[HN Gopher] 2022 and Aldi: Medion presents notebook based on Ras...
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       2022 and Aldi: Medion presents notebook based on Raspberry Pi
        
       Author : Tomte
       Score  : 52 points
       Date   : 2022-03-31 13:25 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (gettotext.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (gettotext.com)
        
       | wgx wrote:
       | Site is unresponsive, Archive: https://archive.ph/hlxMr
        
         | emsixteen wrote:
         | SSL_ERROR_NO_CYPHER_OVERLAP on this site.
        
       | trevvr wrote:
       | There's no advantage to this over using a cheap ass 2nd hand
       | laptop and a PI via USB though?! Other than cuteness of form
       | factor maybe?!
        
         | GloriousKoji wrote:
         | I'm not one for elegance but I personally hate having things
         | dangling off my laptop.
        
         | mpol wrote:
         | Not everyone wants to buy secondhand. I know people who have
         | been bitten before and only buy new now. I don't know how true
         | their story is, but often something secondhand is not like new,
         | and if you are picky, you might not like secondhand.
         | 
         | Also, for a school situation, having everyone use the same
         | laptop and software will make this more uniform and easier for
         | the teacher.
        
       | TekMol wrote:
       | I wish there was a laptop like device that runs Linux well and
       | lets you seperate the keyboard and the monitor.
       | 
       | Every time I work with my laptop in a cafe, I would love to put
       | the monitor a bit higher (on a stand or a book or something)
       | while still be able to use my keyboard.
       | 
       | It's a shame, that the Microsoft surface things do not let you
       | use the keyboard while it is disconnected.
        
         | frafra wrote:
         | It would be nice indeed. Novena had that:
         | https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/novena
        
         | smorrebrod wrote:
         | Maybe the Pine Tab? Although it runs Linux well but not fast.
        
           | TekMol wrote:
           | It looks like that is a tablet? The problem with tablets is
           | that they have glossy screens. Not well suited for work under
           | suboptimal lightning conditions like cafes.
           | 
           | Also its only 10". I would like 13".
        
         | jandrese wrote:
         | So a tablet with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse? Of course this
         | runs into the problem that most tablets ship with horrible
         | phone type OSes that make it hard to be productive.
        
         | skrebbel wrote:
         | There are third party Surface keyboards / "type covers" which
         | are similarly detachable but run over bluetooth (because the
         | Surface connector is proprietary I suppose). I have no clue
         | about the quality but if you want it to work detached, you
         | surely have some options.
        
         | andrewaylett wrote:
         | I _really_ want a device with the same form-factor as an iPad
         | Pro with a Magic Keyboard but running Linux. Or even running
         | MacOS rather than iPadOS. The cantilever design raises the
         | screen up so much more nicely than a notebook form-factor.
        
           | rowanG077 wrote:
           | Honestly this is my dream as well. The iPad Pro has a
           | gorgeous 120Hz Display, the most powerful ultra mobile CPU
           | and is incredibly light. I have hidden hopes that Asahi Linux
           | will offer a path if a new exploit is discovered.
        
           | Kon-Peki wrote:
           | The cantilever design is indeed an elegant solution, though
           | it can make it a little more difficult to hit the top row of
           | keys.
           | 
           | I was thinking that this laptop is kind of like a Pi 400 +
           | battery + screen. If we look at is this way, then what the OP
           | wanted is kind of already available - you can buy portable
           | computer monitors.
           | 
           | Interestingly, the Pi 400 + screen is kind of a "smart"
           | keyboard combined with a "dumb" monitor, while the iPad Pro +
           | Magic Keyboard is a kind of "dumb" keyboard combined with a
           | "smart" monitor. It seems like both approaches have
           | advantages and disadvantages.
        
       | Jiejeing wrote:
       | Why is there a big list of notebooks with a huge amazon logo for
       | several pages of scroll before the actual article?
        
         | dspillett wrote:
         | Perhaps it should be some sort of carrousel, but some script
         | has not loaded correctly or not dealt with bad/missing data
         | cleanly, so failed before it was supposed to do some DOM/CSS
         | rearrangements. If you watch network activity, a couple of the
         | many requests fail, and in the console output there is a script
         | error.
        
           | Goz3rr wrote:
           | The page seems to be a direct copy of a German article[1],
           | possibly machine translated. The original German article has
           | a single paragraph with the laptops which seems to have been
           | butchered when it was copied.
           | 
           | [1]: https://www.computerbild.de/artikel/cb-Tests-PC-
           | Hardware-Ras...
        
         | 1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote:
         | Not in the browser I am using.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | dTal wrote:
       | > _adapted_ Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4
       | 
       | > _permanently_ installed in the notebook housing
       | 
       | Total dealbreaker. So I have to replace the whole thing when I
       | fry a GPIO port? Why even make this if you're not going for the
       | modular approach? _This is why the compute module was invented!_
        
         | pipeline_peak wrote:
         | It's definitely bizarre, I read downward thinking "Okay a
         | company putting RPi's into laptop cases to cut design costs
         | while cashing into the Chromebook demographic, smart". Then
         | with the announcement of an exposed GPIO port I realized it's
         | hobbyist friendly.
         | 
         | I think it's ultimately a confusing blend of the two because
         | the company couldn't make a solid choice. I'd love to say the
         | permanent installation was cheaper because they avoided extra
         | costs of swappable parts, backup pieces and support, but of
         | course at the price of shrinking their consumer base.
        
