this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2025
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I want to go back to the absolute basics for a while; to see if there's something from my old pre-computer life that I have lost.

When I was a teenager in the early 90s, I wrote like crazy on a giant, loud, electric typewriter. It whirred. It clacked. It needed me to manually hit the carraige return just like the older manual typewriters that it had come from.

The old days. No backspace deletion, no italics. Bold meant backing up and typing over the same word twice for effect.

There are apps like focus writer, etc... But I'm looking for something more

There is an online app called typewritesomething.com, and it has the option of installing it. But when I do, it's sluggish and imperfect. So I was hoping someone knew of something just like that, but in a locally installed program (Linux would be ideal, but WINE allows me to run Windows programs just fine and dandy)

Blank Page. Typewriter sound. No deletion on backspace. When you backup and retype, it has the effect of typing over the previous text. Manual carraige return. Literally no other features.

Any ideas?

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[–] Quexotic@beehaw.org 1 points 2 days ago

A few years back I found an app called q10. I found that very useful but if you want something even less distracting, look for an alpha smart 2000 or 3000 I forget which one it is you'll find it on eBay they don't make them anymore. Make sure you have the proper USB cable for it you can find those on Amazon