Linux Laptops Get a Boost from Hacker Board Projects

a kit means, i have to assemble it, right. in other words we are still not near to be able to provide cheap laptop alternatives for schools. the OLPC XO came in at $200.

what else is out there?

greetings, eMBee.

What else is out there? Not much.

Usable refurbished laptops can be purchased in the $100-$200 range: https://pcretro.com/collections/laptops-sort-by-price-low-to... and http://www.piapc.com/laptops#/pageSize=12&orderBy=10&pageNum...

And Chromebooks can also be purchased in that price range: https://www.google.com/chromebook/find/?utm_source=en-ha-na-...

I don't know of anything else. Does anyone else have any suggestions?

If you're in the Vancouver area, there is the Free Geek shop on Hastings for remanufactured Desktops, Macs, laptops and parts.

http://freegeekvancouver.org

I just found and purchased a nice Dell Latitude Core i3-3120M 2.5GHz laptop with 8GB DDR3-1600 memory and 500GB hard drive for $155,

I wouldn't pay more than $125 for a new ARM-based laptop, personally,

seatex: new or refurbished?

what i am interested in is low-cost laptops that are affordable for school. so refurbished and build-your-own won't do.

looks like chromebooks are the only option here.

greetings, eMBee.

There's the PineBook, based on the Pine64. $89 with 11.6" LCD, and $99 with 14" LCD.

https://www.pine64.org/?page_id=3707

Bad news is it can take months to get them. Good news is they seem to be better than the Pi Top.

https://hackaday.com/2017/04/28/hands-on-with-the-pinebook/

> I wouldn't pay more than $125 for a new ARM-based laptop, personally,

Most of the current crop of Chromebooks (including the Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung models) seem to use Celeron processors, even in the $180 models. There are a couple of exceptions, so caveat emptor.

I won't buy a Chromebook out of principle. I'm not going to add to Google's profits if I can help it. I would rather buy a used more powerful "real" laptop in good shape for the same or less money.

I do see the appeal of the ARM laptops, but I'm so used to something faster with 8-16GB of memory. I could get by on 4GB, but this is hard to find with ARM boards. They have 64-bit CPUs, but 32-bit memory controllers, so you wouldn't even be able to use more than 3GB with that.

> I won't buy a Chromebook out of principle. I'm not going to add to Google's profits if I can help it.

It's my understanding that many of the older models can be reloaded with a full version of Linux now. If you did that, you wouldn't be contributing to Google's profits. You'd need to research the specific model you want to buy before doing so to make sure that was the case with it.

jdixon - No, I wouldn't be adding to Google's profits purchasing a used Chromebook. But I just find them limited and even the used ones aren't much cheaper than a more powerful PC laptop.

If I decide I want an ARM laptop though, it would surely be a better buy (and better hardware) than the other current offerings.

> But I just find them limited and even the used ones aren't much cheaper than a more powerful PC laptop.

Given the necessity of a new firmware load for the Chromebooks just to get Linux installed on them, I have to agree that a refurbished laptop is a better buy for most people.

I picked up an Acer Aspire One last year for a measly $40, and it works fine running Linux Mint. Yeah, it's relatively slow, but for a travel laptop it's more than sufficient.