Light and Thin 64-bit ARM Based Open Source Notebook | Hacker News Reader

Light and Thin 64-bit ARM Based Open Source Notebook

pine64.org

32 pointsdoener12 comments

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13031786.

    The publically available SDKs contain kernel and u-boot trees
    which include and depend on several binaries. Allwinner is always
    violating the GPL in this way since A31. In the current A64 SDK,
    lots of blobs are included in kernel and U-Boot, including the
    critical DRAM code and the important HDMI code.

Source: https://linux-sunxi.org/A64

I wonder what would happen if a lot of people got these machines and someone threw up a bounty to rewrite these firmware blobs. First person to replace and mainline them gets the bounty.

I hope this happens.

I think we need a reverse engineering and code mainlining organisation that has lots of people donating monthly, with priorities set by the donors, one vote per donor.

Linaro could have been useful but just ended up being beholden to their sponsors.

I'm a college student but I'd still donate a buck a month to that. Also having a group who makes datasheets for chips would be nice. Tackle each of the cheapest/"Best" chipsets and get perfect support so that more machines like these can be built.

I have a Pine64 2GB sitting fairly uselessly on my desk right now. I can't believe they already have this new product after the huge fiasco that was shipping the original board and components. Go check out the /r/pine64 subreddit, filled with complaints about people not getting their stuff on time (or ever).

Also, saying that it runs any "PINE A64 supported OS" doesn't mean much, it's debatable if you could consider anything currently available "supported". The android-based builds are the only ones able to play 480p Youtube without stuttering. Despite the promise of more horsepower and RAM compared to a RPi3, this has about 1/100th of the support level and community investment. Save your money and buy one of those or a NUC.

As tempting as this device is, I'll be keeping my late 2015 rMBP as my daily driver for now.

Tempting with 2 gigs of ram? I could barely do web development with that

I would like to know differences in weight between the 11 and 14" versions. Also, if the 11" laptop size is proportional to the screen, and not just same enclosure as the 14" with more margin filled with plastic around the screen (ugly).

The title is misleading, lots of parts are not opensource.

Finally, it doesn't seem to run Linux mainline but custom patched older versions.

TL;DR it's more of the usual ARM garbage

Perhaps not the perfect open source laptop the purity patrol is looking for, but at $99 I really DGAF. Looks like a fine option for people who want a low-power self-contained machine (as opposed to an exposed circuit board Raspberry Pi, say).

Anyone know if this can run ChromeOS?

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