ST Book, the Notebook Atari ST

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Display tech, cursors, and usability

  • Passive-matrix LCDs on early laptops smeared motion, making cursors hard to track and motivating features like mouse trails.
  • Modern macOS is noted as lacking classic trails but offering a “shake to enlarge cursor” feature, which still isn’t ideal on large multi-monitor setups.
  • Some users increase cursor size but find very large pointers imprecise.
  • There’s a suggestion that platforms should define cursor size in physical units and offer options like dimming non-pointer areas or resetting cursor to a known screen position.

Atari ST, music, and live performance

  • ST/ ST Book appealing for musicians due to built-in MIDI and reliable sequencing; associated with the shift from trackers to DAWs like Cubase and hardware like AKAI samplers.
  • Discussion traces pre-MIDI computer-like sequencing (analog sequencers, drum machines, DIN Sync) through Fairlight/Synclavier to general-purpose computers on stage.
  • Examples span synthpop setups on Apple II, Amiga demo/tracker scenes, Japanese FM-chip machines, and live rigs using multiple Ataris.
  • Synclavier is highlighted as a powerful hybrid system whose workflow and sound justify modern emulations.

Industrial design and laptop form factors

  • ST Book is praised as “beautiful,” with a taller aspect ratio and full-height keys seen as superior to modern island keyboards and widescreens.
  • Others argue it clearly predates the PowerBook-era layout (keyboard pushed up, central pointing device, wrist rest).
  • Large modern laptops create practical issues (bags, backpacks) but users still chase vertical screen space.

Keyboards, Delete vs Backspace, and power buttons

  • Many prefer older laptop keyboards for feel and full key sets, especially having both Backspace and Delete.
  • Apple’s omission of a dedicated forward-delete key on laptops is heavily criticized; some argue most users don’t care, others cite complaints from non-technical users.
  • macOS Finder not mapping Delete to “move to trash” is called out as inefficient.
  • Power-button placement on keyboards (replacing keys like End or Eject) is seen as risky or annoying, though some report no practical issues.

Atari Portfolio and portable coding

  • Nostalgic references to using the Atari Portfolio with ATMs (popularized in media) and for serious work, including C coding and database recovery during travel.
  • Despite the tiny text display, constrained editing was considered tolerable for specific tasks; some even wrote games entirely on-device.
  • Hardware fragility and failure of surviving units is mentioned.

Alt-history: If Atari/Amiga had “won”

  • Some imagine a more media-rich, playful, less beige computing ecosystem with Motorola CPUs dominant and Unix variants on Amiga/Atari hardware.
  • Others doubt Amiga or Atari could have scaled: clone ecosystems drove PC progress, and neither company was clone-friendly.
  • AmigaOS is praised for preemptive multitasking and Unix-influenced ideas but criticized as fundamentally weak for long-term, protected, multiuser evolution.
  • Atari’s TOS/GEM plus MiNT/FreeMiNT is described as architecturally cleaner, with proper syscalls and Unix-like multitasking, and still maintained today.
  • Debate over whether big-iron Unix would have dominated servers, or Linux would still emerge from frustration with proprietary Unix, remains unresolved.

Amiga/Atari product strategy and laptops

  • ST Book is noted as a rare completed Atari notebook; some miss the classic ST styling and see more resemblance to the Portfolio.
  • Commodore’s rumored Amiga laptop is said to have effectively become the A600, originating as a cheaper A300 concept with genlock.
  • Management’s decision to discontinue the successful A500 in favor of the poorly selling A600 is described as baffling.
  • Amiga’s strong reliance on color made laptop adaptation harder than the ST’s monochrome-focused ecosystem.
  • Side discussion covers non-Atari Unix laptops (SGI prototypes, military remakes of Indy, Tadpole SPARC/PowerPC/Alpha portables) and alternate futures where workstation vendors or NeXT-like systems dominate.