Of course you can do that, but don’t mislead people on Haiku’s current capabilities and missing features
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I got linked to this from another thread I was reading and thought it was interesting. Your specs are about the diametric opposite of what I’d imagine.
I like the suggestions above of “make it look like a BeBox”. The thing is, I wouldn’t expect to put an 8-year old gaming laptop inside? The fundamental selling point of BeOS (and largely Haiku) for me is “look how much compute we can get out of this while still being as easy to use as a mainstream OS”. The point is, I’d be targetting build quality and flexibility over outright performance; and using ancient high-end components is a great way to have a high dev cost and a low purchase count. Things like Steam Remote Play really remove the need for a luggable laptop for me.
Honestly, I’d rather see Haiku partner with someone like DeepComputing to release something like their $199 RiscV laptop motherboard. The cool thing about their Framework 13 motherboard is that you can put it into your laptop, or into a separate case to use it as a desktop or server. Something like that for the cheaper laptop model has obvious appeal, and a collaboration could allow Haiku to help select easy-to-support accessory chips or firmware features that makes it a viable platform as an “official Haiku board” - without taking on the costs of developing a platform solo. Even partnering with FW for a Bebox-styled Framework 12 - going by the price of the L13 RiscV board and L12; you’re looking at about $550 for that machine fully populated. Maybe add $50 for a preloaded SD card to make $600. Take off $50 if you already own a USB-C charger. That’s not stupid for a brand new Haiku laptop; even one with a slow processor. Sell a Be-Box styled desktop case for those who don’t want to have a laptop; and you have both available in only one motherboard.
The only thing I’d miss by targeting the budget platform - this accessory for the Framework 16: https://frame.work/products/16-led-matrix?v=FRAKDE0001 - blinkenlights! But that would be a $1300 machine, and huge - so, it doesn’t appeal to me.
But still, this is all fantastical “what if” thinking. It’s not something that needs to be made, I just liked the idea of conceptualising it.
Just throwing my opinion out there, the best Haiku computer for me is one that just barely misses the official Win 11 specifications.
Specifically I’m now at my 2nd PC with a 7th gen Intel Core processor, these PCs under Haiku are fast, snappy, responsive and the CPUs are fast enough to handle most things I throw at them, the integrated GPU is partially supported too (no acceleration ofc), it could easily put Windows 11 running on a “supported” PC to shame when it comes to office workloads. (and probably 10 too)
Of course Linux is still a better fit for these systems if you need 3D acceleration, or any of the other features it has over Haiku.
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I wouldn’t personally buy a machine like that now. Two reasons - The first is that Kaby Lake laptops were before the core-count revolution, and the majority 2c4t is not a lot. Mind, I’m still running a 2c4t laptop from 2011 with 8GB and it’s only really reaching “too slow for YouTube” (my benchmark of when a laptop is no longer practical) in 2026. Which frankly is not bad. Still; I’ve owned that since 2020. Buying then is a different story from buying in 2026. The other reason is that very few Kaby Lake or older laptops supported full USB-C docking (PD and DisplayPort over a single USB-C port) which is frankly the most important feature in laptops since about 2014; and other than basic performance, the only feature I can’t live without. A 4c4t or 4c8t Kaby Lake laptop and USB-C docking is still perfectly adequate. They’re not as common, but if you find one in full working order there’s not much benefit to newer hardware. The reason they’re not in my shopping list is that those tend to be bigger and heavier.
Mind, the current generation of “Intel Atom” is also the first version worth buying in a very, very long time. The N300 particularly is a fantastic processor - finally supporting x86-64 v3, 8 cores, up to 16GB PC5 and not power hungry. If I were to look at an x64 CPU for a “HaiBox”, it’s probably where I’d start.
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