7 ms·

I hadn't heard of Pine64 before now. Are there any good reviews of their Pinebook laptop out there? A cheap 64-bit ARM laptop could be fun to play with...

Something1234 8y ago
From what I heard, the keyboard is crap. I was going to buy one, but the shipping made it not worth it.
- WhiteOwlLion 8y ago
  I think they'd be better off just offering the computer and screen only in tablet form. Have a case that let's you adjust the viewing angle. BYO keyboard & mouse via USB. I much rather do that...
X-Istence 8y ago
It is slow. Browsing the web is almost annoying because JavaScript is such a big part of it these days. The keyboard isn't the greatest, and the touchpad is really bad, and support for something other than the OS it came with is still non-existent, although that is getting somewhat better. But it is a fully functional laptop, it works, and lasts quite some time on battery and I have been mainly using it to SSH to various servers/devices and doing work from the terminal and for that it is quite adequate. It's fun to play with, but I wouldn't consider a serious device, not yet at least.
- rbanffy 8y ago
  It's a reasonable laptop at an OLPC price. Come on.
  - X-Istence 8y ago
    Completely agreed, just setting expectations for those that think this will adequately come and replace their current MacBook Air or something along those lines.
AdmiralAsshat 8y ago
Some of the KDE guys seem to have made it their pet project to get KDE to run well on a Pinebook[0]. [0]https://dot.kde.org/2018/08/22/kde-plasma-arm-laptop-pinebook https://dot.kde.org/2018/08/22/kde-plasma-arm-laptop-pineboo...
- sevensor 8y ago
  Comments at that link seem to indicate that you're stuck running kernel 3.10? That would be a tough pill to swallow.
  - plett 8y ago
    Yes. It's an Allwinner A64 chip underneath and they have binary blobs which they haven't ported to anything newer than 3.10
    - bildung 8y ago
      The original article says the boards have mainline support. Are you sure?
      - imtringued 8y ago
        A mainline kernel won't be of much help you if you don't have GPU drivers.
        bildung 8y ago
        While not yet in mainline (patches pending), the Lima open source driver for Mali 400 GPUs appears to be usable: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Lima-DRM-RFC-Mali-400-450 https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Lima-DRM...
  - buovjaga 8y ago
    This uses mainline kernel: https://github.com/anarsoul/linux-build/releases https://github.com/anarsoul/linux-build/releases (Arch Linux) Forum topic: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=4715 https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=4715 Apparently there will be an Armbian image with mainline as well: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=6538&pid=40821#pid40821 https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=6538&pid=40821#p...
jandrese 8y ago
I have one of their SBCs. On paper it has pretty good specs, and it was cheap, but in practice the driver situation is a disaster and all of the good documentation is written in Chinese, if it exists at all. I have avoided the company ever since.
- apple4ever 8y ago
  Same here. I funded the project on Kickstarter. Specs looked amazing- so much better than the Pi. But the software support sucks. Until they have better support I’m staying away.
hawski 8y ago
I hope that someone will do something like Pinebook, but with iMX8.M. The SoC used by Purism with their Libre 5 effort. Maybe even Purism themselves. Main advantage is higher hopes that mainline Linux will just work at some closer point.
- craftyguy 8y ago
  Agreed. The Pine products have great mainline kernel support if you ignore pretty much everything you might want in a phone/laptop/desktop (graphics, input, etc).
- danbolt 8y ago
  It's not the latest and greatest, but the MNT Reform[1] uses an i.MX6QP. [1] https://mntmn.com/reform/ https://mntmn.com/reform/

Something1234 8y ago

From what I heard, the keyboard is crap. I was going to buy one, but the shipping made it not worth it.

WhiteOwlLion 8y ago
I think they'd be better off just offering the computer and screen only in tablet form. Have a case that let's you adjust the viewing angle. BYO keyboard & mouse via USB. I much rather do that...

X-Istence 8y ago

It is slow. Browsing the web is almost annoying because JavaScript is such a big part of it these days. The keyboard isn't the greatest, and the touchpad is really bad, and support for something other than the OS it came with is still non-existent, although that is getting somewhat better. But it is a fully functional laptop, it works, and lasts quite some time on battery and I have been mainly using it to SSH to various servers/devices and doing work from the terminal and for that it is quite adequate. It's fun to play with, but I wouldn't consider a serious device, not yet at least.

rbanffy 8y ago
It's a reasonable laptop at an OLPC price. Come on.
- X-Istence 8y ago
  Completely agreed, just setting expectations for those that think this will adequately come and replace their current MacBook Air or something along those lines.

AdmiralAsshat 8y ago

Some of the KDE guys seem to have made it their pet project to get KDE to run well on a Pinebook[0]. [0]https://dot.kde.org/2018/08/22/kde-plasma-arm-laptop-pinebook https://dot.kde.org/2018/08/22/kde-plasma-arm-laptop-pineboo...

sevensor 8y ago
Comments at that link seem to indicate that you're stuck running kernel 3.10? That would be a tough pill to swallow.
- plett 8y ago
  Yes. It's an Allwinner A64 chip underneath and they have binary blobs which they haven't ported to anything newer than 3.10
  - bildung 8y ago
    The original article says the boards have mainline support. Are you sure?
    - imtringued 8y ago
      A mainline kernel won't be of much help you if you don't have GPU drivers.
      - bildung 8y ago
        While not yet in mainline (patches pending), the Lima open source driver for Mali 400 GPUs appears to be usable: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Lima-DRM-RFC-Mali-400-450 https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Lima-DRM...
- buovjaga 8y ago
  This uses mainline kernel: https://github.com/anarsoul/linux-build/releases https://github.com/anarsoul/linux-build/releases (Arch Linux) Forum topic: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=4715 https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=4715 Apparently there will be an Armbian image with mainline as well: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=6538&pid=40821#pid40821 https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=6538&pid=40821#p...

jandrese 8y ago

I have one of their SBCs. On paper it has pretty good specs, and it was cheap, but in practice the driver situation is a disaster and all of the good documentation is written in Chinese, if it exists at all. I have avoided the company ever since.

apple4ever 8y ago
Same here. I funded the project on Kickstarter. Specs looked amazing- so much better than the Pi. But the software support sucks. Until they have better support I’m staying away.

hawski 8y ago

I hope that someone will do something like Pinebook, but with iMX8.M. The SoC used by Purism with their Libre 5 effort. Maybe even Purism themselves. Main advantage is higher hopes that mainline Linux will just work at some closer point.

craftyguy 8y ago
Agreed. The Pine products have great mainline kernel support if you ignore pretty much everything you might want in a phone/laptop/desktop (graphics, input, etc).
danbolt 8y ago
It's not the latest and greatest, but the MNT Reform[1] uses an i.MX6QP. [1] https://mntmn.com/reform/ https://mntmn.com/reform/