Is there any reasonable Linux support for a laptop with ARM right now? Asahi and Apple are one thing, but qualcomm's offerings haven't looked enticing at all.
MNT reform uses the well documented NXP i.MX8 SoM from Boundary Devices. The SoM can be replaced to swap out CPU/memory and there is an FPGA module being worked on.
It's more DiY but for some that is a huge boon. Used one in person and its quite bulky and heavy but feels pretty solid and comfortable enough to use. The mechanical keyboard and trackball option are unique and welcome additions. I liked it so much I ordered a pocket reform though I intend to run 9front on it.
I mean, it “works” as in it is a functioning computer, but it’s not really useful as a daily driver machine. Mine is very touchy and build quality-wise, it’s not great.
It is great for what you pay, don’t get me wrong. And I’m sure some people could use it daily, but between the battery life and sluggish performance, it’s not really in the same conversation as the Framework model here.
I think for me the real issue I have is that with the Pinebook Pro (and Linux on ARM in general), you’re limited to a specific set of “blessed” Linux distributions. There is still a lot of custom code that goes into these, so it’s not at the point of being able to just download your favorite distro and running it. It’s getting better, but there are so many variations of chips that it’s hard to get things running smoothly. The flexibility of the OS and ARM CPUs really makes it difficult without a major OEM/vendor taking charge.
I have a pinebook. its. a fun toy but the trackpad is trash and there's not much if any HD space so I still use my MBP as a daily driver. I'd happily pay more for a pinebook pro with at least 512 gb of space, 8 gb of ram and a beefier battery. the cpu performance is on the low end but workable.
I'm using the Acer Chromebook Spin 513 with a Qualcomm SC7180 processor as my daily driver and almost everything Just Works except hardware decoding (of videos) and 4k 60Hz display port output.
while in theory there are arm things available on various package repos, in practice I've hit a good amount of stuff not packaged yet (in my case, the context was more around people doing stuff via docker M1)
Alpine, Debian and Arch have never given me a miss regarding packaging for arm64/hf. And I work specifically with embedded Linux using those distros as a base.
Is this current info? On the various projects I find myself working on (usually web-related across a few different stacks) I don't really run into any without an ARM64 version.
MisterTea|2 years ago
It's more DiY but for some that is a huge boon. Used one in person and its quite bulky and heavy but feels pretty solid and comfortable enough to use. The mechanical keyboard and trackball option are unique and welcome additions. I liked it so much I ordered a pocket reform though I intend to run 9front on it.
goosedragons|2 years ago
mbreese|2 years ago
I mean, it “works” as in it is a functioning computer, but it’s not really useful as a daily driver machine. Mine is very touchy and build quality-wise, it’s not great.
It is great for what you pay, don’t get me wrong. And I’m sure some people could use it daily, but between the battery life and sluggish performance, it’s not really in the same conversation as the Framework model here.
I think for me the real issue I have is that with the Pinebook Pro (and Linux on ARM in general), you’re limited to a specific set of “blessed” Linux distributions. There is still a lot of custom code that goes into these, so it’s not at the point of being able to just download your favorite distro and running it. It’s getting better, but there are so many variations of chips that it’s hard to get things running smoothly. The flexibility of the OS and ARM CPUs really makes it difficult without a major OEM/vendor taking charge.
cultofmetatron|2 years ago
Laaas|2 years ago
candiddevmike|2 years ago
rtpg|2 years ago
spyremeown|2 years ago
bdcravens|2 years ago