About the Pinebook - What to expect

[Luke]

Ocelante: take a look here, don't know if this is what you're looking for and if it helps. Its from ubuntu mate on the Pinebook. Regarding your question, I only have the 11" model and have not had the opportunity to use the 14" (yet), but some people say the 11" is better for extensive writing.While I cannot say which one is better for writing with certainty, what I can confirm for you is that for writing the 11" has been close to flawless for me.

[MarkHaysHarris777]

I am a Linux enthusiast (I have Linux Mint Xfce on my laptop and netbook), I am also a student and the payment will take half of my salary. I just want to be sure of receiving good hardware, I'm a simple user, so I'll use it mainly for web browsing, opening Writer, listening to music and nothing else (I'm not playing anything, I'm not a gamer). Greetings.

Your question is not really a fair question;  I do not mean that to be in any way snarky. No one can tell you whether your money will be well spent for you. Having said that;

... since you are an enthusiast for linux;  the pinebook is a very well made portable pine board ( similar electrically to the sopine, although its a new board ) that will allow you to easily carry the pine (and linux) with you to class, the coffee shop, whatever;

It is NOT a mac book;  its keyboard ( the 14") looks similar to the apple keyboard but misses a lot of keystrokes unless the typing is very deliberate , center of the key and a little slower.  The 11.6" apparently does not have this issue because the keys are smaller you're less likely to hit the key off-center.

The gnu+linux system (ubuntu) runs very well, which allows you to do the kinds of things you would expect from a portable computer. The hardware is remarkably well made, and 'feels' good.

I would not recommend this machine as an 'only' college system for anyone.  On the other hand, it would be a great suppliment system for any person who is a linux enthusiast and wants to experiment with a great little SBC (AW SoC).

On the other hand, if money is tight,  as a starving student,  you might want to hold off a little while.

[ayufan]

Or just have basic conference computer that he is not afraid to loose. It is cheap, has a decent battery (8-10h), it is good enough for web browsing and media.

[pfeerick]

I have my BTO for the Pinebook 14 since yesterday (I have until May 10th), but before making the payment, I would like to know how well the Pinebok works. When putting in Spanish any key will have function of the letter "ñ"?
Having it in my house will cost me USD 153 (there is only FedEx option that charges me 54). I am from peru. There will be no problems with Customs.
I am a Linux enthusiast (I have Linux Mint Xfce on my laptop and netbook), I am also a student and the payment will take half of my salary. I just want to be sure of receiving good hardware, I'm a simple user, so I'll use it mainly for web browsing, opening Writer, listening to music and nothing else (I'm not playing anything, I'm not a gamer). Greetings.

From your requirements -  "web browsing, opening Writer, listening to music and nothing else"... if you had asked me about the 11.6" pinebook... I would have said, "sure, go for it", considering you already have a laptop and netbook running *nix, so are familiar with it and it isn't your only machine. Some minor re-mapping of keys, and hopefully some tweaks to the touch-pad so that it doesn't keep moving the mouse when typing (although you could always simply disable the trackpad during focused writing sessions) and you'd be fine, as it is already running reasonably well, and the software support will only get better in the coming weeks and months.  But I've heard more than a few gripes about the 14" missing keystrokes, and keys jamming up, so perhaps not. It sounds like the 14" model would infuriate and annoy you if you wanted to have use it reliably for writing, unless there are just some teething production issues with the first few made...

[ayufan]

Surprisingly I did not have issues with mine 14''.

[jlucid]

Can anyone answer the following? 

1) Has anyone managed to use a cheap USB hubs for slot expansion?

2) is there a list floating out there on what USB devices have been tested on which distros?

3) Are there any mod instructions on upgrading the battery run time?

4) Does UEFI/BIOS have any power management settings? Is there anything hard wired to prevent the external HDMI to work while the screen on the Pinebook is closed?

[Luke]

Can anyone answer the following? 

1) Has anyone managed to use a cheap USB hubs for slot expansion?

2) is there a list floating out there on what USB devices have been tested on which distros?

3) Are there any mod instructions on upgrading the battery run time?

4) Does UEFI/BIOS have any power management settings? Is there anything hard wired to prevent the external HDMI to work while the screen on the Pinebook is closed?

1) yes
2) no - but it's easier to get stuff working on Linux than Android. On the Pine A64 I got a Realtek Wifi dongle working with some tinkering without any major issues.
3) have you updated the image to the newest release ? My battery life if pretty insane...  You can also try tkaisers settings posted in his preiview over at Armbian forums (Google fu).
4) there is no BIOS/UEFI - google uboot

[pfeerick]

1) Has anyone managed to use a cheap USB hubs for slot expansion?

Yes, I've used at least one type of unpowered USB hub with the pinebook with no issue. 1 USB port, four flash drives... ;-) If I can find my other one, I'll check it out with a second type.



As far as #2, there should be any real issues... if you can run it on another computer running linux, you should be able to get it running on the pinebook (baring ARM or ARM64 driver issues).

I see luke as already responded to #4 With respect to your real question though, I suspect the HDMI would keep running, unless you have the pinebook set to sleep when you close the lid. I can't check at the moment though as I'm running an earlier build linux which I don't think had the HDMI enabled yet.

[mtk]

Hello.
I will use PINEBOOK in Japan.
But, in order to use radio waves (Wi-Fi/Bluetooth) in Japan it is necessary to have a Giteki(Techincal Conformity).
http://www.tele.soumu.go.jp/e/adm/monito.../index.htm
http://www.tele.soumu.go.jp/j/adm/monito.../index.htm

Are there any plans to respond?

[MarkHaysHarris777]

Hello.
I will use PINEBOOK in Japan.
But, in order to use radio waves (Wi-Fi/Bluetooth) in Japan it is necessary to have a Giteki(Techincal Conformity).
http://www.tele.soumu.go.jp/e/adm/monito.../index.htm
http://www.tele.soumu.go.jp/j/adm/monito.../index.htm

The pinebook wifi conforms to the normal 802.11xx  standards.   You will need to check the specs against the giteki requirement;  hopefully not a problem.  I assume we will have discussions about this requirement.

UPDATE:
I spoke with TLLim this morning; he is going to look into the giteki certificate compliance this week. If he can apply the FCC compliance on giteki, then that will be fine; on the other hand , if the FCC compliance does not work for giteki, then he will not proceed unless there is considerable interest... the reason is that the giteki can cost between $10k-$20k USD . Unless interest in compensation of fee, Pine will not proceed. Let's see what happens this week, if the FCC certificate works for giteki then no problem.

TLLim states "No Promises". They will look into this, but there is no guarantee that gitteki certificate will work.