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Comment by Melting_Harps | Hacker News Reader

Wow... you're really epitomizing the notion of 1st World problems here.

If you're really that moved (and you really shouldn't be surprised after the Foxconn reveal), get a Pinebook and start playing with Linux Mint and go from there. Support Open hardware and Open source software on the side while still working with your old hardware until you realize that at this point the Linux ecosystem and its various distros can do just about everything Windows and Mac could, this isn't the 90s anymore.

I will say, though that if you do video editing that can be a hard one as even I still revert back to a Windows box for that, unfortunately. And I went all-in on Linux after XP in 2004ish.

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I'll check out the Pinebook and Linux Mint, thank you for the concrete suggestions!

> at this point the Linux ecosystem and its various distros can do just about everything Windows and Mac could, this isn't the 90s anymore.

That's good to hear! I used Ubuntu in University for a short while and it seemed quite well developed, the problem was that I was bound to some tools that were only available on Windows/Mac, such that I couldn't adopt it as my main OS. Anyways I appreciate your constructive input, thanks.

You could always dual boot Windows if it's critical. You don't need a registration for windows 10. All it will do is put up a little disclaimer in the bottom right corner and occasionally nag you, but otherwise there is no reason to pay for Windows anymore.

"the Linux ecosystem and its various distros can do just about everything Windows and Mac could."

Can you please stop spreading that myth? It is wrong, wrong, wrong. It will just lead to false expectations and then disappointment with linux.

It is not only video-editing. What about audio? Qubase or FL studio? Nope. I like audacity, too. But it is not at all in the same league.

Photoshop? No, gimp is not equal.

And countless other professional software no one bothered to write linux versions, but quite some people need for their work.

And how about driver support on laptops? It is a fckn* gamble and you are allmost allways worse with linux on a laptop, than with the windows drivers. I wish it would be different, than I could dump my chromebook for a real linux laptop that satisfy my use case (small, light, long batterie, no standby hickups)

So yes, we need more people in open source software and hardware to change that for the better, but that won't work with false promises.

Why do you think pinebook wouldn’t be subject to the same slave labor? Isn’t it manufactured in china?

> Why do you think pinebook wouldn’t be subject to the same slave labor? Isn’t it manufactured in china?

'all devices are manufactured and sold by Pine Microsystems Inc. based in Fremont, California. Its founder is TL Lim, the inventor of the PopBox and Popcorn Hour series of media players sold under the Syabas and Cloud Media brands'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Microsystems

It's impossible to make $200 laptops in small batches in US. They really don't like mentioning it tho.

https://www.pine64.org/2020/01/15/pinephones-start-shipping-... - it's about phones, but I believe laptops are produced there too.

> It's impossible to make $200 laptops in small batches in US. They really don't like mentioning it tho.

What? They state they do not make a profit from the sale of these devices on their storefront when you're ordering one, and are probably doing so at a loss to promote the ideology behind open source hardware/software.

But, your claim is mere speculation until you definitively can prove otherwise, and it seems that the phone is the device limited to HK production: not China. And, yes, there is a difference.

https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=8956&page=4

Update: From what I have been able to gather is that the single board computer itself is made in China, the assembly of the finished products like the Pinebook laptop are in CA. The phone, however, may likely be made in the mainland if I read that correctly (its late), which while slightly disappointing is not really a surprise. They're in HK awaiting shipping to Pine US.

https://www.pine64.org/2020/02/15/february-update-post-cny-a...

In your first link, in first post OP says that pine gear is produced in mainland china.

> Factories [in China] producing the PinePhone, PineTab and Pinebook Pro remain closed because they need to undergo a long and complicated procedure that will allow them to resume operation...

I found the confirmation I was looking for; 'gear' was an ambigious term that related to the internal components to these devices, I had read in previous posts that these were made in Fremont as well as the wiki.

However, after another screening of the update it seems that the Pinebook pro is in fact made on the Mainland as its been the cause for the delay in new pre-orders.

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