[Arm-netbook] GK802 for $70

[Roman Mamedov]

On Fri, 24 May 2013 03:19:58 +0300
Paul Sokolovsky <pmiscml at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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)?

We are talking about an OS or an installer for the GK802.

There are not thousands of models of GK802.

Until the support for iMX6 (and also e.g. the A10) is fully included into
the mainline kernel and u-boot, there doesn't seem to be a way around "one
installer or OS image per SoC".

And unlike even the A10 with MK802/Mele/Cubieboard/MiniX/etc, GK802 is in an
unique position of there being basically the only popular and widely available
device based on that SoC, the dev community even chose to uses the moniker
"imx6-dongle" to refer to what's it's all about.

> 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 suggest that you spend your energies on improving that situation, rather
than on paragraphs of such energized trolling of mailing lists  o/

> Btw, is that only me who thinks that dpkg is bad choice of a package
> manager for embedded system?

...yes? :)

> 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? 

4-core ARMv7 is not exactly low performance already, and please for the love
of god stop using that word ("embedded"), it's typically an excuse for all
sorts of crap and lack of functionality. This "embedded" device is more
powerful than desktop computers from let's say 10 years ago. And guess what,
Debian existed and worked more than fine for people on those computers back
then.

-- 
With respect,
Roman
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