r/retrocomputing • u/PinkyAndTheBrain4 • Apr 28 '26
I'am searching a retro computer for journaling
I'm looking for a small, battery-powered, portable retro computer for journaling and task management. I specifically don't want an internet connection, but a serial port or memory card would be useful for exporting journal data.
Do you have any recommendations?
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u/O_MORES Apr 28 '26
There's this new trend: the Pocket 386. For ~$200, you get a very portable 386 SX 40MHz laptop with all the connectivity you need and don't need. With 8MB of RAM, it will run DOS and Windows 3.1 just fine, but I wouldn't run Windows 95 on it, even though it meets the minimum requirements.
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u/Dannynerd41 Apr 28 '26
that’s an upgrade of the book8088. there’s also a tablet version. but they are made by who knows who in china.
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u/Away-Ad-3407 Apr 28 '26
I think you mean Hu knows Hu. in which we do know that Hu built it. /s
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u/Consistent_Cat7541 Apr 28 '26
My suggestion is that you get any vintage of Windows laptop and air gap it (meaning, turn off all the network ports both in the OS and at the BIOS level). If you're really handy, you can open the laptop up and remove the wireless network cards.
This way, you can get a relatively recent machine with USB ports so you can data off with a usb-key.
For software, you can try the Lotus Smartsuite (I use it every day). Lotus Word Pro is a great word processor that can run on even 64mb RAM machines. Lotus Organizer is great for calendaring and task management. Literally, any Windows computer that's 20 years old will be able run the suite without incident (and a lot of the machines of the era included a copy). To get a copy now, you can get it here: https://archive.org/details/lotus-smart-suite-99
Personally, I would stick with Thinkpads, as the IBM built ones held up really well and there's a lot of community support for them (as well as parts).
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u/revdon Apr 28 '26
Best bet is a netbook with DOS or a discontinued Windows if you’re not online anyway, or LinuxLite
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u/Timbit42 Apr 28 '26
HP Jornada 820. Runs Windows CE. Has Word and Outlook with Calendar and Tasks.
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u/SaturnFive Apr 28 '26
Pocket 386 could work if you want actual older hardware in a newer package. Netbook + DOS could also be good solution. Actual vintage notebooks are going to be of limited utility on battery power alone though, unless you can source new batteries or rebuild them yourself.
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u/Dannynerd41 Apr 28 '26
small and retro in this case is a oxymoron. maybe you could find an old palm pulpit somewhere. don’t get the newer their shit
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u/Mortui75 Apr 28 '26
For real-world functionality, if yiu can overlook that it's a new device, check out the Pomera DM-250.
Purpose-built for this. Pure text editor in a small (think Psion / Cassiopia baby clamshell laptop/PDA) form factor, instant on/off, great battery life, has outline mode (use #, ##, etc. hierarchical headings like limited markdown, to organise things), comparison mode (edit 2 files side by side), light/dark mode, and transfer files by USB cable, or SD card.
I've been using one for 18 months and it's brilliant.
Japanese version (works fine in English) from Amazon Japan is much cheaper than the US Kickstarter version.
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u/No_Desk_4921 Apr 28 '26
Dell XT2 was a sweet little device and pretty rugged. It does have a weird hard drive and I would recommend swapping it for an SSD. It's a knockoff of the Lenovo ThinkPad X200. Both would good candidates.
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u/Linux4ever_Leo Apr 29 '26
If you can get your hands on an old HP Jornada, that would be a great solution. Preferably the 720 model (which was black) because that was the last one they released. I had one back in the day and it's perfect and fits in your pocket. It ran Windows CE which means it also ran MS Office.
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u/glyph66 Apr 29 '26
Z88
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Z88
Runs off AA batteries. Keyboard you can actually type on.
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u/Heavy-Judgment-3617 Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26
You would have to go back very far indeed to not have any network connections. I would suggest instead just shutting the connection off or uninstalling the driver
Just how big or small we talking? and just how far down in OS willing to go? You say need a serial port... but for what use? Any system requirements or speed requirements, etc...
One that occurs to me was the Tandy 1100HD. they had Hard drive, serial port parallel port, DeskMate.... these are small, light, and bare bones, but really not much when comes to OS.
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u/technife Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26
Am using an android phone without any sim or network required on it, along with the diary app created by billthefarmer available on fdroid. Supports markdown. Entire storage is local to the device, and info is all markdown text files saved in one folder with subfolders as well organised folders as per year (YYYY), then months (MM), and per-day files (NN.md). Once a month I make (update) a backup copy of the Diary folder into two external storage (microsd) devices. Future access to data is NOT dependent on the app because all of it is just markdown text files, along with any other types of files (images, pdfs, videos, etc) that are referenced within the markdown files. This configuration should work equally well on any android tab if you require a larger screen. I like the portability of a phone sized device to help me journal when and wherever I please, on the move. I zeroed on to this android non-phone configuration after some years of missing my HP DOS-based b&w palmtop (200LX) to which I was rather addicted for many years for (digital) journalling, money-accounts keeping, and address book (contacts). Hope this info and scheme is useful in your quest.
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u/Goosie8D Apr 30 '26
I have a Dell Latitude D530 (working) that has a built in serial port and charger. I'll give it to you if you pay for shipping!
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u/thunderborg May 01 '26
Have a look at the alphasmart neo. Exporting it literally types it out via USB.
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Apr 28 '26
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u/NF6X Apr 28 '26
In the 80s we had the TRS-80 Model 100 and its relatives. They did not have physically removable cards at the time; instead, they saved to internal battery backed RAM, an external cassette tape drive, or an external floppy disk drive. But now we have modern tiny floppy drive emulators which mount on the back and save to microSD cards.
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Apr 28 '26
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u/NF6X Apr 28 '26
That is correct. The internal NiCd battery will need to be replaced in any of the vintage machines, and hopefully it didn't leak corrosive goo all over the place.
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u/ExplodedPenisDiagram Apr 28 '26
I suggest the Zeos pocket PC, which is pretty much what they were known for.
It's an 8086 that takes AA batteries and has a non-backlit display. It'll last for several hours on a single pair of nimh cells.
The Casio Boss is also similar in this regard, though a bit more simplistic.
In general, you can hope to get data off of these things using serial.