Linus wants an ARM Laptop!

[KC9UDX]

Time to switch to NetBSD

[qchapter1]

I would love to have a super-powerful ARM laptop as well. But I want one that runs Linux, is user-serviceable, has an opensource boot, and has a strong community around it. The Pinebook Pro is the closest thing available now.

[DrYak]

Imagine going back to 1990 and thinking the Pinebook Pro is not powerful enough to be a developer machine for anyone.

I wish I had a better recollection of how long the 0.97.6 kernel took to compile on a 486DX-66 with 8 MB of RAM, which is probably the slowest machine I ever did kernel programming on, vs how long it takes to compile the far far larger 5.9.10 kernel on a Pinebook Pro.

I don't quite remember if I was still using the 386DX first time I attempted compiling it, but it was definitely an overnighter.
1998: SUSE 6.0, 486DX2-66, kernel 2.0 (and 2.2) definitely took multiple hours and I left them for the night.

Want to use Linux, no time to tinker??

Looks like Linus has grown old and lost his mojo.
{...}
What if Linus had the attitude "not wanting to tinker" when he started Linux?

Guys, you're forgetten that tinkering the Linux kernel is already his day job and probably eats nearly all its time.

He probably prefers spending whatever is left available into diving (and tinkering his diving computer), rather than fighting hardware by company that actively prevents 3rd party OS and dreams about locking their desktop users into their iOS walled garden ("Fuck you™, Apple").

There are only 24h in a day, you now, you have to spend them wisely.

[dieselnutjob]

well I got a reply

https://www.realworldtech.com/forum/?thr...tid=197204

to be fair, the Pinebook Pro can be marginal on processing power.
I have struggled to edit (or even load) large photos with it.

I guess that the market place for a more upmarket Linux ARM laptop is probably a bit limited (for now).  I think such a device would need to be be able to run Windows and/or Linux in order to get a critical mass.

[firefox-58]

And only 4GB of RAM are the next problem

[ab1jx]

What a powerful ally for Pine64 to have on its side though.  You want more mainstream Linux to run on the PBP, he's in a position to  change all that.  The ways you've done things could become the defacto standards.  U-boot could stand more accessible documentation and to become less mysterious.

More processing power, 4 GB not enough, good grief, spend 10 times as much and buy a new Dell.  I'm quite happy with mine now that I've spent more time with it.  My desktop machines are Raspberry Pi 3Bs.  I could buy up some used PBPs and replace them quite handily.  Plug in some USB hubs and an HDMI adapter.  6+ hours battery backup is nice for power outages.

[KC9UDX]

What a sad world where 4Gb is considered "not enough".

[CharlieGordon]

More processing power, 4 GB not enough, good grief, spend 10 times as much and buy a new Dell.

I generally agree with you, but in all fairness I bought a used Dell laptop with 16GB last year and paid less than what a PBP would have cost me.