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A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

bbenchoff.github.io

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Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#71

Post by shadowoflight »

samstave wrote: post #32
smallerfish wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as wifi over USB is supported, why overcomplicate the core hardware? Sell a dongle as an add on option and make a little profit from it.

Completely an aside: USB dongles piss me off; specifically the Logitech Mouse USB dongles: Why the heck hasnt a single manufacturer included the USB Dongle radio IN the mobo? So with slim laptops you have few USB ports. I currently am typing this on an HP Omen flagship gaming laptop... It has ONE USB-C port, which is under-powered (I have a USB-C Hub, that requires an external USB-C Power source... so I have to plug…

> BT mice have never been subjectively responsive enough for me.

Anecdotally, I've experienced very few issues with the Logitech MX Master (both the original and v3) on my Mac via BT - every once in awhile (often enough to be aware of it, but infrequently enough that it's not something I'd consider a problem) the original would cut out for a few seconds, but other than that it tracked perfectly, and I haven't even had the periodic cutting-out issue with the Master 3 (yet; I've only had it for a little over a month now).

Of course, this is dependent on the BT implementation of both the mouse and PC being used, which is something to take into consideration (I've had way fewer BT connection issues in general with MacBooks than with any Windows laptops).

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#72

Post by officeplant »

throwawaygh wrote: post #8

> That’s about it. Could you do all of this with a smartphone? Yeah, kinda, if you root prepaid Android phone, but even that would cost more than $30. You can almost certainly do better than $30 on local marketplaces, or by asking friends if they have a disused smartphone sitting around. reusing is absurdly cost efficient

This does remind me that I have a OnePlus 3T laying around in a drawer that would be an excellent degoogled Android device. And my old HTC Dream / Tmobile G1 that I have Android 2.2 on if I wanted a full keyboard...

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#73

Post by Beltalowda »

wanderingjew wrote: post #65
bryanlarsen wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think "screw with" means "block" in this case. But there is one moderately famous blog that does block HN: https://www.jwz.org/

yeah I asked jwz how to do that, but I can't figure out a way to make that work with Github pages.

  if (document.referrer === 'https://news.ycombinator.com/')
    window.location = 'https://cdn.jwz.org/images/2016/hn.png'
Or something along those lines should work.

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#74

Post by kwhitefoot »

nine_k wrote: post #7

This is nice. This is a simple, straightforward design, and a reasonably convenient form factor. Two biggest limitations are RAM and wireless interfaces, or rather lack thereof. This thing has less RAM than my router (admittedly a $70 box), and has neither WiFi nor BT. It does not seem to have many GPIO pins, too. With the amount of RAM installed, it's mostly a handheld terminal, and maybe a handheld console with emu…

Surely an ESP32 should be able to run Linux. Then you would get Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

After all Linux used to run on 486, BSD ran on 386.

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#75

Post by anthk »

nine_k wrote: post #7

This is nice. This is a simple, straightforward design, and a reasonably convenient form factor. Two biggest limitations are RAM and wireless interfaces, or rather lack thereof. This thing has less RAM than my router (admittedly a $70 box), and has neither WiFi nor BT. It does not seem to have many GPIO pins, too. With the amount of RAM installed, it's mostly a handheld terminal, and maybe a handheld console with emu…

Enough for Tmux, busybox, SSH/Mosh, Lynx, Gopher, NNTP, IRC over bitlbee, music and video playing over Bluetooth speakers, PDF readers (fbipdf, fbpdf2), epub readers (unzip+lynx script), on the go coding...

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#76

Post by shakna »

wanderingjew wrote: post #65
bryanlarsen wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think "screw with" means "block" in this case. But there is one moderately famous blog that does block HN: https://www.jwz.org/

yeah I asked jwz how to do that, but I can't figure out a way to make that work with Github pages.

HN helpfully uses the referrer, so you can easily do it with a tiny bit of JS:

    
    if(document.referrer == "https://news.ycombinator.com/") {
        // Mess with HN users here...
    }

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#77

Post by sigstoat »

omair_inam wrote: post #12

What I'd love for someone to share is the MVP Linux machine I can use to run PiHole... Starter Raspberry Pis (e.g. by Canakit) ... are >$150 CAD on amazon.ca which just seems so expensive.

the canakit packages are luxury items with a bunch of stuff you don't need.

get a pi, an sd card, a power supply, and a cardboard box to shove it into. you don't need any of the other stuff they include.

also get an old pi, not one of the most recent. maybe ask around, lots of folks have a box of older pis. i'd certainly love to get rid of all of the 1s and 2s i've got.

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#78

Post by anthk »

only4here wrote: post #50
nine_k wrote: post #7

This is nice. This is a simple, straightforward design, and a reasonably convenient form factor. Two biggest limitations are RAM and wireless interfaces, or rather lack thereof. This thing has less RAM than my router (admittedly a $70 box), and has neither WiFi nor BT. It does not seem to have many GPIO pins, too. With the amount of RAM installed, it's mostly a handheld terminal, and maybe a handheld console with emu…

> neither WiFi nor BT I understand having WiFi, it'd be great for a small device like this. But why would we need Bluetooth? It only has 32MB of RAM so I doubt you could get any music running on it.

What? I played music perfecly on 16MB and an ARMv5 musl build of Linux+Busybox and mocp.

ZRAM did magic expanding the RAM to 24MB.

And under text mode you can do lots of things. With a framebuffer, say hello to 420p videos, PDF's and some web pages with images thanks to links -g.

You must use tmux+ash as your "interface", but it works.

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#79

Post by jsheard »

undecisive wrote: post #25

> I’m changing the title of this page just to screw with mods on the orange website Loving it! What orange website could they be talking about? I wonder what would be achievable, around the $15 mark WITHOUT needing a minimum order of 1000? (Presuming access to a 3d printer and a reasonably cheap PCB fab company)

Advanced HN mod troll: write a dozen slightly different titles and pick a random one on page load
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