4 ms·

I got one on the buy one, give one initiative; and being cheap was only a plus, but it was great for it's purpose; as a kid's laptop. I gave it away a few year

I got one on the buy one, give one initiative; and being cheap was only a plus, but it was great for it's purpose; as a kid's laptop. I gave it away a few years ago to someone who could give it a better use (teacher), but now that I have a kid on my own, I'd like to give him something like this. Any recommendations?

peterburkimsher 9y ago
How old is your kid? My dad gave me a broken Mac Plus and told me that if I could fix it, it's mine to keep. I swapped out the motherboard myself, at age 8. Later on, my dad bought me an iBook G3. At age 15, I bought a class set of 20 iBooks and sold them to friends for $150 each. http://peterburk.github.io/blog/#iBookRepair http://peterburk.github.io/blog/#iBookRepair Don't worry about their computer not being new/fast enough. They'll figure out what to do with it to push it to the limits. Please do give them root access.
- reptantchaos92 9y ago
  He's just 4, so a rugged device is a must. Also, one of the great things about these laptops was that they felt like a learning device, without sacrificing the general purpose computing aspect. Since I would like to avoid a consumer device, this is what I'm expecting. This pi-top seems like what I want, I need to check if it works with another board.
cobookman 9y ago
Chromebook?
bryanlarsen 9y ago
Raspberry Pi + https://pi-top.com/ https://pi-top.com/ + sugar on a stick (https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar/blob/master/docs/rpi-soas.md https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar/blob/master/docs/rpi-soas...)
- reptantchaos92 9y ago
  Thanks, that seems pretty much what I'm looking for. Any experience with the device? I would like to run it with another board to support a more free approach (at least whatever is possible in the sorry state of SBC)
- AdmiralAsshat 9y ago
  Was pretty excited at the pi-top on first glance, but, $319 for what's basically a screen and a clamshell enclosure to the Pi? Yikes. Surely we can do better. The Superbook is a clamshell laptop powered by your smartphone and costs half that.[0] [0]http://www.sentio.com/ http://www.sentio.com/
lozenge 9y ago
Not a recommendation, but kano is a cute raspberry pi kit.
avhon1 9y ago
I recommend used thinkpad X-series laptops. I used an X41 as my only laptop during my last year of college (2016-2017). I spent $35 for the laptop on ebay and $25 for a hard drive. I don't recommend anything older than the X41 for most people; it was the first X-series laptop to have SSE2. The thinkpad x100e, x120e, x130e, x131e, and x141e are/were specifically intended for classroom use, have decent specs, and can be purchased inexpensively on ebay. Also: many people like the tablet form-factor x-series laptops, but I would not recommend one for a child.
chriswarbo 9y ago
How about an XO-1?

peterburkimsher 9y ago

How old is your kid? My dad gave me a broken Mac Plus and told me that if I could fix it, it's mine to keep. I swapped out the motherboard myself, at age 8. Later on, my dad bought me an iBook G3. At age 15, I bought a class set of 20 iBooks and sold them to friends for $150 each. http://peterburk.github.io/blog/#iBookRepair http://peterburk.github.io/blog/#iBookRepair Don't worry about their computer not being new/fast enough. They'll figure out what to do with it to push it to the limits. Please do give them root access.

reptantchaos92 9y ago
He's just 4, so a rugged device is a must. Also, one of the great things about these laptops was that they felt like a learning device, without sacrificing the general purpose computing aspect. Since I would like to avoid a consumer device, this is what I'm expecting. This pi-top seems like what I want, I need to check if it works with another board.

cobookman 9y ago

Chromebook?

bryanlarsen 9y ago

Raspberry Pi + https://pi-top.com/ https://pi-top.com/ + sugar on a stick (https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar/blob/master/docs/rpi-soas.md https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar/blob/master/docs/rpi-soas...)

reptantchaos92 9y ago
Thanks, that seems pretty much what I'm looking for. Any experience with the device? I would like to run it with another board to support a more free approach (at least whatever is possible in the sorry state of SBC)
AdmiralAsshat 9y ago
Was pretty excited at the pi-top on first glance, but, $319 for what's basically a screen and a clamshell enclosure to the Pi? Yikes. Surely we can do better. The Superbook is a clamshell laptop powered by your smartphone and costs half that.[0] [0]http://www.sentio.com/ http://www.sentio.com/

lozenge 9y ago

Not a recommendation, but kano is a cute raspberry pi kit.

avhon1 9y ago

I recommend used thinkpad X-series laptops. I used an X41 as my only laptop during my last year of college (2016-2017). I spent $35 for the laptop on ebay and $25 for a hard drive. I don't recommend anything older than the X41 for most people; it was the first X-series laptop to have SSE2. The thinkpad x100e, x120e, x130e, x131e, and x141e are/were specifically intended for classroom use, have decent specs, and can be purchased inexpensively on ebay. Also: many people like the tablet form-factor x-series laptops, but I would not recommend one for a child.

chriswarbo 9y ago

How about an XO-1?