           | dTal wrote:
           | If it's just meant to be a cheap chromebook-y thing, that's
           | defensible I guess. But it's outright irresponsible to
           | position it as a hacking/learning laptop for kids and expose
           | delicate GPIO ports which they _will_ fry, and not have them
           | be replaceable. It 's an e-waste generator, and parents who
           | get one of these for its stated purpose likely don't realize
           | the serious risk of losing their investment.
           | 
           | And no mention of storage. If the poor student does manage to
           | fry it completely, do they lose all their work?
        
             | oynqr wrote:
             | It's a concept. Plus, the original German article didn't
             | even get some of the basics right: "The processor is an ARM
             | Cortex-A72"
        
             | jandrese wrote:
             | Maybe you supply your own uSD card for storage?
             | 
             | At least this can't be any worse than the old Pitop with
             | its shitty keyboard, cheap construction, terrible trackpad,
             | nearly useless battery management, tiny battery, low rez
             | screen, and unforgivably high price.
        
       | awiesenhofer wrote:
       | This looks great, I hope it becomes an actual product. I can
       | think of quite a few friends and family members who cloud use
       | this as their main computer. Also like that they make the GPIOs
       | accessible.
        
       | pachico wrote:
       | Back in probably 2001 I bought a Medion notebook. It has really
       | surprising specs for its price and, surprise surprise, it had
       | full Linux support (this was more than 20 years ago!).
       | 
       | It as probably one of the top 5 acquisitions of my life.
        
         | pjerem wrote:
         | Same, except for the graphical chipset (from SIS, iirc) for
         | which no drivers existed for 3D acceleration. But the chipset
         | was shitty anyway, so it was not a real issue.
         | 
         | It was a huge blue and grey plastic brick. Pretty heavy. Not
         | really ugly but not designed to be pretty.
        
       | maratc wrote:
       | While I can see the utility of a $35 computer and even a $70
       | computer-in-a-keyboard-box, this leaves me a bit baffled. A Pi is
       | bought for tinkering. A notebook is meant to be your "main"
       | computer.
       | 
       | Reminds me of the netbook phenomenon -- very cheap notebooks but
       | ultimately too weak for anything.
        
         | mhitza wrote:
         | On the fashion wheel, we've circled back to thin clients. At
         | least that's the trend I notice.[0]
         | 
         | And I'm not against it. A cheap, small, arm laptop that can
         | last multiple hours of use and all the work is done on remote
         | beefy hardware.
         | 
         | [0] See JetBrains Fleet/Gateway, talks by Netflix at
         | strangeloop implementing this pattern for their video editors
         | (I think), GitHub codespaces, etc.
        
           | AviationAtom wrote:
           | I use an old Chromebook, running Linux, in much this way. For
           | it's compact form factor, and the small amount I acquired it
           | for originally, it's been a great value.
        
         | Stampo00 wrote:
         | I used my Pi 400 as my daily driver for about 6 months. I loved
         | it... until they released the new version of Raspberry Pi OS
         | that has some issues for me.
         | 
         | And now that the COVID restrictions have lifted for the most
         | part, I wish I could bring it with me to work from coffee
         | shops.
        
           | jandrese wrote:
           | The 4th generation Pis are plenty capable. Biggest problem I
           | have is the wireless drivers seem to have suffered from
           | serious regressions over the past couple of years across all
           | models of Pi.
           | 
           | It used to be I could install hostapd and have a perfectly
           | stable and capable (if somewhat short range) access point.
           | Then something happened to the driver and now the APs tend to
           | crash and lock up the wireless regularly.
        
         | barbazoo wrote:
         | > A Pi is bought for tinkering
         | 
         | Not always. Many of use it to run actual workflows too. It
         | actually makes for a decent home server.
        
           | AviationAtom wrote:
           | The engineers at my old company utilized many of them to runs
           | tests against hardware. Hobbyists don't realize that they can
           | indeed have business uses.
        
           | maratc wrote:
           | My point is, a home server is not a main computer. I have
           | several Pi's but never used one as my main computer.
        
             | weberer wrote:
             | I've never used a laptop as my main computer. That doesn't
             | mean other people can't do it.
        
             | mpol wrote:
             | I still have the dream that I can use a Pi as my main
             | desktop and main laptop. I still need more CPU/GPU power
             | and more connections, so the dream is not here yet. It will
             | come some day. My main desktop now is an AMD A8 from 2015,
             | which suits me just fine. My laptop has a Celeron from
             | 2015, which is too weak for me. I would desire to have
             | something like that AMD A8, but smaller, cheaper and lower
             | power consumption. It will get there.
        
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       (page generated 2022-03-31 23:02 UTC)