Ben NanoNote

The Ben NanoNote (officially the 本 NanoNote) is a pocket computer using the Linux-based OpenWrt operating system. An open-source hardware device developed by Qi Hardware, it has been called possibly "the world's smallest Linux laptop for the traditional definition of the word.". In addition, the Ben NanoNote is noteworthy for being one of the few devices on the market running entirely on copyleft hardware.

The computer takes its name from the Chinese character běn (本), translated as "an origin or the beginning place."

History

Originally the hardware was developed by a third party as a digital dictionary. After the effort of several Qi Hardware developers, the design was freed as open source hardware while using free and open source software.

This product is currently manufactured by Qi hardware and Sharism At Work Ltd. More than 1,000 units have been sold so far.

Software

The device is shipped with the OpenWrt software stack; the custom compilation includes a graphical menu called gmenu2x, with other graphical and command line applications available from the menu.