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

[Gordan Bobic]

On 07/31/2012 01:09 PM, lkcl luke wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 11:08 PM, Philip Hands<phil at hands.com>  wrote:
>> Gordan Bobic<gordan at bobich.net>  writes:
>>> Sure, but the benefits of that depend on how often you are planning to
>>> upgrade.
>> ...
>> [three current machines described]
>>>
>>> but even then, the upgrade cycle is unlikely to be shorter than 2
>>> years.
>>
>> I think the real power of this idea will be if it gets to the point
>> where people have several EOMA based devices between them and their
>> friends/family (with a couple of laptops, a NAS, and/or a plug computer,
>> along with something for their Mum, etc).
>>
>> In that scenario, you get to upgrade your main laptop, give the old card
>> to your Mum, take her old one and upgrade your NAS, take that and
>> upgrade the plug computer.
>
>   yes.  exactly.
>
>   now.  under what financial circumstances would that kind of idea take
> off, in a mass-volume way?  what would cause people to stop thinking
> of computers as "monolithic" throw-away consumable items, and start
> thinking in terms of saving money in the way you describe, phil?  the
> clue is in the rather alarming slow-down world-wide in the purchase of
> computers, as people stop buying faster/better upgrades and hold on to
> their existing machine for another year.

Upgrade requirements are largely down to software. Windows seems to be 
almost specifically designed to bloat up with garbage, leftover or 
otherwise, and progressively grind to a halt over a few years. The worst 
culprits seem to be various "anti-malware" products (there is fierece 
competition in the hall of shame among Symantec, CA, AVG and several 
others). ClamAV/ClamSentinel isn't much better, but at least it is 
relatively cleanly removable without have to do a bare metal reinstall.

Second worst problem is various drivers and associated software for 
webcams, digital cameras, and assorted other gadgetry.

Merely switching to Linux would stop this rot, but that's not going to 
happen untill all that gadgetry starts to be Linux-friendly.

>   so - think "greece" but expand that a bit to where the entire E.U.
> goes to shit, and even the cost of transporting whole computers in
> containers from china starts to become alarmingly expensive not
> because of import duty but because of a spiralling cost of fuel in
> transportation of the shipping container.

Freight ship designers are already looking at putting nuclear reactors 
in large freighters for precisely that reason. What could possibly go 
wrong... *facepalm*

> let's imagine a scenario where in today's money the cost of
> transporting a single 100cu.m container costs £500k due to a
> combination of $EUR hyperinflation and fuel shortages.  a 100cu.m
> container could fit 3,300 *small* desktop PCs in it.  that's an
> additional cost of £150 *per PC* in shipping costs.

Hyperinflation is a poor argument because inflation of any sort is 
essentially government sponsored theft. But they can get away with it 
because the only alternative is reducing wages in terms of numbers. 
Since that isn't a way to win elections, instead of paying people less, 
they just make the money worth less. Since this is one step removed, the 
majority of the population isn't smart enough to figure this one out in 
abrupt enough a way to cause problems for the ruling classes.

Or to put it another way - deviation from the gold standard is purely 
for people who can't take it straight up.

>   if the hard part - the main CPU - is a 55x85x5mm card that can be
> simply jammed solid - 400,000 units into a 100cu.m shipping container
> - can at least be transported into the E.U. at a reasonable cost, that
> would leave the easier part - the creation of the 2-4-layer I/O Boards
> and their cases - to be manufactured locally.

I suspect your only hope of making this happen is to target corporate 
installations. But considering how many of them are still on 2002 
vintage Windows XP with no plans to upgrade to even newer Windows let 
alone a whole different OS, you are going to be facing a 30 year uphill 
struggle to get anywhere with that. There was a good article about this 
subject on el reg, with some pretty good forum discussions attached to it:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/30/browsium_win_7_up_hill_task/

>   so this whole strategy isn't some sort of "oh yeah it'd be nice if",
> there's one hell of a lot going on.

Maybe, but it'll take a LOT more price pressure for things to change 
that drastically.

On an unrelated note (well, related to previous discussion on this thread):
http://www.reghardware.com/2012/07/31/samsung_roadmap_teases_giant_tablet/

So there MIGHT be hope for a decent res panel in the 11.6-ish lapdock.

Gordan