[Arm-netbook] Good netbook based on Cortex-A9

[freebirds at fastmail.fm]

I have one more requirement: preinstalled Linux on the SSD hard drive
or on an external SD card as an option to buy. I don't want to trouble
shoot for weeks, post numerous threads asking for help or pay a
computer geek who never even heard of ARM to install Linux. Reading the
threads here on people's woes installing Linux on AllWinner A10 who
have more technical expertise than me makes me not even want to try
installing Linux.

I have spent weeks researching whether there are tutorials on installing
Linux on ARM and MIPS devices: In yesterday's post, I complained about
lack of Linux for  the new MIPS device (iPPea TV) and the Novo Paladium
tablet. Lack of Debian or Fedora for the VIA 8650 netbook I am
returning.

Unfortunately, Android took the market share away from Linux. Tablets
took the market share away from netbooks. The only preinstalled netbooks
with Linux are old models: Genesi, Hercules, Yeeloong and Letux 400 at
http://www.handheld-linux.com/wiki.php?page=Letux%20400. Golden
Delicious is charging approximately $100 more for this old MIPS seven
inch netbook because it is preinstalled with Debian Lenny than Chinese
sellers selling the netbook with windows or android. Yes, I would pay
$100 more for a netbook with preinstalled Linux. However, 128 MB RAM is
insufficient for the packages I need to download. I don't know whether
updating Lenny to Wheezy, installing packages and updating the packages
will brick the Letux 400 and Yeeloong.

Raspberry pis are preinstalled with Fedora. SD cards with preinstalled
Ubuntu are for sale for the beagleboard. SD cards with preinstalled
Debian Wheezy are for sale for the dreamplug. I open to Fedora, Debian
or Ubuntu. My preference is in that order. First, Fedora, second Debian
and third Ubuntu.

It is important to this project to educate consumers why they should pay
extra to purchase a Linux open hardware device. Golden Delicious
advertised their Linux netbook as: "So it can be used either as a simple
Web Surfing or E-Mailing system insusceptible to virueses and trojan
horses."  http://www.handheld-linux.com/wiki.php?page=Letux%20400. For
two decades, people paid extra for Apple devices because of less
malware.

Malware is not the biggest threat. If we acted more like Richard
Stallman, educating people of the privacy
violations of cloud and skype for example, consumers would have
knowledge of why they need open source hardware and Linux. In
yesterday's thread, I discussed that Google, Apple, Microsoft and
Skyhook are transmitting their consumers' geolocation and the MAC
address of all near wifi devices including routers, desktop pcs,
tablets, laptops and smartphones. Only Luke commented on my thread. It
is not just apps that transmit the device ID and IP address. It is the
manufacturers of the OS and Skyhook that are transmitting and reselling
this information. Who ever volunteers to conduct PR for this laptop and
the webpage describing this laptop should advertise this laptop as
partially circumventing privacy violations. Partially because there is
no option to disable TrustZone and Mobicore.

How far do nearby wifi devices need to be to have their MAC address
transmitted? None of the articles disclose the distance. At least as far
as bluetooth. We discussed earlier this month how far bluetooth can be
detected. Bluetooth can be detected much further. On July 22, 2012,
Boruch Baum posted on freedombox
forum: "Many of you may have seen this on slash-dot, it's a power strip
with a concealed illicit motherboard, that includes:
> http://www.zdnet.com/power-pwn-this-darpa-funded-power-strip-will-hack-your-network-7000001331/
Nick M. Daly replied: "That's creepy.  I guess I'll just need to start
displaying the strength of local wireless signals.  A device
broadcasting Bluetooth to a 300m radius has got to raise some alarm
bells." Roman Baertschi replied: " 300m? Try 1.78km. Documented here:
http://trifinite.org/trifinite_stuff_lds.html"

The articles I cited yesterday did not mention whether the MAC addresses
of nearby bluetooth devices are being transmitted. They probably are or
will be in the near future.

I wish to point out that no one on the freedombox discussion objected to
Boruch Baum's post as being off topic. No one criticized anyone as being
paranoid. However, when I brought up similar issues last month, I get
banned on freedombox and get criticized on this forum. Why? Because I
disclosed that my geolocation is being tracked. Its not theoretical for
me. Its personal and real. Someone in this forum recommended I post on a
conspiracy forum. There is no linux or ARM or a MIPS forum that focuses
on computer security. Freedombox and this forum needs to include
computer security, not reject it. You need to recommend it as a solution
for computer security. Linux and ARM (raspberry pi) was recommended to
me for computer security. That is how I was introduced to it.

In summary, without advertising (educating) the benefits of switching to
Linux on a small ARM device and making it easy for newbies to use Linux
by preinstalling Linux, there is little incentive to research and pay
extra for such a device.  

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