Things are starting to come together it seems

I just discovered this, old news for some,
but news to me:

http://hansdegoede.livejournal.com/17445.html

Described more at, as usual, arch

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GPD_Win
(How is it Arch always has the solutions already written up?)

And the place I should have seen it before:
http://forum.gpd.hk/t98-improved-lin...for-the-gpdwin

According to the date stamps visible here,

the production line for the Pocket seems to have begun in earnest
(as in ready for publicity photo sessions)
today ?

As usually may be expected,
qc inspections, boxing, softwaring and a trainload of other events
comprise the timing between now
and when people will actually begin to experience the units.

More info on getting linux may be guessed at by reading
the adventures of linux on the GPD WIN

Looking hackable.

A pretty good review of an actual production unit, touching on Linux compatibility (spoiler: not working well yet for him, issue with screen rotation, waiting for news from GPD who is still working on their Ubuntu units): https://youtu.be/Bbl9CXGwMLE

A few comments on this device since I own one for 4 days now (Win10 firmware).

In general
The metal build of the device feels great, and all in all externally it feels like great build quality.
The keyboard is fine, and I have no issues with keys sensibility; the layout is a bit strange and takes time to get used to; my main issues seem to be the split spacebar and differently sized/spaced keys, such as Caps-A, Fn-Ctrl, tab backspace and numbers.
The mouse knob is actually pretty good, no big issues with it myself; also, it has a touchscreen, which is also pretty useful; not missing a trackpad much; and I use a wireless mouse often anyway.
They only released the Windows 10 firmware (I think it's a Windows image with integrated drivers) for now; Ubuntu firmware to come soon.

Issues
It has a fair amount of hardware and software issues already identified by the b̶e̶t̶a̶ ̶t̶e̶s̶t̶e̶r̶s users:
1. battery partially or completely detached on some units (apparently due to shipping; still, pretty weak?)
2. hal sensor not properly attached on some units (devices not sleeping with lid closed) which can be "fixed" by shipping the device back under warranty or disabling the sensor and using the power button to put it to sleep
3. some audio drivers issue where the 3.5mm connected devices give a crackling sound; partially solved by manually updating the drivers
4. some video issue some people get; solved by autoupdating the drivers in Windows
5. the various ports of some/most USB C hubs cannot be used while charging (hubs with charge-in port; on mine, the usb key gets disconnected when charging)
6. some reports of overheating CPUs under heavy load, and thus underclocking

Screen and size
The 1920x1200 resolution is pretty unusable on a 7" screen for normal usage; I get headache trying to use Windows at 100% dimensions; at 175-200% scaling it's much better.
The screen is beautiful for movies/pictures, the device is fast enough for its intended use and I believe it's a great on-the-road computer that can fit in a pocket (well, depends on the pocket...) or man bag

Gaming
With a SNES emulator and a cheap ebay controller I had, I can foresee some nice gaming sessions while traveling; those old games look quite good on the 7" screen
Gothic III, Titan Quest and Hearthstone also run well on the Pocket
Some older games are afflicted by a split screen issue; the right ~half stays black, perhaps due to the portrait screen being software rotated in landscape mode.

There are a couple of helpful communities, one on facebook and one on reddit; probably more that I didn't find yet.

Despite the issues mentioned, I still think that it's a very nice device; not perfect, but I'll get a lot of use out of it when traveling.

Looking forward to see how Ubuntu runs on it.

For those who have the device and want to play with Linux installs before GPD provides a working image, here are some resources:

https://www.reddit.com/r/GPDPocket/c...on_gpd_pocket/
https://github.com/stockmind/gpd-pocket-ubuntu-respin

In general, how well does thumb typing work on the GPD Pocket?
And how is the battery life?

I don't use thumb typing, I'm usually using the keyboard as on a normal laptop. Also, I don't type much for my use cases, especially while traveling (my main usage for the Pocket). The keyboard is mostly fine, but takes some time to get used and I keep making typing mistakes every now and then, much more than on my 17" home laptop. But I used it on and off for just 3-4 weeks. In general, same issues with some weird/small keys as described earlier.

Battery life is quite good in my opinion, but that depends very much on usage, how it is measured, external temperature, tweaks, etc...
I did not make any real measurements, but on my last trip I watched 3 episodes of a tv serie (so cpu intensive task for 3 hours) and still had battery left; I think that for normal office usage it can last several hours. I don't believe though that it can reach the 12 hours duration that I sometimes read on the internet (not sure it if was initially advertised like that by GPD); perhaps if left untouched...

But could you use it with thumb typing, or is the device too big for that?

One more question: their IndieGoGo comments page is littered with various complaints and it looks to me like the device is not quite finished... is your device affected by any of the problems mentioned there?

To be honest, I really liked the Pocket, but looking at what GPD is doing to their backers on IGG, I think it's very distasteful... Especially that they shipped to retailers earlier than backers (like Jolla did).

Even worse,
GPD seem to be trying to do somethings,
but they have some very disturbing tendencies.

As much as I appreciate Kim dotcoms travails,
his mega download service sets off every alarm bell in the room.

It is a gaping malware funnel ready for being taken over by anything that belches past.

And this is where GPD seems to host their
Ubuntu image updates
I visited to download and installing someone else' browser
extension just to handle a single download is inexcusable.
And the icing on the cake is they archived it in .rar format.

This trainwreck continues,
but I wish they would do something properly once in a while.
Although the Pocket probably does have warts and whatnot,
it is still a very real device and probably can be very useful.
If I were not traveling I would already have one.