What do i use the pinebook for?

[icemeister]

i have yet to find a good reason to own the pinebook. i had high hope when i first got it but now not so much. I keep setting it aside for awhile then keep coming back to computer and getting frustrated i keep getting an error about internal 16.04 failed, unable to get software, unable to install vpn, touch pad works to well, no upgrade to 18.4 ubuntu, unable to format flash drive,etc.

what i like is battery life, used on plane to watch movies worked ok, lightweight, good looking, easy to load operating system.
As a newbie i would like to use to help me learn more about linux so i do not have to go to win 10 but as an old guy i just am  not getting it.
looks like most of the attention is going to the rock64 and the pinebook is just being set aside or is it.
Thanks for the forum to vent

icemeister

[Wizzard]

You can easily upgrade to Ubuntu 18.04 and even 18.10, I have tested it and it works well.

[icemeister]

You can easily upgrade to Ubuntu 18.04 and even 18.10, I have tested it and it works well.

How would one go about doing an upgrade? I would love to use the pinebook with a vpn(i found out my vpn service can be used in firefox and works on the pinebook) to play out on the net. and do stuff.

[soupbowl]

ARM is still a relatively 'new' platform that Linux is supporting. Especially armhf architecture type which I find a large amount of apps don't support (YMMV).

[icemeister]

ARM is still a relatively 'new' platform that Linux is supporting. Especially armhf architecture type which I find a large amount of apps don't support (YMMV).

Yes, I agree I think i jumped in a little early for my knowledge of computers. If i wanted to pass this pinebook on to someone who could use and learn from the pinebook who would be a good choice.

[Luke]

ARM is still a relatively 'new' platform that Linux is supporting. Especially armhf architecture type which I find a large amount of apps don't support (YMMV).

Yes, I agree I think i jumped in a little early for my knowledge of computers. If i wanted to pass this pinebook on to someone who could use and learn from the pinebook who would be a good choice.

The Pinebook is good for learning Linux, but its not a daily driver replacement.

[ImmortanJoe]

The Pinebook is good for learning Linux, but its not a daily driver replacement.

That really depends on what you need / want to do daily. For multimedia heavy activities it's probably not the best choice. While I don't have a Pinebook yet I do use an H5 based SBC very regularly for file editing / programming, building large source trees, using Chromium on the internet, downloading things, running various utilities etc.

I think of the ARM like a scooter and x86 like a truck. A scooter will get you where you are going pretty quickly and use very little fuel. A truck is good at carrying a heavy load but burns through way more in the process.

I have a netbook which I am certain is way slower than the SoC in the Pinebook, and can rip through it's battery in a couple of hours just doing basic tasks. One of the strengths of the Pinebook is battery life as pointed out. For me it's also because it's ARM based which is what I work with, and part of the Allwinner family which I am specifically working with right now. But that's me.

As far as netbook class devices go, it's probably still a fairly solid choice because it can do that, and with a relatively low energy footprint. It also has enough RAM for SoC to be happy. I can say that with 1GB the ceiling is a little low.

[Wizzard]

You can easily upgrade to Ubuntu 18.04 and even 18.10, I have tested it and it works well.

How would one go about doing an upgrade? I would love to use the pinebook with a vpn(i found out my vpn service can be used in firefox and works on the pinebook) to play out on the net. and do stuff.

Just edit "/etc/apt/sources.list" file and replace "xenial" by "bionic" or better by "cosmic", then run "sudo apt update" and "sudo apt dist-upgrade" and you are done.

Maybe you will have to solve some issues during upgrade, just read carefully what it writes and do what is necessary, or paste it here and we will help you.

[soupbowl]

Just edit "/etc/apt/sources.list" file and replace "xenial" by "bionic" or better by "cosmic", then run "sudo apt update" and "sudo apt dist-upgrade" and you are done.

Maybe you will have to solve some issues during upgrade, just read carefully what it writes and do what is necessary, or paste it here and we will help you.

Pretty close to what the GUI dist upgrade tool does. Do you find you're left with a lot of left-over dependencies?

[Wizzard]

Pretty close to what the GUI dist upgrade tool does. Do you find you're left with a lot of left-over dependencies?

I am not sure what do you think, but I removed all the obsolete packages using autoremove.