About the SoPine A64 and the Pinebook

[Nick]

I signed up here as soon as I heard about the Pinebook. It reminds me of the original ASUS Eee PC. That broke ground as a Linux netbook, and was a hell of a lot of fun to tinker with. The Pinebook could fill the void the Eee left behind as a cheap, reliable, Linux laptop. I'm interested.

Nice to see that so many people from outside the Pine64 community have shown interest in the Pinebook ... even before a formal announcement ; haha

Looks like an awesome community. Takes me back to my distro-spinning days during the Eee PC's heyday.

[max tsukino]

I read about it on Liliputing... and after perusing a bit on the site and here the board to learn more about the platform, I signed...

it looks a nice thing to tinker and i think it's affordable...

[MarkHaysHarris777]

w00t w00t

---

the similarities between the pine64 board & this laptop, based on what is shown so far are the cpu, 2 serial ports, wi-fi and a hdmi port. the gpu is most likely the same. what the laptop does not have is ethernet,  40pin bus connector,  euler bus connector, exp bus connector, touch panel connector. that's off top of my head, so maybe laptop lacks more. anyway in your list you seem to list the laptop as equal to the board in that it offers the $29 value  of the board. fact is, the laptop does not offer that same $29 value as the board. perhaps 1/3 of the value of the board.

The pinebook is a package ( a specific use case ) that takes on value;  its value is far greater than the sum of its parts.  If it works ( if it supports gnu+linux ) its well priced , in fact very competitively priced.

Whether it can be hacked is another story altogether;  and if so, its intrinsic value continues to go up. 

( I want to look at her guts )

[Nick]

As long as it's a reliable, good-quality laptop that runs Linux well (or Android, especially Remix), I'm definitely interested.

[jhgoodwin]

As long as it's a reliable, good-quality laptop that runs Linux well (or Android, especially Remix), I'm definitely interested.

I signed up, too, but I'm a little torn.  For anything that *CAN* run android and has a screen, I'd like to request consideration for a touchscreen option, even if there is not a fancy hinge to let it bend backwards or swivel into a tablet form.

My reasoning is that for something with android capable hardware, it's just a shame to turn down all the software that's been touch optimized.

As an aside, that's why I didn't buy a chromebook this recent black friday/cybermonday. There were tons of great deals, but the mix just seemed enough off that I'd end up feeling like I got a great bargain on something I don't really want. Screen quality, screen res, screen size, decent keyboard action, touch screen, 4GB+ RAM, 32GB or 16GB+ memory card slot, decent CPU, decent battery. Seems like it shouldn't be too hard to hit these at a reasonable price point.

John

[Luke]

As long as it's a reliable, good-quality laptop that runs Linux well (or Android, especially Remix), I'm definitely interested.

I signed up, too, but I'm a little torn.  For anything that *CAN* run android and has a screen, I'd like to request consideration for a touchscreen option, even if there is not a fancy hinge to let it bend backwards or swivel into a tablet form.

My reasoning is that for something with android capable hardware, it's just a shame to turn down all the software that's been touch optimized.

As an aside, that's why I didn't buy a chromebook this recent black friday/cybermonday.  There were tons of great deals, but the mix just seemed enough off that I'd end up feeling like I got a great bargain on something I don't really want.   Screen quality, screen res, screen size, decent keyboard action, touch screen, 4GB+ RAM, 32GB or 16GB+ memory card slot, decent CPU, decent battery.  Seems like it shouldn't be too hard to hit these at a reasonable price point.

John

I get what you are saying. Then again, there are so many cheap touch devices running droid (you can build a pine64 playbox), I am not sure touch the right fit for the pinebook. I'm no expert but I believe that a touch screen is +15-20% the price of a regular screen (?). There are other drawbacks too, such as increase in battery consumption. Personally, I never understood the appeal of touch on a laptop, but I fully understand that some people find it useful/ appealing. Perhaps it'll be included in the next iteration ?

Also, are you considering the pinebook as a daily driver (guessing from what you wrote about the cybermonday deals)? If yes, then I don't think its intended to replace your Dell or Macbook laptop, in the same way the pine64 isn't meant to replace a dedicated $300 media PC or server.

[jhgoodwin]

As long as it's a reliable, good-quality laptop that runs Linux well (or Android, especially Remix), I'm definitely interested.

