness for real work may make up for that for media consumption especially in a backpacking scenario where theft is a worry.

If durability is an issue, Dell, Lenovo and I'm sure several others make Chromebooks specifically for the education market. I got one from Dell Outlet refurb for about $150 (with a coupon; the current equivalent model is about $200), and while it's heavier than the consumer models models (about 2.75lb) it seems pretty close to indestructible.

richarddd

Another vote for the small Yoga. Very nice little machine.

youranut

This is probably what I'm looking for. My other concern is leaving devices behind while I go do things. Let's say I'm climbing Kilimanjaro. I won't need or want a laptop/tablet with me. My phone to supply tunes and act as a camera will be all I want. Where do I leave the bulky devices until I return? This is the scenario that made me think of the micro PC. It wouldn't be noticeable in a backpack on Kilimanjaro.

youranut

Or better yet I need to learn how to keep a travel laptop "clean". Keep in in a state ready for theft. Is there a how-to somewhere for this?

nkedel

Windows 10 (and 8/8.1, but don't use them) has a "reset" function that wipes everything except the OS. You'd just need to reinstall your bare-minimum applications.

Other than that -- no how-to that I'm aware of, and with the need for security updates and laptops making it harder to swap drives it's a lot harder than it used to be. The absolute safest case would be to have a laptop with no regular HDD-installed OS at all -- just run it using a LiveCD (or LiveUSB, or a LiveCD image installed read-only onto the hard drive.) OTOH, you'd have to update that image fairly frequently.

I used to recommend just having a travel drive and a home-use drive, and swapping them (you'd need to run your security updates when you swapped the travel drive back in), and for machines where the drive is physically accessible, you can just do that still.

For that matter, if theft is the concern, isn't full-disk encryption good enough?

youranut

I'm not an expert on encryption or any other softwarey things. I just know several techies that say they can hack into any computer if they have enough time. I'm sure there are criminals that can do the same.

Your mention of reset gave me an idea. Could I back up the laptop to a flash drive, reset windows 10, then restore from the flash drive when I reclaimed the laptop? I'm talking an actual complete restore not just backing up files. Like I do when I upgrade iPhones

nkedel

Unless you're working at a particularly high profile public company, or some sort of public figure, criminals aren't going to bother. They might give a computer's data maybe a couple minutes to see if there's trivial identity theft opportunity (or porn/movies they can steal for fun, or porn of you they can use for blackmail, etc) but otherwise they're likely to be deterred easily in terms of looking for your data and simply wipe the machine for resale.

Moreover, I suspect your friends are bragging; TrueCrypt/VeraCrypt have been sufficient to keep federal law enforcement out, and iPhone encryption cost the government over a million to get a third party to crack one phone for the San Bernadino lunatics. There may well be better attacks available to intelligence agencies, but if so they're sufficiently secret that they are unwilling to share them with even federal level law enforcement.

You'd need a big flash drive, but yes. The amount of time involved is non-trivial; you wouldn't want to do it daily, but it's perfectly practical.

Randomness

I carry a cheap Chromebook. I save my files to a flash drive when I need to, or upload. Nothing stays on the hardware for long. Then I just leave it in my locked bag in the care of a hotel/hostel when I'm going on a sidetrip. No data to steal and an inexpensive piece of hardware.

If you're really paranoid you can powerwash the Chromebook before you leave it, but I think that's overkill. Still, that's a lot easier than backing up everything on a Windows laptop.

nkedel

Reset equivalent to power-wash is super-easy on Windows these days; a little slower. OTOH, once you're going to do that, there's no good way to get your apps back on quickly, and if you're not running native apps, Windows becomes serious overkill.

I suppose one could get a very fast flash drive, keep it on your person, and run all of your apps as portable versions from the flash drive. It's a thoroughly second-rate experience, though, and I'd stick to the Chromebook.

Randomness

Yeah, I was using shorthand to compare the entire process of resetting the Windows laptop and then having to restore all your apps onto it, to a Chromebook powerwash. Since most everything on the Chromebook works through the Chrome browser there aren't apps to install. I suppose it would be more comparable if there were a lot of Chrome extensions installed on the Chromebook, though installing Chrome extensions is much easier than installing Windows apps.

Also agreed about the idea of running all the applications from the flash drive being a second-rate experience.

KRSW

My company's "international" laptops are set up to VPN back to the mothership. When it comes time to cross the border, it gets wiped back to factory spec. When they get to their next hotel room, they reestablish the VPN and it'll download everything they need. If they need to use the laptop in flight, it's done inside an encrypted virtual machine.

hfly

There are plenty of PC's on a stick around. They are incredibly cheap, you will also need to lug around a keyboard and mouse, and have to find a screen and hope that it has HDMI, or that the HDMI hasn't been crippled on the TV, as many hotels do. So in addition to you computer that "is the size of a deck of cards" you are going to be carrying peripherals. That is just silly. I am looking across the room at the pile of Ipad's that have not been used in years as they are impossible to get real work done on (basically everything I did on my Ipad I do on my phone now). I have played with Chromebooks and the like and they have never been robust enough. Just use a good thin ultrabook like the Zen mentioned above, or the HP Spectre's or anyone of another half dozen 7th or 8th Gen i7's and you will be carrying around a decent screen, a lot of power and you won't notice it. Regarding all the fears of theft and other craziness above, I spend my entire life traveling abroad and maybe know one person who has ever had a laptop stolen from a room, phones on the other hand go missing all the time.

Dubai Stu

When I climbed K'jaro a decade ago, you could pay to store things at the hotel in town that all the climbers used. I want to say the Keyes hotel. Besides luggage storage, they also had lock boxes for rent behind the desk.