Linus wants an ARM Laptop!

[Iolaum]

I was reading this article from a Linus Torvalds interview. There's a choice quote from him:

I’ve been waiting for an ARM laptop that can run Linux for a long time. The new Air would be almost perfect, except for the OS. And I don’t have the time to tinker with it, or the inclination to fight companies that don’t want to help.

While the PBP may not be as powerful as the new Macbook Air he was asked about, it certainly ticks the other requirements. I don't know if it 'd be worth it for Pine64 to send him one to try and speak about.

[KC9UDX]

For the price, you could send him one

[Vasant]

For even cheaper  price he could also buy a Chromebook -. It also runs Linux kernel.

[dieselnutjob]

here is a link what he said:-

https://web.archive.org/web/202011221828...tid=196570

[KC9UDX]

Want to use Linux, no time to tinker??

[Arwen]

Correct, he can't tinker with everything.

In my opinion, until the Pinebook Pro just works out of the box with multiple distros, (with U-Boot device menu & kernel menu on LCD), then I don't think our beloved PBP is something he has time for.

I had to give up on some personal projects because they became too complicated or took too much time.

[KC9UDX]

I don't think any computer running Linux is in any way appropriate for someone who "doesn't want to tinker" except if someone else is doing systems administration for him. (!)

Otherwise, except if he insists on a particular distru, Manjaro on a new PBP just works, and works well. That is, after you get past the Catalan keyboard issue. I wouldn't use it for myself, Arch Linux just isn't for me; but then I don't mind to "tinker": I prefer AmigaOS or NetBSD.

[jiyong]

Looks like Linus has grown old and lost his mojo.
Just imagine "current" Linus going back in time and contemplating about starting Linux.
What if Linus had the attitude "not wanting to tinker" when he started Linux?

Currently the Pinebook Pro is not powerful enough to be a developer machine for Linus.
Yes, Apple released the best computers with a 10W SoC, but that's all.
When you don't mind burning through more Watts, you can have faster machines with both Intel and AMD.

Nowadays you can order pre-installed Linux machines, where you need to know just as much about the OS as with Windows and MacOS.
Tomorrow I will receive a Star Lite MkIII (with Ubuntu) and I'm afraid my Pinebook Pro will go down in my priorities.

[KC9UDX]

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

[xyzzy]

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.  Of course the former would have used a gcc 1.x compiler that's also much faster than the current gcc, which can do optimizations that were totally unfeasible back then.

I feel like it's not all that different.  Couple hours each.

Sure wish there was a "desktop" version of Buildroot or Yocto for the PBP.  These support cross-compilation as the normal development method, so it would be trivial to compile a new kernel on my Ryzen 3700X in less than a minute and then install the package on the PBP.  It doesn't seem like there's a way to cross-build a Manjaro package.