07-24-2020, 12:55 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-24-2020, 12:56 PM by LittleWalter.
Edit Reason: aren't to are grammar error
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(07-24-2020, 01:07 AM)MtnSk8 Wrote: I've been using the PBP shipped with Manjaro (aka: the covid batch) and mine has worked flawlessly. I use it all day with no problems. Manjaro KDE has been very stable, no hard resets and I think I dropped to the shell once to reboot gracefully but that was one time in the month or two I've been using the PBP. A full desktop OS on a 5 volt device is exactly what I've been waiting YEARS forI had very low expectations for the PBP as it's essentially a developer edition manufactured in the middle of a world wide pandemic and I am quite pleased with the model I received. Everything works!
I think it was like '05 when Ubuntu "Dapper Drake" was released and at the time I needed to update a ppc G4 Mac. I tried the "live cd" and ended up clicking "install".
Never looked back. The notion posed by Nobot about needing to be "fluent in linux code" After 15 years running Linux boxes I'm not really "fluent in linux code" whatever that means, I have to look s#!t up like most everyone else. Not just say "Oh well I'm not fluent in linux code" , "guess I can't figure it out". sheesh
I can empathize with OP because I don't think Pine64 products, or any other SBC producer, are for the faint of heart. At the very least and the current moment, you should consider these things as hobbyist devices at the consumer level that aren't fully baked. These things aren't really meant for the casual computer user, and I wouldn't recommend it to someone expecting everything to just work like a Mac or Windows machine.
The odds of having to hit the command line/terminal are still pretty high. If you don't like thinking about shells, CLI programs, etc., these laptops probably aren't for you. Consider more baked options like those from Purism or System 76. However, those things aren't super low price like building a cheap, low-powered Linux box out of an RPi, Hardkernel, or Pine64 SBC.
It sounds like OP didn't heed the Pine64 warnings of limited support and what an effectively "all sales final" sales pitch implies. Yep, you are your own Level 1 CSR (customer service rep) for these things. There's a reason that RTFM (Read That Friendly Manual) is actually good advice a lot of time in the Linux and FOSS world. These will always be a level of DIY.