[Arm-netbook] R-Pi Only Better and More Available?

Gordan Bobic gordan at bobich.net
Sat May 26 18:32:46 BST 2012


On 05/26/2012 05:59 PM, moo cow wrote:

> The RPi, people IMHO did most everything right and for the right
> reasons

They did _some_ things right. Their choice of SoC is questionable, and 
their choice of 128MB and 256MB versions was downright dire - to the 
point where they are finally starting to twig that 256MB isn't enough 
and sweeping under the carpet that they were ever going to make the 
128MB version (which I am pretty convinced will now never see the light 
of day).

> until their complete lack of commercial and manufacturing
> experience hit them like a ton of bricks right at the end.

That was just the icing on the cake that made the product 6+ months late 
and 50% more expensive than the expectations they had set. All this was 
on top of reneging on the promise to have it built in UK. Having them 
built in UK was a loudly advertised fact in the second half of last 
year, supporting British industry, etc. that gave them a lot of 
publicity. Until they did the maths and gave all those that supported 
them for patriotic reasons the finger and instead had them built in 
China - where the manufacturer botched the order that lead to the whole 
batch having to be replaced.

Seems to me that they did an awful lot wrong, on every level, from 
choice of components to implementation and ethics.

> Since day
> one other Techies seem to have had an insane jealously of them for
> being brave enough to stick their necks out and being the first to
> take the risk to actually do something ... its sad they have made a
> right royal cock up right at the end after the hard bit has been done
> so well and hopefully they can get over it and move on to design a
> whole series of pi's and learn their lessons.

Can you summarise for me what exactly they did right? While I credit 
them fully for doing _something_ (this is very commendable in itself), 
and making enough noise to make a lot more people look at ARM machines 
in general instead of x86, I don't think their actual product and 
handling thereof particularly covered them in glory.

> In terms of the via device .. why would it get anyone excited about it
> ?  at a retail price probably 2x the pi's if it ever sees the light of
> day in its current form  .. i'd sooner pay a bit more and get
> something like a 1GB SATA A10 Olimex board ;-)

Or a CuBox for €99.

The most appealing things about the APC are:
- *TX form factor is massively convenient, bolts in straight into a 
standard chassis
- Half the price of a SheevaPlug for similar spec (but more USB ports, 
VGA out)

Gordan



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