Building a writerDeck for editing.
To start this off, I plan to pick up a Freewrite in the near future as a first draft device. I have two typewriters that I love to pieces, but I'm in a masters program. It's one that's closely related to creative writing, so I need to be able to draft work quickly. Also I'm supposed to start work on a thesis / book, and I'm going to have to turn in pages. So working with a typewriter, although fun, isn't practical.
So the Freewrite will work for me, but the re-writing, the editing, correcting, re-arranging text, I'm going to need a more featured word processor, and ideally I would like it to be as distraction free as possible. Originally I was playing with the idea of finding an old word processor machine like this one, but bringing it into a modern process could be difficult, expensive (I'm already going to be shelling out for the Freewrite after all), and might not be reliable because of the old hardware. I was also thinking about building a machine from Raspberry PI — but it felt like when it was all said and done it was too much work.
So I started thinking about what I would want in this machine -
- Cloud connectivity, where my work is automatically backed up, and accessible on other machines. Also I'd want to be able to drop in a couple of files from my work computer if something comes up.
- Able to read any research files, PDFs, images, etc.
- Shut off from the rest of the internet, no Wikipedia, Google, no online dictionaries, AI chatbots, social media, and so on.
- However, it can access Apple Music or Spotify, and the CMS for my blog.
- A modern word processor. So I can copy, paste, rearrange, create copies, export to different formats, etc. Also I'd like to be able to open more than one document at a time.
- Easy to set up, nice keyboard, good screen, The screen doesn't need to be e-ink, but it does need to have a nice clean resolution. Also it would be nice if I could have some fun customizations like wallpaper. So it goes without saying I want this WriterDeck to be more graphical.
Obviously, starting off with an old laptop is the beginning. I have a 2015 Macbook Air kicking around. Except for the battery, it's in great shape.
I was thinking WriterDeckOs, and it's a good project, but I didn't feel like it would work for me here.
So then I installed Linux Mint. I got it on the Airbook easily enough, but getting it to install apps and customizing it to be what I needed was a pain in the neck. I didn't want to spend my time fighting with the machine when I should be working.
So I remembered that I was playing around with ChromeOS Flex a year or so ago, and it's installable on the old Airbook. I realized if I install it, and if I use a "child" profile. Like a profile with parental locks, I can lock everything out but Google Drive, Google Docs, my blog, and Apple Music. I can then set up a shared folder with my main Google account so I can easily move files in and out of that ecosystem. Also when I do get the Freewrite, it'll be pretty easy to get the files onto the editing writerDeck.
And as a bonus, its a real laptop, so I can have more than one screen or hook up a mechanical keyboard if I want / need to. Also since it's ChromeOS if something happens to the Airbook, in a pinch I can just get a Chromebook, or install ChromeOs Flex onto a different laptop and pick up where I left off.
Installing ChromeOS Flex was really easy, it took me an hour or so to set it up on the old Airbook and then maybe another 30 or 40 minutes to get the user account set up. All I have to do is remember to ditch my phone so I'm not tempted to unlock reddit, or another time waster.
So if you made it this far, thanks for reading. I thought this could help someone out.
TL;DR: I made a writerDeck from an old Mac Airbook, and ChromeOS Flex.
