GoKawiilMy Raspberry Pi cyberdeck. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
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ZDNET's key takeaways
The cyberdeck name comes from the 1984 novel Neuromancer.
They're DIY computers that can be based on a cyberpunk vibe.
If you don't fancy building a cyberdeck, why not try buying your own?
Everyone seems to be talking about cyberdecks. At the risk of mixing up sci-fi genres, that's a name that I've not heard in a long time. No, cyberdecks aren't a Star Wars thing. Instead, the term was coined by William Gibson in the 1984 near-future dystopian cyberpunk novel, Neuromancer.
In the novel, hackers, called "console cowboys," would use cyberdecks to hook up to cyberspace (another term that Gibson came up with, two years earlier in a short story called Burning Chrome). In the book, they're described as custom-built, rectangular, deck-like computers with red and green LEDs that are used to jack into the matrix (yes, Gibson used that term too).
Also: The Flipper One is the Linux cyberdeck I wish my Raspberry Pi could be
Similar devices have also appeared in movies such as Blade Runner, Mad Max, and Alien.
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