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Background: I've been a desktop Linux user for the past 10+ years. I've had an ARM Chromebook for the last 6. My Chromebook is basically just a web browser/ssh terminal with a keyboard attached, I don't use it for anything else.
I'm thinking about replacing the Chromebook with a pinebook Pro, mostly in anticipation of chrome not allowing adblockers anymore, but also as part of a longer term goal of degoogling my life.
Does anyone have any experience with the pinebook? My main concern is longevity. I don't tinkering with the software to get things working (though I probably won't stray far from a basic Debian install anyway), and things like screen/keyboard/mouse quality I'm flexible on. But if it's a flimsy and isn't going to last for at least 6 years, or isn't actually very repairable, then I won't bother.
2023-12-03 · 7 months ago · 👍 norayr
I bought a standard pinebook back when they first came out, the plasic is cheap, so over time the hinges snapped through it. That and the solder joints on both the headphone jack and charging jack went kaput after awhile. I believe I got that back in 2017, and it would have lasted at least a yeaar or two before developing those issues. (though the headphone jack went first as I recall) Since it's been around five years they may have changed their materials since then but if not I wouldn't bother. Maybe try installing a different flavor of linux on an intel chromebook or other cheap laptop.
Edit: I just looked up the pro and it is made of metal, that would probably aleviate the concerns of the plastic connected to the hinges snapping. I might still be concerned about the solder joints, hough its probably worth getting a second opinion.
🏕️ Yretek · 2023-12-03 at 10:04:
I have a desktop PC and that simplifies a lot of things, longevity wise. Laptops are just no that good on ergonomics and are more feeble by design.
👻 mediocregopher [OP...] · 2023-12-03 at 12:24:
Thanks @N10A, that doesn't inspire a lot of confidence, but I will keep my hopes up that someone comes in and says the metal chasis on the pro is a bit more durable.
👤 jdcard · 2023-12-04 at 00:52:
I bought a Pinebook Pro when they first became available. It's been running Manjaro ever since. I did a lot of tinkering with it during the first six months or so, but it has been stable ever since. I had no problems with build quality, but some users reported breaking the screen hinge on some of the very early units off the production line. It is not a fast machine, but gets me through those times I have to be away from my desktop machine. The built-in speakers are nearly useless, but other than that I've been pretty happy with it.
@jdcard yeah they were really bad on the original pinebook too. Sucks that they put so little care into those espescially with how cheap audio is these days.
🐉 gyaradong · 2023-12-09 at 03:25:
hmm is reflashing linux on a chromium not possible?
👻 mediocregopher [OP...] · 2023-12-09 at 23:36:
It depends on the model. Older ARM models like mine don't make it easy.... Mine won't boot anything except signed ChromeOS. I could flash the firmware (after physically enabling R/W on the motherboard), but libreboot doesn't currently support my machine, and I haven't found any other alternatives.
There are compatibility lists that make it fairly easy to know what chromebook to buy.
we have two pinebook pros, first one i bought for my wife.
she was using an old acer core2 laptop before it, and pinebook, though one core performance of it is comparable, still feels like a huge upgrade.
the acer laptop used fans, was big and fat and heavy, made of plastic, while pinebook pro is lightweight, has full metal body and in generally feels like a high quality device.
she uses the pinebook to edit photos, sometimes to do CAD work with qcad.
though it only has 4gb of memory it didn't feel like a limitation to her, though she opens 50 and sometimes more mpx photos and edits those in gimp or darktable.
i have added nvme board to it and moved the home to it, so it started to feel even more responsive and fast.
the only problem with nvme is that when the pinebook pro has not enough battery charge, and even when it is powered with usb-c it may hang because nvme draws lots of energy.
but when connected via ac socket power then it works well with nvme even when the charge is low.
her pinebook pro runs manjaro. yeah and we were not able to run blender on it, because it requires better video card.
my pinebook pro runs gentoo and manages to compile everything it needs.
however recently, for a year or so probably, rust requires so much memory to compile that it cannot compile rust anymore.
i compile rust because librsvg is written in it, and lots of things have hard dependency on it in gentoo.
and rust-bin is not available in gentoo for aarch64. at least not when i checked last time.
there is a gentoo ticket regarding making librsvg a weaker and optional dependency, more configurable by USE flags, but it is not yet done.
anyway, pinebook is amazing. it has no fan, and it can be charged with regular 2A old phone charger. people on boats use it.
and it is very affordable.
i sometimes think that mnt reform is a better option in terms of repairability, but it costs much more, looks fatter, and i guess it is more heavy and less convenient to carry around, my understanding is that it is comparable by performance, but uncomparable by cost.
i think pinebook pro is an amazing device and i wish i had more money to buy it to more of my friends or relatives who struggle with old intel notebooks.
👻 mediocregopher [OP...] · Apr 02 at 14:35:
I should have come back and update this, thanks you for reminding me @norayr and for the recommendation. I did indeed get a PBP of my own and am loving it so far. Got the sway release of manjaro running on it without much problem, and I can say it's like a huge breath of fresh air to have a true linux machine on an ARM laptop. My only criticism is that the touchpad is clunky, but other than that the build quality is great and everything seems to just work.
@gyaradong It's possible on some models. Veronica Explains recently did a video on it.
https://tinkerbetter.tube/w/hR4wubPUhEW3LR8ZckEAsn