That Open, Upgradeable ARM Dev Board Is Trying To Make A Comeback

[phoronix]

Phoronix: That Open, Upgradeable ARM Dev Board Is Trying To Make A Comeback

Remember that Improve Dev Board using an open-source, upgradeable design and running Mer from 2013~2014 before the project collapsed? It's back now in the form of a new crowdfunding campaign with some changes to the hardware and the option of a build-your-own laptop...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=EOMA68-Campaign-Returns

[kaprikawn]

...has an Allwinner A20 SoC with 2GB of RAM and 8GB of NAND Flash. They will be trying to get the Free Software Foundation's Respect-Your-Freedom certification on this hardware...

Wait, what? They're trying to get FSF accreditation on a device using components from a known GPL violator? That's brazen to say the least.

Cool concept, let down by the fact that they're using Allwinner tech.

[starshipeleven]

Not Alwinner, but Mali the issue. With all half-decent chips from Freescale that have a Vivante GPU and other stuff that has a half-working opensource driver that only needs more help to go full-blown support, they choose a crap chip with a Mali.

Still, their laptop is the best shot at a good chassis for a decent DYI ARM laptop.

I'd love to be able to design a different modular board for that.

[haagch]

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/libreplanet-discuss/2016-06/msg00212.html

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/libreplanet-discuss/2016-06/msg00211.html

Yea, no.

[sverris]

Not Alwinner, but Mali the issue. With all half-decent chips from Freescale that have a Vivante GPU and other stuff that has a half-working opensource driver that only needs more help to go full-blown support, they choose a crap chip with a Mali.

Still, their laptop is the best shot at a good chassis for a decent DYI ARM laptop.

I'd love to be able to design a different modular board for that.

Thats right. 3D-acceleration on Mali is the issue. So, most likely, that closed source code wont be included, but one can add it later... Otherwise the A20 is fine, although its a bit old.
As for alternatives: there are (to my knowledge) still none completely open / FSF-proof, atm.
I am thinking of backing the project...

[pal666]

lol, laptop for $500 without graphics. why not add $5 and use chip with freedreno support?

[pal666]

Not Alwinner, but Mali the issue

allwinner is gpl violator

[Michael]

Thats right. 3D-acceleration on Mali is the issue. So, most likely, that closed source code wont be included, but one can add it later... Otherwise the A20 is fine, although its a bit old.
As for alternatives: there are (to my knowledge) still none completely open / FSF-proof, atm.
I am thinking of backing the project...

On the FSF RYF edition, it looks like they are physically disabling the Mali support.

[sverris]

lol, laptop for $500 without graphics. why not add $5 and use chip with freedreno support?

Thats quite typical for small scale/quantity projects. In terms of price, they never can compete with the big corporations. Just take a look at the devices from fairphone.com and neo900.org...

[starshipeleven]

lol, laptop for $500 without graphics. why not add $5 and use chip with freedreno support?

It seems cost was an issue. Even the other "free" and "open" console went with a powerVR gpu instead.

allwinner is gpl violator

None gives a fuck about that, the hardware itself does not, the only thing they care about is the lack of free drivers for Mali
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/l.../msg00212.html
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/l.../msg00211.html