[Arm-netbook] Report from meeting with Seatron and another factory ...

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

2010/9/22 Aníbal Monsalve Salazar <anibal at debian.org>:
> On Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 08:42:47PM +0800, Adam Gill wrote:
>>I quizzed Seatron with the sennario - what if we come to Seaton with
>>our reversed-engineerd so-dimm with 1GHz processor etc etc  which works
>>perfectly with the CT-PC89e - they said that would be great - then i
>>said what is the difference then of giving us the kernal source code
>>and us giving it to them - if the result is the same .... I said we
>>will save them time and money etc etc .... and we would be offering
>>them a very much improved linux kernal source code ..... etc etc
>>......... anyway I have to wait and see the result.
>
> Did you get any result at all?

 naah.  after the software company, midfun.com, failed to answer,
demanding money before complying with the GPL, seatron (the hardware
R&D company) basically gave up on ARM CPUs, cut midfun.com out of the
loop and redesigned the product to use an RDC.com.tw x86-clone
embedded CPU, using exactly the same case (saves dev cost).

 seatron then approached a number of factories, one of whom at least
actually took it up and created samples.

 the factory got absolutely zero interest out of it because it had
ubuntu on it, not windows.

 theeeeen, _another_ factory took it up and turned it into a 10in
netbook, and they are now shipping it with illegal unlicensed copies
of windows XP (with no proper support for the embedded accelerated
graphics, because you need info from RDC to create the drivers).

 sample prices for this 10in netbook, incredibly, are $USD 155.
_sample_ prices.  with a 10in LCD!

 i've been asked to "rescue" the ubuntu install from the 8.9in RDC so
that it can be supplied to the _other_ factory, for them to install on
the 10.1in.

 that's the stage things are at with _that_ netbook.

 i'm still on the trail of the ODroid-T to see if they are willing to
help create a laptop around it (they showed it can work with an LG
Phillips 10in 1388x768 LCD, same as is used in Dell laptops); i'm also
on the case for getting the linux kernel source code out of Toshiba
for the AC100, which should be turning up on CD soon.


> I would like to update Frans kernels.

 not sure how to go about giving you access to the arm-netbooks
project on alioth but feel free to send me patches and i'll add them
in the meantime.

> In case someone doesn't know, Frans died not long ago.

 yeehs, i'm impressed.