[Arm-netbook] EOMA, Improv etc

[Paul NeoStormer]

I absolutely agree with this, I have been following this product for years and I believe a crowdsourcing campaign is vital to getting this product off the ground. I would imagine pushing just the EOMA-68 card and include HDMI and powered USB-OTG cables; to start with. The have stretch goals that add a bare minimum MEB and slowly add ports to the MEB with each tier. I would recommend leaving a tablet for a separate product because then it could be marketed as working with the EOMA-68 cards that are available. Hope I'm not out of line, just a suggestion.

Nico Rikken <nico at nicorikken.eu> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>This ongoing discussion, despite the wealth of personal arguments, has
>clarified a lot of details for me as an enthusiast and potential
>customer.
>
>Ever since I heard about the Spark tablet I truly believed this would
>dramatically change the playing field of FOSS and FOS-hardware. Hearing
>about the underlying EOMA-board adheres to this vision, where this would
>be the new standard in FOS-land and the overall maker-community.
>
>As far as I understand it, over time some other SoC's have already been
>re-engineered. In addition the recent RaspberryPi-board and the
>crowd-sourced Novena board have closed in on the proposition of the
>EOMA-board. However the EOMA-board still seems to hold a place of its
>own for compactness and power.
>
>In my job I've got to get a glimpse of the embedded-hardware development
>business and knowing now about development costs involved, it is truly
>heartbreaking to see this project in this state. I believe the potential
>is still there, the hard work has been done, it just takes a great
>launch to bootstrap production, community adoption and even further
>development.
>
>As for the launch Improv didn't cut it for me as a potential customer.
>The lack of detailed communication and the strong focus on the
>make-play-live proposition (which to me seems limited and seems to go
>against the hacker market). And above all, I just wanted to have a
>FOS-tablet to play with, not an offering similar to my RaspberryPi
>(which I even hardly use).
>
>Say the EOMA-board would run a crowdfunding effort to start commercial
>development, what would be a good proposition? To me it seems to be a
>tablet combination, to also aid in the FOSS development (like
>make-play-live).
>
>Personally I could see the board earn a place on it's own, by being a
>great replacement for the RaspberryPi, specically for other
>RaspberryPi-projects for which the RaspberryPi is just a way of
>achieving a service, like: Generic fileserver (NAS), Owncloud-instance,
>ArkOS install (multiple local services), XBMC-player or Android-player
>(say for games, probably requiring Replicant Android).
>Others might even be: 3D-printer-driver, VJ-visual generator (like the
>M-Labs m1), Freedombox (although currently in development and requiring
>an additional network interface), home-automation or parallel processing
>using multiple boards.
>One of the main benefits of the EOMA-board is the fact that it can
>easily be handled by regular users, without fearing ESD-problems. The
>Improv-board, despite offering decent breakouts, doesn't adhere to this
>user-level, still requiring an additional case.
>
>Considering that like me others saw a place for this development but
>didn't fully support for various reasons, it might be worth another try
>to find the required support for this to take off. Say by preparing and
>starting a crowdfunding campaign offering the EOMA-boards, various
>breakouts (Improv-type breakout with option of a plastic case,
>NAS-enclosure with HDD-space, tablet (with room for batteries)) linked
>to various donation levels, paid pre-installation as a way of turning
>time into money and finally products like mugs and t-shirts.
>
>Even though I'm not fully emerged into the FOSS-community, I believe the
>Novena project has set an example by creating social presence even
>before launching the crowdfunding campaing by initially demonstrating
>skill (overall blog and SD-card analysis) and next showing off the
>product (e.g. Chaos Communication Congress). This makes me believe that
>with proper marketing and having a great offer, the community will at
>least consider supporting this 'project' and better yet fully fund the
>project.
>Seeing the EOMA-board as the underlying basis for further efforts, I
>believe Luke should be (involved in) initiating such an effort, despite
>all politics involved in the recent debates.
>
>(hope I didn't fuel a rant with this e-mail).
>
>Kind regards,
>Nico Rikken, NL
>
>
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