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    #1

    Linux Litebook is a Chromebook competitor

    http://www.zdnet.com/article/liteboo...-linux-laptop/


    A new $249 Linux powered competitor to Chromebook is being offered
    The Litebook, on the other hand, uses an Intel Celeron processor (the N3150), twice as much memory, and a 512GB hard drive. (An extra $20 gets you a 32GB SSD in addition to the hard drive to help speed up boot-ups.) It also includes a 14.1-inch display with 1,920x1,080 full HD resolution.
    ...
    The Litebook ships with the Elementary OS flavor of Linux, though you can install an alternate that uses the Linux kernel 4.8. It also comes with WPS Office pre-installed. It comes in a choice of colors (black, red, or white) and provides a $20 discount if you want to order it without a drive installed.
    The possible bad news:
    First up, the Litebook appears to be a rebranded white box Chinese laptop first produced in 2014.
    AliExpress and DHGate both have listings for laptops that match the promotional photos posted on the Litebook website. There’s not necessarily anything wrong with that: the company behind this product might just be buying off-the-shelf laptops at a low price, loading them up with Linux and selling them with a 1-year warranty, which would be fine.


    But it does seem a little troubling that the company’s website has Photoshopped pictures showing Elementary OS slapped on top of stock photos rather than actual real-world images of a Litebook running Linux.
    "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
    – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.
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    #2
    Kinda on-topic, but I'm getting this for the 20th anniversary of my 40th birthday this weekend -

    https://www.amazon.com/NuVision-Touc.../dp/B01H3B17R8

    2016 Newest NuVision 8-inch Full HD (1920 x 1200) IPS Touchscreen Tablet PC, Intel Atom Z3735F Quad-Core Processor, 2GB RAM, 32GB SSD eMMC, Webcam, WIFI, Windows 10, Silver
    and

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017NW2CG2

    Nvidia Shield Tablet keyboard case, COOPER TOUCHPAD EXECUTIVE 2-in-1 Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard Mouse Leather Travel Cases Cover Holder Folio Portfolio + Stand Nvidia Shield Tablet (Black)
    I've done a lot of research on installing Linux on these things and am about 95% sure I'll be able to pull it off. They're a little weird because they're 64-bit chips with a 32-bit UEFI, but Debian appears to work on them. Will have to compile a sound driver but network and video should work out of the box.

    We'll see how KDE works on an 8 inch screen
    we see things not as they are, but as we are.
    -- anais nin
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      #3
      WOW! For under $90 that is a powerful and nifty tablet. With that keyboard it folds into a package about the size of my Kindle!


      Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
      "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
      – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.
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        #4
        Originally posted by GreyGeek View Post
        WOW! For under $90 that is a powerful and nifty tablet. With that keyboard it folds into a package about the size of my Kindle!
        Yeah, this should be an interesting project. Found a pretty good article on installing Linux on x86 tablets - worth the read:

        Install Linux on your x86 tablet: 5 distros to choose from

        It looks like I can get most everything to work. If not I'll just put Win10 back on it and use it to keep the door from closing all by itself
        we see things not as they are, but as we are.
        -- anais nin
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          #5
          After reading that link I see that you have a significant challenge ahead of you, but one that should be fun and informative!
          It appears that you have a 50-50 chance of success!


          Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
          "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
          – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.
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            #6
            Originally posted by GreyGeek View Post
            After reading that link I see that you have a significant challenge ahead of you, but one that should be fun and informative!
            It appears that you have a 50-50 chance of success!
            Hopefully the odds are a little better; from what I can divine current kernels will support audio (article is a couple years old); they had wireless working and broke it so I'm pretty sure I can make it work without breaking it

            One down side - the single micro-USB port can be used for charging or data but not both at the same time. I've got a tiny 4-port USB hub so when I do the install there will be a kb, mouse and flash drive plugged into the hub
            we see things not as they are, but as we are.
            -- anais nin
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              #7
              Keep us informed!
              "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
              – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.
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                #8
                I like the Litebook. The fact that there are two drives available - 1 32gb M2 SSD for the OS and one 512GB for storage is appealing. If things financially work out this year, I'd like to pick up both the KDE Laptop for myself and one of these Litebooks for general use / girlfriend use. The older I get, the more fundamentally ideological I seem to get and it's time to put some proverbial money where my mouth is and do a better job of supporting people and companies that support Linux and it's ancillary ecosystems.
                ​"Keep it between the ditches"
                K*Digest Blog
                K*Digest on Twitter
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                  #9
                  Originally posted by GreyGeek View Post
                  Keep us informed!
                  Hit a glitch with the wireless driver; Debian doesn't provide it and the vendor driver doesn't compile on Sid - or at least doesn't *yet*

                  Anyway, the thing is actually pretty snappy with Win10 Home on it; this one has the bloatware-free (?) Signature Edition. I see a fair bit of bloatware and a handful of ads asking me to do an O365 free trial or buy some OneDrive space but at least I've turned Cortana and the ads off

                  These things are 64-bit processors with 32-bit EFI firmware so if you do Debian netinstalls like I do that means you have to use either i386 or multiarch installers; the 64-bit Testing images won't boot andwe won't discuss how I learned this

                  I seriously considered just doing a 32-bit install but 32-bit support is starting to dwindle so I plugged mouse, keyboard and flash drive with the Stretch mulltiarch weekly build with firmware into a USB hub and plugged the hub into the single micro-USB port.

                  Installer started fine, but default screen orientation on these things is portrait, which made running the Debian installer interesting. Got as far as networking setup and there wasn't a workable driver there so it's back to the drawing board to get wireless working

                  Oh, well. It's a snappy little tablet with a too-small battery; battery life is about three hours from what I can divine. I almost ran the battery flat making a recovery drive so I could restore Windows if needed and you need a high-amp charger (provided). If you try to charge the thing off a 500ma USB port and use it at the same time the battery will continue to discharge, albeit slower than before so if you're gonna charge it with your PC you have to shut it off.

                  BT keyboard paired easily and you need big, thick glasses until you find and set the widget that sets text to 200%. Have had BT keyboard drop out a couple times but turning it off and back on fixes that in about three seconds.

                  All in all, the rig is well worth the buck and a quarter they're asking for it (the 2017 model just came out and is $10 more) and once I get a working wireless setup nailed down we're still gonna put Debian on the thing. Really interested in Plasma5 on a tablet
                  we see things not as they are, but as we are.
                  -- anais nin
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                    #10
                    Minor issue with the already suspicious Litebook is that WPS for Linux is officially kaput.
                    Last edited by SpecialEd; Mar 11, 2017, 07:24 PM.
                    If you think Education is expensive, try ignorance.

                    The difference between genius and stupidity is genius has limits.
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