I like the cold war tech aesthetic of this. I can imagine 1 million soviet troops being outfitted with a handheld MVP computer each as part of their kits.
A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15
251–260 of 408 posts
Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15
#252Quite sad that this is the Allwinner SoC without a FPU in it, making distro options more limited. Something like the v3s has similar specs but has a new enough ARM core to have an FPU making it possible to run armhf/armv7 distros instead of armel (debian naming)
Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15
#253> It costs $10,000 USD to build one of these > The ten thousandth one costs $15 As a software engineer, I'm used to being able to build essentially whatever I want, with the only cost being my time. I'm often unpleasantly reminded that software is an outlier in that regard and as soon as physical items are concerned, especially hardware, it turns out that manufacturing even a simple thing is prohibitively expensive i…
You could probably build one at home for a few hundred if you really wanted and did not care at all about time.
You would just need to 3D print a case and somehow cast your own silicone keypad. DIY electronics is actually not too bad cost wise.
Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15
#254Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well said. It's a great project and impressive execution at $15! > While this is admirable as a proof of concept, I suspect that moving the price point up to, say, $30 could give a much more useful and hacker-friendly device. I agree. I think this project proves that ultra low cost is viable. Now relaxing the constraints a bit to add RAM and WiFi could iterate it right into an optimal spot. I wouldn't want to go much…
I think we've already got a pretty powerful computer at around the 40$ price point (the raspberrypi), and I feel like it'd be impossible to beat it given the scale raspberry pi is at.
RasPi isn't a handheld though. And AFAIK there's no off the shelf case designs as nice as this.
Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15
#255This reminds me (in a good way) of the GPD Win computers. Obviously smartphones are cool, I have one, I like it, but it annoys me that in some senses they're still not as good as a Windows 98 laptop from 24 years ago. Their version of MS Office isn't as intuitive, there's not the same level of programming language/compiler support, on iOS you're restricted to the App Store, etc. The GPD Win was the first time I saw a…
I wish netbooks were still around with modern hardware. In college, I replaced a powerful laptop with a desktop in my dorm+netbook, and just did remote desktop on the on-campus internet (luckily all the classrooms were still wired for ethernet).
Similar setup, but with one of those harder-to-find Vaio netbooks with an AMD APU. No need for remote desktop. Flawless performance in 3D and CAD software on the netbook directly.
Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Surely an ESP32 should be able to run Linux. Then you would get Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Yes, but it wasn't easy, and only recently achieved. [0][1][2][3] Unfortunately, for both those examples, the WiFi module itself had to be disabled so that Linux had enough memory to function. Though, of course, they should be able to do something like my favourite tiny Linux board, which wired in extra RAM. The 8bit Atmega [4], th…
Interesting, so linux was ported to RISC-V architecture, and there's a RISC-V emulator that runs on ESP32. I guess this means all the virtual memory is emulated. I think the more interesting step is if the successors to ESP32 have virtual memory. In the meantime, I found playing with freertos on esp32 lots of fun.
There are also ESP32 variants that are native RISC-V (but not with MMUs)
Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15
#257> It costs $10,000 USD to build one of these > The ten thousandth one costs $15 As a software engineer, I'm used to being able to build essentially whatever I want, with the only cost being my time. I'm often unpleasantly reminded that software is an outlier in that regard and as soon as physical items are concerned, especially hardware, it turns out that manufacturing even a simple thing is prohibitively expensive i…
You could probably build one at home for a few hundred if you really wanted and did not care at all about time. You would just need to 3D print a case and somehow cast your own silicone keypad. DIY electronics is actually not too bad cost wise.
Keypad could probably be done with a flexible filament too.
Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15
#258This 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…
I don't need wireless on something like this. Sure it will help in some cases, but if you need wifi connectivity, then you can usually use a full laptop while lounging on a couch. And you do not really need this. I am sure most people even considering something like this have a wifi enabled laptop already.
This would be great for plugging in in random places and making sure things work and initializing/configuring/troubleshooting various devices that for some reason cannot be reached over the wifi.
As far as complaints, I would go the other way -- why does it not have an Ethernet port. Yes you can use an Ethernet to usb adapter, but it would be so much more convenient if it had a port.
Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15
#259This 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.
> It only has 32MB of RAM so I doubt you could get any music running on it.
Get off my lawn. With 8MB of RAM you could run Win95 AND a MP3 player.
Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
It'd be great if there were some standardized way to turn older smartphones, whose on-paper computing power is astronomical, into viable Linux servers or controllers. I've got plenty of old shit phones around that barely respond to touch (or whose displays are just outright unusable) but I'm here considering a new rpi for my next project instead of repurposing one. There's also a ton of leftover supply of these thing…
For a server, I feel like termux might be sufficient?
For a server, I likely don't need or even want most of the stuff that's on a stock android install (or even kernel). GPS, audio, graphics drivers, mic, camera, SMS, etc are all worthless at best. Bluetooth (and maybe wifi, if you're USB-plugged) represent explicit unnecessary attack surface for a device that I'll be running with dodgy ported software inside my home network.
Good for proof-of-concepting tho, I bet.