5mo ago

Build your own antisocial writing rig with DOS and a USB key

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5mo ago

Build your own antisocial writing rig with DOS and a $2 USB key

www.theregister.com /2025/04/26/dos_distraction_free_writing/

21 comments

Has anyone tried a pencil and paper?
- The zine needs a renaissance.
- Cannot write half as fast as I type, and then you still need to type to publish it anywhere.
I really don't understand why people think they need to use outdated technology and inconvenient transfer methods to be undisturbed instead of just disabling programs that generate or display notifications (e.g. on Linux the notification daemon).
Do people really have so little self-control that they can't just not use a network connection if it exists?
- Do people really have so little self-control that they can't just not use a network connection if it exists?
  Have you ever met any people?
  
  Not OP, but yes, yes I have met some people.
- You are not helping people with ADD by devising some sort of convoluted "solution" which requires them to get and then keep 30 year old technology working and transfer over the result of their work with technologies that themselves require a lot of patience too.
I tried this setup for a bit. I liked Word Perfect for Dos but converting files to my linux desktop was a pain and I never found a workflow I liked.
For undisturbed writing, I use a laptop running a minimal cli only linux install with Word Grinder. Its a modern text mode writer app that stores files in text or markdown.
- I liked Word Perfect for Dos but converting files to my linux desktop was a pain and I never found a workflow I liked.
  I wouldn't do it myself, but if that floats your boat:
  https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/20/wordperfect_for_unix_for_linux/
  Tavis Ormandy ports WordPerfect for UNIX to Linux
  Wed 20 Jul 2022 // 15:15 UTC
  https://mendelson.org/wpdos/unix.html
  
  Thanks for that. Unfortunately, unless I'm missing something, it doesn't solve the work flow issue as my goal is to get my written text into a modern format that works with everything else I use, such as ascii or markdown.
  Word Grinder hits all the marks.
I keep a Windows 2000 machine with Office 97 for distraction-free writing, but I might try this. WordPerfect for DOS was always a pretty relaxing way to write.
- ‘97 was peak MS Office!
  
  Yep, for some of us Clippy never went anywhere.
  
  1997 was peak for lots of things
Why would be such a setup antisocial? And if so, why should I get one? I see so much antisocial behavior in the streets, online or other media that I don't see the benefit in adding to this.
- It’s The Register!
Emacs continues to support MS-DOS in 2025, so I guess it'd be tolerable.
Doubt I'll ever get around to it, but would love to find a cheap laptop with good mechanical keys and set this up on it.
The seriousness of some of the comments here is way out of sync with the tongue-in-cheek writing style of The Register.

21 comments