[Arm-netbook] PINE64 foundation beat us both to making a laptop

[EfraimVagner]

On Friday, August 2, 2019 6:28 AM, David Niklas <doark at mail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 1 Aug 2019 21:47:32 +0200
> Pablo Rath pablo at parobalth.org wrote:
>
> > Hello David,
> > Thank you for sharing the news. It seems likely that the Pinebook Pro
> > will be delivered faster than the EOMA68 Laptop. In comparison with
> > EOMA68 I miss the modularity and the libre and environmental aspects.
> > In my experience one has to expect quirks and workarounds and be
> > patient when a project does not proactively communicates how libre it
> > is.
>
> Which is almost every time... I wish I could be an optimist, I really do.
>
> > On Wed, Jul 31, 2019 at 10:49:49PM -0400, David Niklas wrote:
> > [...]
> >
> > > I'm unsure how much RAM the laptop has as the article is very sparse
> > > on details. I did try and search for the information. Likewise for the
> > > information on camera, screen, and anything other then the USB-C
> > > connector which appears to be brought out along with some form of EMMC
> > > flash and it has a 10,000mAh battery.
> >
> > Some specs including RAM is here:
> > https://www.pine64.org/pinebook-pro/
> > Found a discussion about the Pinebook Pro, Trisquel, wifi, libreboot
> > and mali GPU in the Trisquel forum. EOMA68 is als mentioned:
> > https://trisquel.info/de/forum/trisquel-arm-pinebook-pro-running-trisquel-trisquel-touch
> > kind regards
> > Pablo
>
> Thanks Pablo,
> I was interested in knowing more about it, though I have no intentions
> to buy, but I could not find the info.
>
> David



>From what I could gather its firmware isn't 100% free, because the WiFi and GPU (and I think even the CPU) need some proprietary code, but there are projects that work on replacing the GPU's (and CPU's) with open firmware. The WiFi could be replaced with an external USB dongle.
As for the hardware, it has no open schematics at all, as far as I know.

Mali GPU open firmware: https://panfrost.freedesktop.org
Rockchip board: http://opensource.rock-chips.com/wiki_Main_Page