Pine Pinebook

[Brian Beuken]

Ah, yeah.  They also changed from a Built to Order model to a Pre order model.  I believe the 14" model was from 2017 and they stopped making them and switched to the 11".  They do have a Pinebook Pro coming out but I think the cost will be $199 US.

https://www.pine64.org/pinebook-pro/

yup the Pro look svery nice, using their Rock64 tech which will make it a nicer bit of kit, but outside the price range and maybe also for power usage. I need to aim to get a bulk order for 5K where users can jump right in with 0 other hardware needs.... Also at that price hard to see if it could compete with the low end chromebooks.

But this is a project in its very early discovery stages so am just looking for a system or systems that can be used in a no electricity environment and opportunistic charging, by solar or wind or (I kid you not), bicycle or wind up power.

The Pinebook seems to manage 6-8hours of moderate use for battery. Has a low ampage charge need, so a small solar panel could do it.
Runs Code::Blocks and other IDE's and is just fast enough to have a modestly effective web browser.. It could well work as a giveaway to schools in Central Africa,n Indian or S.American areas where potential coders live and have few chances to learn.

Anyway, we'll see, so far I am impressed with its out of the box performance, after a few updates and tweaks, its doing fine as long as I don't try an heavy flash/graphic website.
test gcc code compiles and GLmark2-es2 is functional so graphics are possible... Its very interesting indeed. But far slower than a raspberry doing the same thing..But that needs a monitor and keyboard/mouse to work, so its a case of judging how much of a compromise I need to have to make it useable for teaching.