[Arm-netbook] MNT Reform Campaign

[Christopher Havel]

OK... how about something like a hybrid of what Transmeta and Google's
Android OS do, where you have an SoC on a board with its support stuff, and
it presents a standardized set of interfaces/specs/etc to the OS via a
firmware-level (?) VM sort of setup...?

Yes, I know how awful Transmeta CPUs were -- but not firsthand. Secondhand.
My local tech shop pal Jody has (had? Don't remember right now and I'm too
lazy to bug him) a Transmeta Crusoe based system at some point... said that
it made VIA chips look like a particularly high-end Core i9 Extreme Edition
overclocked and tuned to within an inch of catching fire (LOL -- my words,
not his). If you're not familiar with VIA... a 1GHz VIA Eden CPU as found
in a thin client I'm quite familiar with (the Wyse C-series aka Wyse Cx0
series... their model number scheme is really weird) is about on par with
my HP Mini 5102 netbook from 2010.

But, hey, maybe...? I dunno, you guys clearly know this stuff way better
than I do, so you tell me!

Off-topic #1 -- coincidentally, the HP Mini has a repair to it I'm quite
proud of... Jody gave it to me with a dented lid and a BIOS password.
Couldn't do much about the lid, but... SOIC-8 ROM holds the BIOS code.
Desoldered, plunked in my (then fairly new) TL866C "MiniPro" programmer I'd
gotten a few months prior for my birthday... boom! No more password. First
real SMD/SMT solder job I did.

Off-topic #2 -- more interesting, probably, to you guys would be how I came
to be so familiar with the Wyse C-series clients in the first place. Go
look up bug #91966 in the bug tracker for the "openchrome" Xwin driver ;)
warning, it's quite a long read... over 100 posts/comments... not kidding!