[Discuss] EOMA68 Computer

[slitt at troubleshooters.com (Steve Litt)]

On Tue, 19 Jul 2016 15:20:45 +0000
Mike Small <smallm at sdf.org> wrote:

> IngeGNUe <ingegnue at riseup.net> writes:
> 
> > This computer right here:
> >
> > https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop
> >
> > Eco-friendly, upgradeable, portable, secure, affordable, no NDAs, no
> > proprietary anything (except for MALI, if you insist on it), fully
> > documented hardware. Can be used as phone (maybe phablet), tablet,
> > laptop, desktop, "low-power co-located servers", anything you can
> > fit it into.
> >
> > This is one of those projects which will change the way we do
> > computing on GNU/Linux. Please read and if you like it, I hope you
> > will support it!!!  
> 
> Hmmm, I wonder if it would turn out to be as eco-friendly as intended
> in practice. The people who want to reduce their footprint I think
> should keep whatever they have now running and not buy anything new.
> Plus when you need a computer their tonnes of old crap to grab cheap
> before it hits landfill. I could see something like this letting me
> trick myself into buying before my current machines are fully
> consumed or buying new when I should look to used.
> 
> It would be nice if it influenced the industry to move to machines
> where you can upgrade just the thing that's lacking maybe. Or would
> it? I find my old laptops remain perfectly adequate and I haven't
> looked into upgrade options: their upgradability certainly is not a
> feature anyone has advertised to me. Having cheap upgrade options and
> having those options publicized might also make me more tempted to
> consume more not less. Of course, if it's really more fixable when
> one component fails that's plainly good.
> 
> My own experience with hardware was to be an upgrade junky in the
> 90s. With some headaches you could get a new motherboard, change the
> video card add SIMMs or DIMMs, upgrade the modem, etc. I'd end up
> getting all this stuff I didn't really need cause you could do it
> somewhat incrementally. Then I splurged and bought a powermac. Partly
> I paid so damn much (at one time) for the foolish thing I didn't want
> to buy new hardware for years. But also it lacked upgradability (or
> that was my perception maybe combined with an irrational feeling that
> it was a unit with a single identity less so than an aggregate of
> parts) compared to the PC clones I'd previously dealt with. That
> helped me kick the habit. And as mentioned above the limited
> upgradability I have now with old laptops instead of desktops helps.
> Odd, somehow this old crap just keeps running and running. Do
> computers still break? ;)
> 
> My cynical side fears this is a little like Macintosh or automobile
> marketing, as in it's a computer whose first purpose, the purpose
> sparking the sale, is to satisfy the soul who wants to express who he
> or she is via purchases or in effect it working out that way despite
> the good intentions of the founders. Hmmm, if that gets more people
> to use GNU+Linux, okay, but maybe the way it works out in the market
> would not end up being a net plus on the environmental or conflict
> mineral side.

I'm tempted to buy it for the same reason I bought a regenerative
shortwave kit (and will later design and hand-assemble another): I
understand what I've built myself, I can work on what I've built
myself, and I can, to a degree, modify what I've built myself. I feel
just a little bit helpless when using a machine or system which I can't
open up and intelligently tinker with.

SteveT

Steve Litt 
July 2016 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques
     of the Successful Technologist
http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques