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You can’t give this to your kid that’s heading off to college — or even high school — and expect them to manage. It’s also not really a replacement for a low-en

You can’t give this to your kid that’s heading off to college — or even high school — and expect them to manage. It’s also not really a replacement for a low-end Chromebook, the desktop is sufficiently sluggish that I’d be wary of recommending it as a cheap web browsing laptop for the sofa. Okay, well, that's not great. I guess... On the other hand, I must admit, I rather like it. It’s a lot better put together than a $89 laptop has any right to be, and despite the battery there’s a lot of space inside for adding things. Quite what things I’m not entirely clear on, in the same way I’m just not sure what I’m going to do with it quite yet. But I’ll figure something out. Okay, now I'm confused... he likes it, but doesn't know why, and doesn't know what he'd do with it because it's unsuitable for the things he'd normally use a laptop for.

detaro 9y ago
So, like a raspberry Pi? It's a computer, but it's quite crappy at being a "normal computer", but it is flexible, so you'll come up with something cool that you couldn't do otherwise?
- zzalpha 9y ago
  A Pi is a flexible, small form factor kit computer that has a very clear set of use cases in home automation, robotics, and other embedded applications, among many other things. The author couldn't come up with a use case for this contraption. Quite honestly, what would you do with it? Back in the day I might've said thinclient X terminal but those days are long gone, and besides, I could buy a far more powerful used laptop at the same price for that purpose, so... I'm at a loss. What would you do with this that you wouldn't just do with a Pi or similar?
dagw 9y ago
Okay, now I'm confused If you're the sort of person who needs a laptop to do the sort of things most normal people use a laptop for then this probably isn't for you. If you're the sort of person who might consider taking a laptop apart and trying to make it do weird and wonderful things the creators had never thought of and realize there is a good chance you'll end up bricking it in the process (and thus don't want to spend too much money on it) then this might just be the laptop you've been looking for
- monocasa 9y ago
  Exactly. For instance at work (robotics) we tend to use little netbooks as data loggers. This would be awesome for that.
Nexxxeh 9y ago
>Quite what things [will be added inside] I’m not entirely clear on. That's Hackaday. The fact this laptop is seemingly an answer to a question we didn't need asked, doesn't mean the hardware hacking community won't find a killer use for it.
tjoff 9y ago
I'd use it as a thin client. My core i5 8GB laptop is slower when surfing the web in a local web browser than using it to remote-desktop to my workstation over wifi (all thanks to the power of javascript!). I doubt the Pinebook would be as good for that purpose but it might work decently, and for terminal use it will of course be just fine. This is all excellent when you want to travel and have the option to do light remote work but not the bulk or risk damaging a real laptop (or maybe you just want to travel to the US but still want some digital privacy).
- zzalpha 9y ago
  But you could do the same thing at the same price point with a second-hand laptop, and end up with something significantly more powerful and capable.
  - tjoff 9y ago
    Not sure about that, you might get a bulky big thing without any battery left. Two deal-breakers right there.
  - dagw 9y ago
    A second hand $100 laptop will weigh like brick and have terrible battery life. If weighing less than 3 lbs and having more than 4 hour battery life is important then you probably won't find anything on the second hand marked at this price point.

detaro 9y ago

So, like a raspberry Pi? It's a computer, but it's quite crappy at being a "normal computer", but it is flexible, so you'll come up with something cool that you couldn't do otherwise?

zzalpha 9y ago
A Pi is a flexible, small form factor kit computer that has a very clear set of use cases in home automation, robotics, and other embedded applications, among many other things. The author couldn't come up with a use case for this contraption. Quite honestly, what would you do with it? Back in the day I might've said thinclient X terminal but those days are long gone, and besides, I could buy a far more powerful used laptop at the same price for that purpose, so... I'm at a loss. What would you do with this that you wouldn't just do with a Pi or similar?

dagw 9y ago

Okay, now I'm confused If you're the sort of person who needs a laptop to do the sort of things most normal people use a laptop for then this probably isn't for you. If you're the sort of person who might consider taking a laptop apart and trying to make it do weird and wonderful things the creators had never thought of and realize there is a good chance you'll end up bricking it in the process (and thus don't want to spend too much money on it) then this might just be the laptop you've been looking for

monocasa 9y ago
Exactly. For instance at work (robotics) we tend to use little netbooks as data loggers. This would be awesome for that.

Nexxxeh 9y ago

>Quite what things [will be added inside] I’m not entirely clear on. That's Hackaday. The fact this laptop is seemingly an answer to a question we didn't need asked, doesn't mean the hardware hacking community won't find a killer use for it.

tjoff 9y ago

I'd use it as a thin client. My core i5 8GB laptop is slower when surfing the web in a local web browser than using it to remote-desktop to my workstation over wifi (all thanks to the power of javascript!). I doubt the Pinebook would be as good for that purpose but it might work decently, and for terminal use it will of course be just fine. This is all excellent when you want to travel and have the option to do light remote work but not the bulk or risk damaging a real laptop (or maybe you just want to travel to the US but still want some digital privacy).

zzalpha 9y ago
But you could do the same thing at the same price point with a second-hand laptop, and end up with something significantly more powerful and capable.
- tjoff 9y ago
  Not sure about that, you might get a bulky big thing without any battery left. Two deal-breakers right there.
- dagw 9y ago
  A second hand $100 laptop will weigh like brick and have terrible battery life. If weighing less than 3 lbs and having more than 4 hour battery life is important then you probably won't find anything on the second hand marked at this price point.