[Arm-netbook] HDMI HEC on future boards

[Vincent Legoll]

>  it just never occurred to me (it definitely should
> have) that that would result in potential "lock-in".

I don't buy into this, there's no lock-in to me. The user
will fill his needs whatever the mean, either by using
something provided (almost) freely by the SoC, or by
buying additional HW.

So what can be argued is: will the few things added to
every boards to provide the SoC specific functionalities
be compensated by the things not needed for those who
will get it anyways. That's a trade-of, additional price will
also be a factor.

But providing additional interface on the far end of the
card is no philosophical problem to me. Especially for
ubiquitous things like ethernet, I can't think of this being
a locking-in feature. After all these boards are designed
to have a long lifespan, so the need to upgrade is not as
important.

And if (and only if) a future upgrade does not provide it,
then you always be able to switch to an USB one, if (and
only if) you still need it...

>  i always thought, y'know, things like HDMI would be ubiquitous /
> common enough that you would always be able to find an upgraded
> computer card with USB-OTG and HDMI: the impact of specialisation at
> the *user-facing* end never hit my tiny brain :) huh.

In my computer life I've seen 2 wired net techs (BNC & eth), whereas
I've used 5 for display (VGA, BNC, DVI, HDMI, DP). I'm OK with USB
because of its backward compatibility (I'm still not sure it will stay that
way) So I'm not sure trying too hard to guess the future is mandated
here, just being pragmatic. Which I can (and have) be(en) convinced
EOMA68 is...

But I'm convinced that providing as much of the SoC functionalities as
pragmatically possible is better. Either by enabling more widespread
adoption, or by avoiding the need for USB-based addons.

-- 
Vincent Legoll