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Pine64 launches the cheapest Linux Tablet ever priced at just $99.99

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Re: Pine64 launches the cheapest Linux Tablet ever priced at just $99.99

#41

Post by gspr »

NikolaeVarius wrote: post #40
gspr wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm so close to buying a Pinebook, and I know that everyone wants "just one more feature", but jesus, 4 GB or RAM?! If it had at least 8 I'd buy it in a sec. But 4 just won't cut it (thank you, modern web).

4gb is fine if you run a lighter DE. I program go/python/c++ directly on a Jetson Nano w/ vim and firefox and haven't had any huge issues

While I'm not one of those people who work in the browser (bleurgh!), I find that it's a much bigger resource hog than my DM. My KDE desktop takes around half a gig, but it's Firefox that used to bring my old 4GB laptop to its knees.

Re: Pine64 launches the cheapest Linux Tablet ever priced at just $99.99

#42

Post by zozbot234 »

NikolaeVarius wrote: post #40
gspr wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm so close to buying a Pinebook, and I know that everyone wants "just one more feature", but jesus, 4 GB or RAM?! If it had at least 8 I'd buy it in a sec. But 4 just won't cut it (thank you, modern web).

4gb is fine if you run a lighter DE. I program go/python/c++ directly on a Jetson Nano w/ vim and firefox and haven't had any huge issues

OTOH a touchscreen-enabled device is exactly where a heavier DE might make some sense. GNOME3 is still only borderline-usable on 2GB of RAM (though you can obviously work around this by adding swap).

Re: Pine64 launches the cheapest Linux Tablet ever priced at just $99.99

#43

Post by kick »

gspr wrote: post #34
rjsw wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I only have one Pine device, a Pinebook. The build quality seems good to me, it isn't just a collection of components thrown together.

I'm so close to buying a Pinebook, and I know that everyone wants "just one more feature", but jesus, 4 GB or RAM?! If it had at least 8 I'd buy it in a sec. But 4 just won't cut it (thank you, modern web).

4GB is actually more usable than you'd think; most web browsers have performance settings that make the experience just fine with even a hundred tabs on low-end devices (Chromium gets more points than Firefox on this for its toaster mode), and outside of web browsers, there's not much else to worry about. If you set it up with one of the 'in-RAM compressed swap' solutions available like you should, you probably won't ever notice it, but even then it's still really fairly comfy.

Re: Pine64 launches the cheapest Linux Tablet ever priced at just $99.99

#44

Post by rvense »

founderling wrote: post #20

I wonder why they price their products so cheap. They seem to be totally overrun by demand. And give a terrible user experience when you try to order from them. Friends of mine have ordered (and paid!) Pine64 products weeks ago and get no information when they will be shipped. When you send them an email, it either gets ignored or you get a reply by someone who does not speak English. Telling you something like "Yes…

I think it's a bit much to expect their entire support staff to write in perfect English, since they are not based in an English-speaking country. I don't think it's a very big operation, either.

I have one of their boards and can only say I had a good experience buying from them. I think compared to some of the alternatives in the price range (ie., random, no-name eBay crap), their documentation and forums is very good.

Re: Pine64 launches the cheapest Linux Tablet ever priced at just $99.99

#45

Post by Lex-2008 »

founderling wrote: post #31
farisjarrah wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isnt really a finished product that they are comfortable selling to the general population. I actually feel like they are doing a pretty good job of setting customers expectations. From the order page for the pine tab I see these disclaimers: The PineTab comes with UBports OS build installed. Please note that the OS build is still in a beta stage, and while most core functionality works, some elements remain a w…

How does the statement about dead pixels help people who ordered and paid a phone but get no information on when it will be shipped? Regarding general population vs hackers: Do you imply that hackers value low price higher then others? Are hackers particularely poor? I thought hacker often means coder which usually means higher income then the general population. Personally, I would totally prefer to pay 50% more and…

I'm not that much into discussion of terms "hackers" vs "community", but maybe you can track updates in the first post in this tread: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=9942

Quoting from there:

> We're under constraints that we have no control over (e.g. border being closed between HK and mainland China), the shipping companies and carriers are under many constraints (self-imposed or imposed by regulators) and the logistic chain as a whole - including people - is under regulatory constraints. In short, current situation is not business as usual. I am getting many PMs and emails asking about status reports - as soon as I know something, I post it here, there is no need to PM or email me. Thank you for your continued patience!

