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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

#371

Post by undecisive »

masklinn wrote: post #35
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)

> Loving it! What orange website could they be talking about? In case that's a serious question: what website has an orange theme, and an aggressively enforced rule against editorialising submission titles?

The comment was pure sarcasm - but kind of you to check!

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

#372

Post by undecisive »

lgeorget wrote: post #58
masklinn wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Loving it! What orange website could they be talking about? In case that's a serious question: what website has an orange theme, and an aggressively enforced rule against editorialising submission titles?

Ever since I've found that I can change the color of the top bar in my profile, the site has been every color but orange to me. :D

Same here, but my browser still uses orange as the theme colour for HN, which is interesting - I guess it grabs the dominant colour from the favicon (it even does it on sites that try to set the meta theme-color, which is interesting)

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

#373

Post by anthk »

bfuller wrote: post #358
Karrot_Kream wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure I'm not saying it's not possible. I did stuff in the 90s too. But usually you had to put a lot of effort into arena allocators and reusing pointers. Also lots of software then was pretty jank and would just segfault and errnos we're often not handled.

in the 90s i remember waiting 15-30 minutes to send an email. maybe revisiting some of these super low end devices would be worth it now that fiber is ubiquitous.

That's because of your ISP, not the client. You could send mail by telnet in less than a minute.

If you meant early-mid 90's, that's true.

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

#374

Post by anthk »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #327
anthk wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, wait a moment. I did several fun stuff with just CLI and C/tcl under the zipitz z2. Even with TLS. You understimate what we did in the 90's too with just 32 or 64MB of RAM. Jabber uses XML and I did it fine under a system daemon like Bitlbee AND an IRC client on top of that. 48MB overall on the Zipit z2, 32MB + compressed ZRAM. The total usage was about ~16MB with a tiny MUSL build, tmux, ash, bitlbee and sic. SM…

Sure I'm not saying it's not possible. I did stuff in the 90s too. But usually you had to put a lot of effort into arena allocators and reusing pointers. Also lots of software then was pretty jank and would just segfault and errnos we're often not handled.

https://jcs.org/tagged/mac

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

#375

Post by riskneutral »

eternityforest wrote: post #253
miav wrote: post #222

> 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.

I'm sure you could buy a silicone keypad on Alibaba for a few dollars.

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

#376

Post by tombert »

ansible wrote: post #331
argvargc wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I understand it, battery performance can be somewhat configurable on these, eg by adjusting BIOS settings for thermal controls to keep the CPU throttled. If you don't mind the lack of gaming controls, they have some Pentium N6000-based models. The P2 Max (2022) with this claims 8 hours continuous 1080p playback. Still expensive though - would be great to see a more terminal-focused version with a lower power CPU a…

Most of their products I would consider too big for thumb typing while standing. The Micro PC seems about right though with a 6in screen. https://www.gpd.hk/gpdmicropc Apparently not for sale new anymore, and it seemed expensive when it was.

FWIW, I'm a pretty tall dude and have pretty big hands, and the GPD Win 2's buttons don't bother me at all.

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

#377

Post by Teknoman117 »

antoinealb wrote: post #362
aidenn0 wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you verify good flow of solder on a BGA without an x-ray? Do you just reflow it for the prescribed time and see if it works?

It is already the way you do it for parts like QFN (at least the way I do it): if it works then all good! If it does not, then heat it up again. I heard BGA is actually pretty simple as you cannot apply too much paste, but I don't have so experience with it.

I'm doing this as a test mostly. I bought some 0.8mm 121 pin lattice iCE40HX FPGAs ($5 a pop) to test with with. Few enough balls that you can do a 4 layer stackup without cheating (no traces in the power plane layers).

I hand-placed some 0.4mm QFNs before (LVDS to TMDS converter IC) (admittedly, only a ~90% success rate) so this has to be at least twice as easy.

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

#378

Post by aidenn0 »

Teknoman117 wrote: post #377
antoinealb wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is already the way you do it for parts like QFN (at least the way I do it): if it works then all good! If it does not, then heat it up again. I heard BGA is actually pretty simple as you cannot apply too much paste, but I don't have so experience with it.

I'm doing this as a test mostly. I bought some 0.8mm 121 pin lattice iCE40HX FPGAs ($5 a pop) to test with with. Few enough balls that you can do a 4 layer stackup without cheating (no traces in the power plane layers). I hand-placed some 0.4mm QFNs before (LVDS to TMDS converter IC) (admittedly, only a ~90% success rate) so this has to be at least twice as easy.

"Easier than QFN" isn't a glowing recommendation but makes me hopeful. QFNs are the bane of my existence.
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