[Arm-netbook] Eoma68 update

[chadvellacott at sasktel.net]

On 17.7.23 15:28, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
> ---
> crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68
~~~
>  there's no NAND any more so micro-sd card it is.  i asked for some
> help from people about how and what to ship... no response.  2,500
> people and nobody made any off-the-wall suggestions: i must have asked
> in an unclear way.  (p.s. thank you to the person who suggested places
> to look for low-cost micro-sd cards).

   (for reference, I noticed that this topic was discussed somewhat with the 
subject-line "[Arm-netbook] Arm Netbook, Saw the update,", until 2017.6.26.)

   here is a quote from
https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop/updates/274-eoma68-a20-cards-arrived

QUOTE
 > 1,000 microSD cards would need to be bought, prepared and tested. Some of the OS
 > images are too large to fit onto a 4 GB Card: that means 8 or 16 GB is needed. 8
 > GB and 16 GB microSD cards are actually quite expensive, ~.

    Any estimate of how much cost it'd add, per unit, to buy big-enough 
microSD-cards for the bigger distributions pledged for, and prepare and test the 
cards?  Personally, I'm definitely fine with paying more for this.
    How about total cost for that?  Depending on the amount, one or more persons 
might wish to make a donation to cover, or help cover, this cost for everyone.
 >
 > So I am considering instead to simply provide download scripts for people,

      Upon me receiving an "EOMA68-A20" (yeah, yeah, i still need to decide which 
colour or such of the "Libre-Tea" card to order), it might be the only "Linux-GNU" 
system I have at the time.  (Migrating from "Windows" is taking time, sadly.)  As 
far as I understand, if I just get download-scripts with it, then I'd need to 
either (1) "install" a "Linux-GNU"-distribution onto a computer OTHER than the 
EOMA-68 lap-top, or (2) use a "live" version of some "Linux-GNU"-distribution, just 
so that I could (3) download the OS for the "EOMA68-A20"-card.  And my current 
lap-top, seems to not like the libre distributions which I have tried on it (at 
least, endless "sleep" with "Trisquel").  Maybe other backers or persons planning 
to back this, are likely to have the same problem if merely given download-scripts?
      I guess that a different way to put this problem, is-
    how "important" is it at this stage of EOMA68, to "include" persons who are not 
already running Linux-GNU?  (Maybe this question is going to only be true for the 
"A20"-cards, because maybe others like "RK3388" shall not have this problem.  And 
the "A20"-cards might not see many production-runs.  But I still plan to back at 
least one "A20"-card.)

 > and/or to offer much smaller 128 MB or 256 MB microSD cards which have an
 > absolute bare minimum OS on them, with scripts that will download an OS onto

    I have tried hard to practice safe "Internet"-use with the systems which I have 
and previously had (yes, moving from "Microsoft" to a libre "OS", should be a 
quantum leap on that "issue").
    How secure would this "bare minimum OS" be, for both down-loading AND 
installing onto a microSD-card (supplied by me)?
    Ideally, I hope that (1) it does not permit any connections other than 
downloading one of several particular "OS"-images, via "URLs" which are 
white-listed as part of the "bare minimum OS", and (2) it afterwards checks the 
image to see whether the crypto-graphic hash (better than MD5) matches the hash 
which the "bare minimum OS" says is valid for that image.

 > their own (self-supplied) 4 GB, 8 GB or 16 GB or other sized microSD card. ~
 > because the unanticipated iterations have eaten into the available budget. ~
 >
 > ~ this is something that needs to be discussed, how people would feel about the
 > need to save on cost of production vs convenience and expectations. Some people,
 > for example, may not have a reliable Internet connection or may not be expecting
 > to connect their EOMA68-A20 Card to the Internet at all,

    for my case, I'd plan to (1) configure the "OS" to my satisfaction, and next 
(2) download a satisfactory browser and configure that, and ONLY LATER (3) use 
"Internet" otherwise.
    but like Luke wrote, some persons might plan to not connect at all.

 > or for whatever reason
 > may not actually have the means to download a 1.7 GB file off the Internet.
QUOTE'S end

    (I manually added the > and the breaks.  Hmm, is that going to work?)

      is it feasible to offer several options to backers, like-

    (1) scripts to download an offered distribution onto backer's self-supplied 
microSD-card (for persons willing and able to do the rest themselves).
    (2) low-capacity microSD-card with mini-OS and the same scripts as option #1 
(for persons comfortable and willing and able to supply their own 
several-GB-microSD-card and at a command-line type "download" and "install").
    (3) 4GB-card with one of the smaller distribution(s) which were offered.
    (4) 8GB-card with one of the bigger distributions, perhaps for an additional fee.
    (5) 16GB-card with one of the bigger distributions, perhaps for an additional fee.

      if enough persons choose cheaper options, then that may "subsidize" the cases 
of some backers choosing costlier options.