Also, somewhere I've read that their shipping team is 4 people packing about 1000 items per day. Why increased demand doesn't cause increase in shipping team - that I don't know.

You can also connect to IRC/Telegram/Matrix channel and ask there - somebody with more knowledge might answer you.

Re: Pine64 launches the cheapest Linux Tablet ever priced at just $99.99

#46

Post by Gregordinary »

hebrox wrote: post #17

I did some actual work on an ASUS Chromebook C201P, running VS Code, Postgresql, pgAdmin and Node.js. It was a little bit slow, but not too bad. I kind of expected/hoped this to be better than that old Chromebook, but reading this https://www.cnx-software.com/2015/04/09/relative-performance... it looks like it has even worse performance (A17 vs A53)

Do you have that running Linux via Crouton or have wiped the C201P? Or something else?

I just use mine for fun/learning. Have it flashed w/ Libreboot and running PrawnOS (Debian / Linux-libre based) which keeps seeing a nice amount of improvements. https://github.com/SolidHal/PrawnOS

Re: Pine64 launches the cheapest Linux Tablet ever priced at just $99.99

#47

Post by Lex-2008 »

kick wrote: post #43
gspr wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm so close to buying a Pinebook, and I know that everyone wants "just one more feature", but jesus, 4 GB or RAM?! If it had at least 8 I'd buy it in a sec. But 4 just won't cut it (thank you, modern web).

4GB is actually more usable than you'd think; most web browsers have performance settings that make the experience just fine with even a hundred tabs on low-end devices (Chromium gets more points than Firefox on this for its toaster mode), and outside of web browsers, there's not much else to worry about. If you set it up with one of the 'in-RAM compressed swap' solutions available like you should, you probably won't…

saying "toaster mode" do you mean "Toast" extension from dotoast.com?

Re: Pine64 launches the cheapest Linux Tablet ever priced at just $99.99

#48

Post by evultrole »

founderling wrote: post #31
farisjarrah wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isnt really a finished product that they are comfortable selling to the general population. I actually feel like they are doing a pretty good job of setting customers expectations. From the order page for the pine tab I see these disclaimers: The PineTab comes with UBports OS build installed. Please note that the OS build is still in a beta stage, and while most core functionality works, some elements remain a w…

How does the statement about dead pixels help people who ordered and paid a phone but get no information on when it will be shipped? Regarding general population vs hackers: Do you imply that hackers value low price higher then others? Are hackers particularely poor? I thought hacker often means coder which usually means higher income then the general population. Personally, I would totally prefer to pay 50% more and…

The price is low because they are generally selling things at cost as a service. This isn't a standard "make a device for $50 then sell it for $400 because we can" company because they don't want to be.

Orders are delayed because, and this may surprise you, there is a global pandemic right now which is affecting factory workers in China, causing production and Q&A issues because of restricted staff, visitors, and shipping.

If you prefer to spend more money then go do it and shut the hell up. "Personally, I'd like everyone to have to pay $50-75 more for this unfinished product because I'm an arrogant impatient idiot" is the worst take in the world

Just go buy a finished product from a store

Re: Pine64 launches the cheapest Linux Tablet ever priced at just $99.99

#49

Post by gcbw3 »

founderling wrote: post #20

I wonder why they price their products so cheap. They seem to be totally overrun by demand. And give a terrible user experience when you try to order from them. Friends of mine have ordered (and paid!) Pine64 products weeks ago and get no information when they will be shipped. When you send them an email, it either gets ignored or you get a reply by someone who does not speak English. Telling you something like "Yes…

They are upfront they are selling hardware to developers, pretty much.

The complete opposite of Librem, who do the same thing but charges $2000 for a laptop that barely boots without hacking libreboot every week and then proceed to use that money in marketing for their linux mobile phone which will be in the same sorry state and sold for the same high price and empty promises.

Re: Pine64 launches the cheapest Linux Tablet ever priced at just $99.99

#50

Post by formercoder »

founderling wrote: post #20

I wonder why they price their products so cheap. They seem to be totally overrun by demand. And give a terrible user experience when you try to order from them. Friends of mine have ordered (and paid!) Pine64 products weeks ago and get no information when they will be shipped. When you send them an email, it either gets ignored or you get a reply by someone who does not speak English. Telling you something like "Yes…

But how elastic is that demand? Would they have the same amount if the price was higher?
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