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

[pal666]

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

because bootloader is indistinguishable from hardware from os pov, so nobody cares. while blob driver will fuck you up

[pal666]

You don't need GPU acceleration to display 2d framebuffer

but you need gpu acceleration to display something useful on 2d framebuffer

[pal666]

Basically all RPi clones are better than RPi in all possible ways. They just don't have the open source GPU drivers.

yes, they are better in all ways unless you need display, then they are worse in all ways

[pal666]

There's bloatloads of free/open compilers for ARM and x86.

zero with free firmware or hardware

[pal666]

Riiiiiight, a truly open platform but the open bootloader isn't there yet. For some odd reason, the bootloaders of the competing evil closed source (Allwinner) devices are open. Makes sense.

of course. nobody is giving a shit about bootloader, just as nobody giving a shit about closed cpu. sane people only care about things running inside their os. those fucking mali blobs, for example

[waxhead]

How nice if all these minicomputer people found out that it would be simpler to make a cheap single board that can easily be expanded by plugging in whatever you need.
Just like in the old days when you had a free socket on your mainboard that could provide you with a FPU for example.

[stefansaraev]

lol. mali and libre can't co-exist in same sentence!

"64-bit ARM Cortex-A53" means nothing. what it is actualy. allwiner? amlogic?

"4K Ultra HD with HDR via HDMI 2.0" good luck with that on linux.

[Piper]

Amlogic S905X using only 10/100 PHY and only micro-USB power (again). At 35USD for 2GB RAM version I don't see a good selling point over Odroid-C2 (maybe shipping costs).

[starshipeleven]

it is not ok to know that you are selling board without videocard and call it 4k

???

Mali is not "video card" it is "3D accelerator". Mali is 3D only, while 2D components and video decoding works through open drivers support as it is dealt by other parts. For embedded devices 3D can be sacrificed more easily than for a laptop.

[starshipeleven]

but you need gpu acceleration to display something useful on 2d framebuffer

Nope. 3D isn't required for most embedded projects.