[Arm-netbook] Plug computer and FreedomBox-related devices

[Paul Boddie]

Hello,

So I was browsing the FreedomBox mailing list when I saw a mention of a plug 
computer being crowdfunded:

http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2015-
September/006879.html

Here's the actual crowdfunding page:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1547898916/own-mailbox-the-first-100-
confidential-mailbox

And the home page of the device:

https://www.own-mailbox.com/

So, it seems that the initiators of the campaign have made their own Allwinner 
A13 board with 256MB RAM and Ethernet support. It is open hardware, 
apparently, and the software is Free Software, not some kind of proprietary 
"snake oil" that some privacy campaigns tend to foist on their supporters.

It is a bit odd that they've decided to go their own way with the hardware, 
though. The FreedomBox recommends existing hardware rather than focusing on 
one particular device:

https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Hardware

Another initiative just uses one of the Olimex A20-based products:

http://internetcu.be/

Where the product in question looks a lot more capable than the one attempting 
to be funded above:

https://www.olimex.com/Products/OLinuXino/A20/A20-OLinuXino-LIME/open-source-
hardware

Anyway, back to EOMA-68, and a quick search produced a page on the plug 
computer idea for EOMA-68:

http://rhombus-tech.net/community_ideas/plug_computer/

It occurred to me that if only we had EOMA-68 boards out there, maybe people 
wouldn't be so enthusiastic to go to the trouble of making new boards and 
running the gauntlet of crowdfunding. There also wouldn't be the artificiality 
of "stretch goals" where things that should just be happening anyway are 
punted off into an uncertain future, dependent on the delivery of something 
that should be separate.

Paul