Re: [orca-list] pocket chip

[Luke Yelavich <luke yelavich canonical com>]

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 06:30:44AM AEST, Kyle wrote:
> I need to buy one of these. If it can handle a Linux distro that isn't of
> the manufacturer's own redesign, most of the points in the review could be
> mostly invalidated. I would love to see the specs somewhere, although if
> it's like the Raspberry Pi, depending on which version is referred to in the
> review, the hardware on my Odroid C2 is far superior, although it doesn't
> include things like the onboard keyboard and touch screen.

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 06:30:44AM AEST, Kyle wrote:
> I need to buy one of these. If it can handle a Linux distro that isn't of
> the manufacturer's own redesign, most of the points in the review could be
> mostly invalidated. I would love to see the specs somewhere, although if
> it's like the Raspberry Pi, depending on which version is referred to in the
> review, the hardware on my Odroid C2 is far superior, although it doesn't
> include things like the onboard keyboard and touch screen.

Having done a little research, the chip is approximately the same as a 
Raspbery Pi 0. There are some important things to note however.

* It has onboard flash, at 4GB, and expandable with USB storage. Not sure if 
can boot from USB.
* The SoC in the Chip, and the Odroid C2 is an Allwinner SoC, which has a GPU 
with proprietary bits, and I think there are other binary blobs, and its 
kernel support is only available for Kernel 3.10, where as all Pi revisions, 
whilst they do use some binary blobs, have much newer kernel support, and at 
least so far as I know, more open GPU code.

All these small board computers coming out is pretty awesome, but ARM is not 
as cut and dry as X86. Of the boards I know of, the Pi series, particularly 
the 2 and 3, are much likely to be more supportable in the longer term, due 
to kernel source being kept as close to mainline, so far as version goes, as 
possible, and more open GPU related code. Other products may have extra 
functionality or be more powerful, but they are likely to be less supported 
as time goes on, due to vendors not keeping kernel code up to date, and/or 
binary blobs that are kernel dependant not being kept up to date. I know of 
many a dev board/a piece of small form factor that, whilst still useful for 
many tasks, is no longer supported due to binary blobs/old outdated kernel 
code.

Luke