I signed up, too, but I'm a little torn.  For anything that *CAN* run android and has a screen, I'd like to request consideration for a touchscreen option, even if there is not a fancy hinge to let it bend backwards or swivel into a tablet form.

My reasoning is that for something with android capable hardware, it's just a shame to turn down all the software that's been touch optimized.

As an aside, that's why I didn't buy a chromebook this recent black friday/cybermonday.  There were tons of great deals, but the mix just seemed enough off that I'd end up feeling like I got a great bargain on something I don't really want.   Screen quality, screen res, screen size, decent keyboard action, touch screen, 4GB+ RAM, 32GB or 16GB+ memory card slot, decent CPU, decent battery.  Seems like it shouldn't be too hard to hit these at a reasonable price point.

John

I get what you are saying. Then again, there are so many cheap touch devices running droid (you can build a pine64 playbox), I am not sure touch the right fit for the pinebook. I'm no expert but I believe that a touch screen is +15-20% the price of a regular screen (?). There are other drawbacks too, such as increase in battery consumption. Personally, I never understood the appeal of touch on a laptop, but I fully understand that some people find it useful/ appealing. Perhaps it'll be included in the next iteration ?

Also, are you considering the pinebook as a daily driver (guessing from what you wrote about the cybermonday deals)? If yes, then I don't think its intended to replace your Dell or Macbook laptop, in the same way the pine64 isn't meant to replace a dedicated $300 media PC or server.

Well, I completely agree with regards to not being a fan of touch.  I'd much rather use a keyboard than touch screens, but if the app does exactly the function you need, but needs touch, better to just live with it, than to work around it, IMO.  If it really does suck down more power, I'd also appreciate being able to easily shut it off/standby when I'm keyboarding/watching videos.

With regards to making it a daily driver - honestly, I'd love to.  I have used lots of overpowered computers, but I feel like it just keeps letting app creators get away with crappy software.  I don't need more whizbang UIs, better shading, more transparency, so on.  I need features I use.  Make async tasks, better indexing, instant searches, lightweight data models so you don't waste my storage, better dependency management, so on.  Don't get me wrong.  I love a fast computer, but if you really think about what you're trying to do, it is such a waste to spend $$$ on a high end computer, just so my code editor doesn't lag.  Why does it need to lag at all?  Take a look at apps like the v file viewer versus even a "simple" app like notepad.  Notepad will try to load the entire file into memory.  Why?  You can't even see the entire file.  the v file viewer will only load the part you see so you can load a multi-gigabyte file, no problems.  This isn't a new idea, it's an old one.  Apple iPad is a crappy computer with a good GPU.  They had the right idea with their OS.  If your app misbehaves, they reserve the right to just shutdown your app.  This is the right attitude towards garbage coding/software.

Anyhow, not trying to digress too much.  Mostly just wanted to see if a touchscreen would be possible to allow better android app support.

Just my two cents.

[KiloByte]

Android on a laptop doesn't make sense.  I have an Omega OAN133 (Allwinner A10), sold with Android -- it's useless that way.  Android wants a touchscreen and can't make good use of a keyboard; if you put a regular operating system on it's a normal, sane, if underpowered laptop.  Obviously for a stand-alone computer you'd want something beefier, but for client-only duties it's enough; unlike x86 stuff it's also perfectly silent, and also useful for portability testing.

I just hope the Pinebook won't be as shoddily made as that Omega OAN -- its keyboard started abysmal, and currently for practical purposes doesn't work at all, SD reader throws errors until reboot if you touch anywhere close, etc.

[jhgoodwin]

Android on a laptop doesn't make sense.  I have an Omega OAN133 (Allwinner A10), sold with Android -- it's useless that way.  Android wants a touchscreen and can't make good use of a keyboard; if you put a regular operating system on it's a normal, sane, if underpowered laptop.  Obviously for a stand-alone computer you'd want something beefier, but for client-only duties it's enough; unlike x86 stuff it's also perfectly silent, and also useful for portability testing.

I just hope the Pinebook won't be as shoddily made as that Omega OAN -- its keyboard started abysmal, and currently for practical purposes doesn't work at all, SD reader throws errors until reboot if you touch anywhere close, etc.

Have you seen Remix OS ?  I think that makes it more sane.

[joe]

The Sopine A64 is very good design , we can use SOPINE Baseboard “Model A” ( network card , wi-fi lcd ) , just change other allwinner chip or buy the A64 card can work , no need to buy other board !