New Libre-Focused ARM Board Aims To Compete With Raspberry Pi 3, Offers 4K

[FireBurn]

Why everyone is going for the Mali 4XX GPUs? They are too slow for any use in 2017. And they only have OpenGL ES support (No accelerated desktop, no browser acceleration, etc..)

Kwin will quite happily work on OpenGL ES rather than OpenGL

[caligula]

No NFC either.

I would like to see a SBC based on the RISC-V architecture. It is a modern and open architecture. ARM like x86 is proprietary.

How does this have any kind of effect on anything. There's bloatloads of free/open compilers for ARM and x86. You can basically do whatever you want with them. The chips cost less than 3 dollars apiece. It's the GPU that slows down progress. Basically all RPi clones are better than RPi in all possible ways. They just don't have the open source GPU drivers.

[caligula]

The A64-OLinuXino is I think the same CPU, already shipping, has Gb ethernet, and is open hardware.

Both lack FOSS GPU acceleration (unless someone picks up the Lima work). But at least they can boot without a blob (unlike raspberrypi).

You don't need GPU acceleration to display 2d framebuffer. Framebuffer out with proper kernel modesetting shouldn't a huge effort. I had the impression there's much progress with video decoding on many Mali boards, so the video can be accelerated. There's also CEC work in the kernel for media players.

[caligula]

Yes, for all its faults and foibles (all of which were deliberate compromises for price reasons, to be fair), the RPi is by far the most open ARM SBC out there that I am aware of.

Does the open version of the RPi bootloader even boot Linux yet? Most people use the closed source version.

[ssam]

The A64-OLinuXino is I think the same CPU, already shipping, has Gb ethernet, and is open hardware.

Both lack FOSS GPU acceleration (unless someone picks up the Lima work). But at least they can boot without a blob (unlike raspberrypi).

[M@GOid]

The biggest reason for the RP success is they have a big and wealthy community around it for support. They have a full time developer doing graphic stuff. They have AND actively maintain their own distro.

Is not about hardware specs. None of these boards will be a desktop, is not a pleasant experience. Without the ruge software support the Pi has, only experienced people capable of handling software hacks to make the board work will think of buying it. The novice will always go for the Pi because of support. The sooner the RP wannabe killers realize it, their chances to produce a true competitor will increase.

[Misel]

This has got to be the longest Kickstarter introduction video ever. 37 minutes

[LaeMing]

So in short... they want to a release a new ARM-Board that is more closed than the Raspberry Pi but just call it more open?

Yes, for all its faults and foibles (all of which were deliberate compromises for price reasons, to be fair), the RPi is by far the most open ARM SBC out there that I am aware of.

[marty1885]

Why everyone is going for the Mali 4XX GPUs? They are too slow for any use in 2017. And they only have OpenGL ES support (No accelerated desktop, no browser acceleration, etc..)

[starshipeleven]

Mh, better than average raspi clone bullshit, but it still has Mali.

"libre" used somewhat liberally because Mali, but they still seem to know what they are doing and fully explain down to technical level, so that's ok.

Le Potato is an epic name showing good marketing sense.

Seal of approval for this board.