[Arm-netbook] GK802 for $70

[Paul Sokolovsky]

Hello,

On Fri, 24 May 2013 04:01:20 +0600
Roman Mamedov <rm at romanrm.ru> wrote:

> There is one very important difference from common computers.
> Its hardware configuration is completely uniform across all devices.

Really? Aren't there thousands models of tablets and phones and
hundreds of sticks, each of them definitely based on dozen of SoC
types and different - availability, number and size - of screen,
keys, ports (hundreds of variations for sure)?

> The whole "installation" dance may be useful when there are thousands
> of possible diverse hardware configurations the users might have. But
> when there's basically only one

By "one", do you mean a device you randomly bought today? But tomorrow
you will drop it on the floor, and it will either crack itself (tablet,
phone), or you will crash it with your feet (hdmi stick). Then you will
reach to buy the same model again, and it won't be available any
longer. Or if it suddenly still is, you won't want to buy the same old
stuff again and buy something new.

Then you'll be doing a "dance" with a new device. Actually, for ~30
years of ARM embedded device mainstreamicity, thousands and thousands
of people contaminated internets with "easy to install images" for
"one" device. First problem is that noone knows what's inside. Well,
actually by now everyone knows what's inside - dirty hacked-up
unmaintained crap, also likely viruses and trojans which steal your
money and record your home porn. Second problem is that they're easy to
install only in their authors' imagination, because there're always
undocumented, presumed, untested stuff, which other folks can't figure
out or reproduce.

> , I see no reason to not just provide
> an OS in a preinstalled, ready to boot state. Of course it shouldn't
> include any junk, shouldn't have almost anything installed besides
> ssh and apt-get (i.e. "base system" in Debian's terms), to act as a
> clean starting point for any kind of setup the user might want.

Btw, is that only me who thinks that dpkg is bad choice of a package
manager for embedded system? On my x86/SATA harddrive installing a 1+Mb
package means horrible disk thrashing and of course throttling/locking
up any other activity in the system. What to expect on low-performance
embedded system? 

> 
> -- 
> With respect,
> Roman



-- 
Best regards,
 Paul                          mailto:pmiscml at gmail.com