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

[Gordan Bobic]

On 07/31/2012 12:34 PM, Roman Mamedov wrote:
> On Tue, 31 Jul 2012 12:04:51 +0100
> Gordan Bobic<gordan at bobich.net>  wrote:
>
>>> Also I've read enough horror stories about how everything is so
>>> awful Linux support-wise on AC100 to not want to deal with such a system
>>> myself.
>>
>> I'm not sure who you were listening to, but it sounds like you were
>> spoon fed bullshit. All the hardware on the AC100 is very well
>> supported.
>
> I went back to the article I read (in Russian, [1] ). Basically the author
> very colorfully described his disgust as he had to deal with the outdated,
> half-broken, proprietary, Android-targetted nVidia "software stack" (nvrm_gpu,
> nvrm_daemon etc), to even have the most basic hardware working, like
> backlight brightness, audio and suspend.
>
> Okay, the article is from October 2010, maybe some things have improved since
> then.
>
> [1] http://habrahabr.ru/post/107304/

Things have changed _massively_ since then. All the nvrm stuff is long, 
long gone and forgotten by everyone who actualy has an AC100. Those were 
dark times. ;)

>> I think it's important to strike a reasonable balance between idealism
>> and pragmatism. Otherwise your only option is to get a Yeeloong.
>
> I have an impression that openness-wise the AC100 is especially bad, worse than
> e.g. Efika MX, certainly worse than an A10-based netbook, and MUCH worse than
> even a random x86 netbook.

Not really. GPU is the only thing that hasn't got full open source 
support. But if you are happy with the open source simple frame buffer 
support for graphics, it's fine. As I said, the only thing that requires 
any proprietary drivers is the accelerated GPU. And there are reasons to 
use the simple frame buffer even if the nvidia drivers worked properly 
(extra 62MB of RAM).

Seriously, AC100s are pretty damned _awesome_. Nothing else comes close, 
especially if you are prepared to take a screwdriver into your hands and 
do the upgrades I wrote up (screen, cooling for 40% overclock, internal 
SSD).

Gordan