Apr 3, 2021 by Lukasz Erecinski

Help us help others

During a community meetup in 2019, before the entire world got turned upside down by the COVID19 pandemic, we announced our commitment to financially support Linux and open source development as well as to promote open source software whilst contributing to closing the digital gap. I believe we’ve done good on the first portion of this commitment - over the past 12 months we made donations to 5 mobile Linux projects, financially supported a number of FOSS initiatives (most recently the upcoming Linux App Summit) and helped individual contributors in their endeavours. As a side-note, I’d like you to know that this is just the beginning - we have extensive plans pertaining to community support in the near future. Stay tuned.

We did, however, have to set aside our scheme to give back to society due to the chaos that the pandemic stirred up. For the past 18 months the key focus of PINE64 and the Pine Store was to keep production going while actively facilitating development. This effectively left very little space for any other activities. Now, whilst the manufacturing situation isn’t exactly great, we at least have a good idea where we stand. As a result, we also feel that there is a little more wiggle-room for extracurricular activities; it is time to do good on the second portion of our commitment made in 2019.

We have 100+ original 11.6” Pinebooks which we wish to donate to a worthy cause. The Pinebooks are running an excellent mainline OS image by Manjaro, featuring an accelerated KDE Plasma desktop. While the Pinebook is no speed demon by any stretch of the imagination, this tailored build makes it rather snappy and perfectly viable for light workloads, such as: running educational software, browsing the web, using the LibreOffice suite, terminal work, etc,. It is also a sturdy laptop, one which you wouldn’t worry about handing to a child, with a long battery life and all the necessary connectivity for completing aforementioned tasks.

We’re now turning to you for ideas; we’re looking for a suitable partner - a not-for-profit organization, which would get these Pinebooks into the hands of people who will benefit from them the most. Anything goes, and all ideas are welcome. There are, however, two things you need to be aware of making your suggestions: 1) the not-for-profit organization needs to be recognized by the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and 2) have some degree of logistical capabilities, as the laptops are in the US, State of California.

We obviously would much prefer to work with an organization that shares the open source community’s values and ideals, but ultimately we’re open to working with anyone striving to better the circumstances of those in need. Any organization working towards closing the digital gap is worthy of a consideration.

Please, leave your suggestion in the comments. We will make sure to review all viable suggestions thoroughly.

If you represent an organization which you believe fits our criteria and fulfills the cooperation requirements, please contact us directly: info@pine64.org.

Thank you in advance!

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Want to learn more or have additional questions regarding this scheme? - you’re welcome to reach out to me directly in the chats:

Discord

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