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Pinebook – Powerful, Metal and Open Source ARM 64-Bit Laptop

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Re: Pinebook – Powerful, Metal and Open Source ARM 64-Bit Laptop

#21

Post by fheld »

apocalyptic0n3 wrote: post #5

Linus Tech Tips put out a video this week on Floatplane about the Pinebook (not the Pro edition) and it was woefully underpowered. CPU was compared to the PS3 and GPU was compared to the original Xbox, for reference. It barely ran with the stock software (they had to install updates/new software to get it running) and was unable to play a 480p YouTube video fullscreen without noticeable frame drops. The hardware in i…

>Linus Tech Tips put out a video...

They just uploaded it to youtube:

youtube.com/watch?v=sXLdIYL30tw

Re: Pinebook – Powerful, Metal and Open Source ARM 64-Bit Laptop

#23

Post by HeWhoLurksLate »

gruturo wrote: post #7

The ISO keyboard is unfortunately a true bummer. I hate that layout with a passion and would gladly pay extra to have an ANSI layout keyboard (the one with the flat Enter and the backslash above it) and even install it myself if it's feasible.

Personally, I prefer ISO- the Big Enter bothers me because it removes one spot that my pinky could be pushing buttons from, and so feels less efficient.

Mind you, when programming, I touch type with my right hand translated over a row- so instead of [J][K][L][;] it'd be [K][L][;]['] and my pinky is just all over the place. I do see why people like ANSI, but it's probably just a nature / nurture thing.

Re: Pinebook – Powerful, Metal and Open Source ARM 64-Bit Laptop

#24

Post by rocky1138 »

X-Istence wrote: post #15
apocalyptic0n3 wrote: post #5

Linus Tech Tips put out a video this week on Floatplane about the Pinebook (not the Pro edition) and it was woefully underpowered. CPU was compared to the PS3 and GPU was compared to the original Xbox, for reference. It barely ran with the stock software (they had to install updates/new software to get it running) and was unable to play a 480p YouTube video fullscreen without noticeable frame drops. The hardware in i…

I own one of the original Pinebooks, and for $99 it is a great little machine. Comparing it to my MacBook Pro... it's terrible. It has some flaws, and it may be underpowered for things like YouTube, it works flawlessly as a small note taker that has an extremely long battery life and a decent screen/keyboard. It's also really nice for having a Linux machine around that most dongles/serial consoles just work with when…

As a note taker, how long is the delay between you opening it to the point where you can type a note?

Re: Pinebook – Powerful, Metal and Open Source ARM 64-Bit Laptop

#25

Post by boxfire »

rocky1138 wrote: post #22

Do we have FOSS drivers for 100% of the hardware yet?

There's an opensparc 1000 running proprietary firmware, much like the Intel Management Engine and company. There's a small effort to replace that in open software. If I had oodles of free time I might contribute, but I've got my own projects to fry.

Re: Pinebook – Powerful, Metal and Open Source ARM 64-Bit Laptop

#26

Post by tombert »

X-Istence wrote: post #15
apocalyptic0n3 wrote: post #5

Linus Tech Tips put out a video this week on Floatplane about the Pinebook (not the Pro edition) and it was woefully underpowered. CPU was compared to the PS3 and GPU was compared to the original Xbox, for reference. It barely ran with the stock software (they had to install updates/new software to get it running) and was unable to play a 480p YouTube video fullscreen without noticeable frame drops. The hardware in i…

I own one of the original Pinebooks, and for $99 it is a great little machine. Comparing it to my MacBook Pro... it's terrible. It has some flaws, and it may be underpowered for things like YouTube, it works flawlessly as a small note taker that has an extremely long battery life and a decent screen/keyboard. It's also really nice for having a Linux machine around that most dongles/serial consoles just work with when…

You must have had a very different experience than I did; in my case even running something like LibreOffice was laggy, and the default install of KDE was laughably slow. Command-line applications worked fine, and yeah, I mostly live in the command-line anyway, but if the computer isn't even fast enough to go to Stackoverflow at a reasonable speed when I encounter s a problem, I don't see how usable it is for me. It was bad enough to where I tried opening it up to see if I could reasonably-easily install an ODroid N2 or NVidia Jetson in there. (I'm sure someone smarter than me could make that work but it didn't look like a trivial operation).

I'm hoping the PineBook Pro is bit better, since I love the idea of having a good ARM based laptop with FOSS software driving it, but as it stands my Pinebook is more or less a paperweight

Re: Pinebook – Powerful, Metal and Open Source ARM 64-Bit Laptop

#27

Post by rocky1138 »

boxfire wrote: post #25
rocky1138 wrote: post #22

Do we have FOSS drivers for 100% of the hardware yet?

There's an opensparc 1000 running proprietary firmware, much like the Intel Management Engine and company. There's a small effort to replace that in open software. If I had oodles of free time I might contribute, but I've got my own projects to fry.

So, other than mangement engine firmware, that's a yes? We'll be able to turn it on and run 2d and 3d acceleration without closed-source blobs?

Re: Pinebook – Powerful, Metal and Open Source ARM 64-Bit Laptop

#28

Post by X-Istence »

rocky1138 wrote: post #24
X-Istence wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I own one of the original Pinebooks, and for $99 it is a great little machine. Comparing it to my MacBook Pro... it's terrible. It has some flaws, and it may be underpowered for things like YouTube, it works flawlessly as a small note taker that has an extremely long battery life and a decent screen/keyboard. It's also really nice for having a Linux machine around that most dongles/serial consoles just work with when…

As a note taker, how long is the delay between you opening it to the point where you can type a note?

I was using Google Docs for note taking, and as long as drive.google.com was already loaded, I could pop open the lid and create a new document in about 3 - 5 seconds.

Re: Pinebook – Powerful, Metal and Open Source ARM 64-Bit Laptop

#30

Post by znpy »

tombert wrote: post #26
X-Istence wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I own one of the original Pinebooks, and for $99 it is a great little machine. Comparing it to my MacBook Pro... it's terrible. It has some flaws, and it may be underpowered for things like YouTube, it works flawlessly as a small note taker that has an extremely long battery life and a decent screen/keyboard. It's also really nice for having a Linux machine around that most dongles/serial consoles just work with when…

You must have had a very different experience than I did; in my case even running something like LibreOffice was laggy, and the default install of KDE was laughably slow. Command-line applications worked fine, and yeah, I mostly live in the command-line anyway, but if the computer isn't even fast enough to go to Stackoverflow at a reasonable speed when I encounter s a problem, I don't see how usable it is for me. It…

In pinebook’s defense... OpenOffice/LibreOffice is slow and lags pretty much everywhere.
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