I want to take it as a tool for reading/writing/studying and super basic browsing. My phone just broke, chat control just got approved and I’m sick of proprietary shit: I decided I’m not gonna buy anything which doesn’t hold free software anymore.
I love e-ink and I love Linux, but how usable is the pinenote with Linux? How hard is the install process? Can an average Linux user/self hoster use it daily? How’s battery? Couldn’t find many reviews online…
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I lile my pinenote a lot. I mostly use it for reading.
As long as I’m reading or doing any touch-screen-y things (taking notes, viewing images, etc) it’s great! For anything that involves writing/copying/pasting text, it’s not very usable with just the on-screen keyboard, you really need an external bluetooth interface. I find web browsing very tedious if I have to type anything in the url bar without a physical keyboard.
Also, it’s still very much a WIP. The version of Debian it shipped with had a bug where I couldn’t install any software updates without deleting some random lib64 directory. Once I did that, everything was fine. The device has no security by default, so I created a new user with an encrypted HOME.
With import tariffs to the US, I ended up paying $500 for it, which really got me down. As a $400 open hardware machine, it would have been easier to look past the rougher edges. And I wish it had more RAM.
But overall it’s worth it to me because I’ve wanted a more libre e-reader for a long time. It’s gotten me back into reading books, which has been a lot of fun. Plus, because it’s an actual computer, I set it up as a tablet-like interface to my home automations.
I’ve bought several Pine products over the years, and they’re all on a shelf gathering dust. If you like writing software to make a cost-engineered piece of hardware with basically no useful software at all work as you might expect an actual product you paid for from a shop, they’re great.
If you’re expecting a useful out of box experience, or even a useful experience after hours of hacking and tuning, they are not for you.
I notice that on the website they wrote
The first batch of the PineNote will be great to write software for, but not great to write notes on. Wait for a later batch with better preinstalled software if you just want to use the device as an e-reader, e-note, or your everyday computing device.
So i’d wait
I think the second batch is already out, called “community edition”
They are DevKits, as someone else mentioned. Very literally described as such.
Don’t be upset when you get exactly what they state by ignoring their own words.
I went with a Supernote.
It’s supposed to get Linux support at some point, and it has replaceable batteries. Plus, it works great as a e-ink notebook right now.
I have one, I wrote a small review for it last year: https://domistyle.gitlab.io/pinenote-2024/ (enable autoplay so the videos play).
You can test Xournal++ and KOReader on any Linux desktop, it’s what works best on the PineNote right now.
They also have an active Matrix group where the main developers are present.
I also have one and agree with your conclusion. My PineNote is so cool and really fun to use!
I use mine most often for displaying and editing my character sheet while playing tabletop RPGs.
The display looks great and mine doesn’t have the stuck pixel or the buggy lines issue you experienced, though I do have very noticeable ghosting artifacts. Probably this is because I mainly use the “performance” optimization setting rather than “quality”. Animations play very poorly, so I found it necessary to use extensions to disable animations wherever possible.
Also, of course, the screen is only black and white so sometimes you lose out on information. E.g. if my GM says “the goblin that stole the flask is highlighted yellow. The one highlighted pink is standing his ground. What do you do?” I would not be able to tell them apart.
I get acceptable but not fantastic battery life. Usually after about 3 hours I’ll have around 60% life left. It would probably be better if I was using a lighter program than Firefox. Mine also has phantom battery drain and loses maybe 15% battery life per day if left unplugged while suspended.
I paid $460 USD for mine, shortly before the import tariffs were implemented.
Overall, I would recommend it for someone who meets these criteria:
- is a Linux enthusiast comfortable with the command line and willing to read and follow various guides (there’s a long README that opens on boot which has crucial information in it, like how to fix critical bugs)
- wants to avoid proprietary lock in wherever possible
- wants to avoid shovel ware and use mainline Linux
- wants to support FOSS development and doesn’t mind paying extra to do so
- understands the severe limitations of an e-ink display
I would not recommend it to most people because it is an enthusiast Linux device with an e-ink display. If you’re the kind of person that specifically wants an enthusiast Linux device with an e-ink display then I think you’ll love it
The display looks great and mine doesn’t have the stuck pixel or the buggy lines issue you experienced
They have since fixed that.
though I do have very noticeable ghosting artifacts
Unfortunately just the nature of the technology. If you’re just reading, DU4:3 works the best, for manga I use the full G:4 mode with screen refresh for every page flip enabled.
I wrote some custom profiles for each (Default, Book, Manga, Notes, Notes (Landscape) which I have on my desktop, I can send you the scripts if you want.
Couldn’t find a good way to use browsers on it yet since they all smooth scroll instead of jumping in fixed intervals.
For web browsing I can navigate alright using spacebar to scroll. Naturally, that works best with a bluetooth keyboard attached, but you could resize the window and use the soft keyboard if you prefer. The “vimium” extension for Firefox makes keyboard navigation much nicer.
I paid $460 USD for mine, shortly before the import tariffs were implemented.
It’s 610€ for me. Isn’t this thing coming from China? Why is it so expensive in the EU? 🤔
The EU store ships from the EU with warranty, support, etc. for quite a hefty premium. I ordered from the global store which ships from Hong Kong. Paid ~500€ a year ago (including taxes).
thanks for this, so it’s not that bad and it seems to be working fairly good enough… Mmmh I might think about that, how’s the battery life? How long do the tips last? The pen is active or passive?
I left mine running over night with KOReader open, Nextcloud in background, no suspend and it took 20 hours and 10 minutes to go from 100% to 10%.
As @poweruser@lemmy.sdf.org wrote, there is a pretty significant phantom drain where it loses about 15% per day when suspended.
