I got a PineBook.

[Mendota]

Someone on MacRumors mentioned getting a PineBook, maybe in jest. But being how I am I went looking. It is a small project that bring Linux to ARM. There are many distros, but the default is KDE Neon. There was a waiting list on the site and you have to sign up, but I checked out eBay and I found one, new and with upgraded storage to 64 gigs. I am typing this on it now. It took awhile but I have it all set up.

It has been a lot of fun, I went with KDE, think of it as a Linux Air.

 

[Queen6]

I like KDE a lot

Q-6

 

[Mendota]

I like KDE a lot

Q-6

Yes back in the day, I ran KDE with Madrake and I really liked that. Later after Mandrake I went with Mint. I forgot about KDE, but it has been a joy on this little book. And guess what? The keyboard is excellent! Imagine a $99 dollar laptop with a better keyboard and more ports than a $4000 MacBook. For ports it has two USB 2, mini SD, micro video port, and a headphone jack, all for $99... Let's think about that for a moment.

 

[Queen6]

Yes back in the day, I ran KDE with Madrake and I really liked that. Later after Mandrake I went with Mint. I forgot about KDE, but it has been a joy on this little book. And guess what? The keyboard is excellent! Imagine a $99 dollar laptop with a better keyboard and more ports than a $4000 MacBook. For ports it has two USB 2, mini SD, micro video port, and a headphone jack, all for $99... Let's think about that for a moment.

That's why I say the MBP is now just a joke, I've a $650 2in1 that's more versatile than any MBP...

Q-6

 

[maflynn]

Here's LTT's take on it He mentioned manjaro has a build for this and its a bit more stable and has less bugs then the KDE implementation on the pinebook

 

[sracer]

I'm a big fan of tinkering and experimenting but I can't figure out what the appeal is to the Pinebook. Is it because it comes preloaded with Linux? What would influence someone to buy a Pinebook to tinker with Linux vs. buying something like an Asus Vivobook E203MA (or similar) for $120?

 

[Mendota]

I'm a big fan of tinkering and experimenting but I can't figure out what the appeal is to the Pinebook. Is it because it comes preloaded with Linux? What would influence someone to buy a Pinebook to tinker with Linux vs. buying something like an Asus Vivobook E203MA (or similar) for $120?

I liked the fact that is was on ARM and I wanted to support the project. It is a nice community and a chance for me to get back to trying Linux development on a new scale. Also in the past I really liked KDE and had sort of forgot about it, so this was like coming back to see an old friend.
[doublepost=1557429712][/doublepost]

Here's LTT's take on it He mentioned manjaro has a build for this and its a bit more stable and has less bugs then the KDE implementation on the pinebook

In the time since this video they have made a lot of improvements and updates and I haven't run into in stability issues or major bugs. 800 updates later LOL. But it has been fun and I am impressed with how much has been ported over to ARM. Might give a glimpse into Apple's future plans if they are thinking of going ARM.
[doublepost=1557431296][/doublepost]Well for anyone that is interested, my experience was much better than Linus. For one thing the moment you start it, it wants to update. I did that and rebooted and the difference was night and day. Next I got rid of Firefox as the default browser and installed Chromium. I turned off the background process and scripting except for certain sites. That made it quite usable for browsing. Also no, you can't really stream video well, but it plays local video quite well. And last many of the applications ported over for it such as Libe Office, etc work very well. Just a few tips and counter to Linus experience.

 

[LeeW]

Just ordered one, what the hell, was getting bored with the Pi Probably take weeks to reach me though.

 

[iAssimilated]

I too started my linux/KDE adventure with Mandrake (version 7 if I recall correctly). I bought the install disks shrink wrapped in an official box with a user guide for $10 at a tech store in my home town! I used Mandrake until it became Mandriva, then Mepis Linux -> Kubuntu -> Mepis -> Kubuntu -> KDE neon. Until I made the full switch to Mac a year ago I was using linux exclusively for quite a while (since then not so much). I do enjoy the experience KDE neon offers when I do use it though!

Never heard of a PineBook, thank you for sharing