[Linux-aus] Inexpensive laptops (was: ARM laptops)

[Stephen Hocking]

Laptops running Linux are a bit of a hobby of mine - I enjoy the GPD series
a lot, having had the Pocket 2 & 3 and the MiniPC unit, all of which would
fit into a pocket, as the name suggests. The Pocket 3 would be the ideal
one, if someone had figured out what bits to bang in the return from deep
sleep mode, as the display doesn't turn back on. It has some funky add-ons
including a HDMI capture card with a USB-C port that allows the unit to act
as a kind of KVM to another PC.

My daily driver is an Acer Chromebook 514, as it runs the Android apps that
control my telescopes (Vespera, Dwarf2 and hopefully soon the SeeStar
S50).  I use the Linux sub-system a lot on the Chromebooks. I've been
amusing myself booting AIX 4.3.3 on a hacked version of QEMU on the
chromebook. This would have been seriously useful back when I was working
on IRIS at DIAC.

On Sat, 21 Oct 2023 at 19:57, Les Kitchen via linux-aus <
linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au> wrote:

> Hi MC!
>
> On Sat, Oct 21, 2023, at 16:59, Mike Carden via linux-aus wrote:
>
> > I'm typing this on a circa 2010 Lenovo X201 laptop which I
> > bought second hand in late 2012. It has an Intel i5 M 580 (4)
> > @ 2.667GHz CPU and 7728MiB of RAM. By modern standards it's a
> > tad chunky, but its keyboard is perhaps still the best laptop
> > keyboard ever made with proper full-throw keys.
>
> Your post inspired me to reply on my Lenovo Thinkpad X200
> (around 2008 vintage), though I first read it on my much newer
> MNT Reform (see below).
>
> I bought the X200 off a free-software buddy for $20, then spent
> about $200 upgrading to 8G RAM and 500GB SSD and new 9-cell
> battery.
>
> I've had a similar experience: excellent keyboard (having real
> PgUp, PgDn, etc., keys is a big win), easily swappable battery,
> repairability.  A very nice machine for almost all everyday use.
> I've even put in an ExpressCard to get USB3, though that works
> only a fresh boot, and seems not to wake up properly after
> hibernation, and I haven't had time to fix that.
>
> I guess the overall comment is that one route for getting a
> cheap laptop is to buy an old machine second-hand, and upgrade
> the hardware as needed — if the design allows it, which is sadly
> not true of most new laptops.  Russell's suggestion serves well
> if you particularly need to work on ARM or even a particular SoC
> like the RK3399 (Pinebook Pro) or RK3399S (PinePhone Pro).
>
> In daily use I mainly cycle through four laptops: the
> abovementioned Thinkpad X200; a 2007-vintage "Santa Rosa"
> Macbook (black polycarbonate, hand-me-down from my son)
> similarly upgraded; newer a Pinebook Pro (with 1TB NVMe
> upgrade); and newest an MNT Reform (a very nice machine, with
> very good keyboard and built-in trackball, but a much more
> expensive proposition).  Running Debian on all but the Pinebook
> Pro (Manjaro).  The older two machines have only 1280×800 displays,
> but that serves well enough for most use.
>
> Even though it's expensive, the MNT Reform is a very interesting
> machine.  Besides the keyboard and trackball (and the very solid
> construction with repairability in mind), of particular note is
> that the CPU and RAM are on a daughterboard, and the machine
> runs off a bank of eight standard 18650 LiFePO4 cells, instead
> of a bespoke battery.  MNT are already selling daughterboards
> with faster CPUs and more RAM.  Well worth looking into as a
> machine with a long life (good for the environment) and with a
> commitment to Free Software (good for everything ;-) ).
>
> If you do want to keep running laptops of the age with easily
> removable batteries, then I've found
> https//www.betterbatt.com.au/ a very reliable source of
> reasonably priced, third-party batteries.  No connection with
> them aside from being a customer for over eight years.
>
> And if you do want to keep such old laptops running with
> up-to-date software, then pretty much the only option, as most
> of you know, is to install some FOSS operating system, because
> mainstream vendors drop software support after only a few years.
> Such is the way of the world.
>
> — Happy Hacking, Les.
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  "I and the public know
  what all schoolchildren learn
  Those to whom evil is done
  Do evil in return"		W.H. Auden, "September 1, 1939"
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