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VIA launches $49 Android PC

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Re: VIA launches $49 Android PC

#21
You should always be wary if any binary blobs are required (often the case with video drivers). They will limit what you can do in terms of upgrading the kernel and hence the rest of the OS.

Sadly VIA have a history of not quite getting this whole "open" thing: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=via_o...

Re: VIA launches $49 Android PC

#23

This somehow lacks all geek-appeal to me. It looks like a regular mother board. Not interested. The raspberry pi on the other hand looks cool . Strange.

It depends on what you intend to do with it. My mom's computer is due for an upgrade and she would probably be happy with a beefier version of this machine. Swapping the motherboard should be trivial enough and the PC would continue to look familiar, at least.

She's used to Ubuntu and she couldn't care less about the ISA the machine is running. Moving to Android could prove an interesting experience, but I suspect machines like this will have outstanding support for other Linuxes as well and I'd assume Via has a lot to gain by cooperating.

By now, most likely, someone from Microsoft will have called to offer some incentive if Via favors Win8 over Android on the platform. We'll see what happens.

Re: VIA launches $49 Android PC

#26
post #3

4 watts when idle no power management? my standard voltage laptop with a spinning disk, screen and low backlighting idles at 6-7. And can you really get away with no HS/F at 13 watts under load?

That's also what I thought. But I couldn't find Raspberry Pi idle wattage anywhere, so I'm not sure if that's good or bad in comparison.

Re: VIA launches $49 Android PC

#27

PC? How is this thing even close to a PC? Looks like a motherboard to me,

It uses solid state storage and the RAM, graphics system, etc. is bundled into the single System-on-a-chip. Plug in the power then hook it up to keyboard/mouse/monitor and you are up and running.

What he's saying is that it's a bare component. Generally a PC is a usable system.

One will still need to add a powersupply and case at a minimum. (And then you can plug in your power, keyboard/mouse/monitor, etc.)

Re: VIA launches $49 Android PC

#28
post #6

This is about the price-range I would like to see for a ChromeOS box. Put it in a box I can hide behind a standard monitor, let me reuse the old mouse and keyboard and I can finally throw away the Windows XP PC my in-laws are using for Chrome and Freecell. And use 1/10th of the power.

I'd rather pay more for a high-end Cortex A15-based ChromeBox. Browsing will be very slow on an ARM11 chip, especially if you use it in "desktop mode", which will make it feel even slower compared to using it in a mobile phone. Also, it better have a good GPU, otherwise it won't even support resolutions higher than 800x480 (this one might). But I do think ChromeOS devices should be somewhere in the $200 price range (…

In 1989 I ran a Unix system with 1000 users on hardware less powerful than this, why this kind of horse power cannot run something as simple as a web browser says more about the inefficiencies inherent in current operating systems and programming methods than they do about the hardware.

Re: VIA launches $49 Android PC

#30
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It uses solid state storage and the RAM, graphics system, etc. is bundled into the single System-on-a-chip. Plug in the power then hook it up to keyboard/mouse/monitor and you are up and running.

What he's saying is that it's a bare component. Generally a PC is a usable system. One will still need to add a powersupply and case at a minimum. (And then you can plug in your power, keyboard/mouse/monitor, etc.)

OK, fair enough. I don't think the lack of a case is a huge deal (zip tie it inside a tiny cardboard box, whatever) but the requirement for a special power supply is significant. In comparison, a raspberry pi can be booted up and used with parts that a typical geek has lying around (micro-usb charger, usb periphs, monitor).

Edit: it looks like it comes with a power adapter, so it's effectively a fully functional computer out of the box (just as much as any system without kb/monitor).

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