On Thu, Aug 25, 2016 at 12:47:55AM -0400, Scott Sullivan via talk wrote:
There is a common refrain on this list, "Vote with your Dollars". We'll I'm going to put my money where my mouth is.
The EOMA-68 effort is something I've spoken on before. It's a real earnest attempt to put together a hardware project that meets the ideals of the free software community. It's matter of principle, much like recycling is matter or principle (recycling is not cheaper then new materials).
https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop
I've been watching Luke, the project lead, fail and succeed in various ways for nearly 5 years now. He's had hardware prototypes built, small productions runs of the A20 card done.
I must admit that having read his longwinded rants, he is among the few people I have considered teaching my email program to flag as "Warning: Potential troll" so I have a warning before reading it. His ideas are rather far fetched, he manages to really piss people off with his demands for them to do things to solve his problems, and I am not convinced the problems he is trying to solve are really worth the bother.
This is a early adopter scenario, it's going to be rough around the edges, and it's not going to be the fastest hardware. But it's got the heart.
Spend sometime reading into the details.
https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop/updates/fsf-ryf-background
In Five years, I've not seen Luke give up. He's finally found a partner company with a good track record (Think Penguin). And the design is done and tested. It just has to be built in mass.
I'm not asking that folks go for the laptop. But maybe just a Card, and a Cable Set for Standalone Operation. The costs of Hardware won't come down until we show that we are willing to put a down payment on future we've been asking for.
I'm backing this project, not because its the cheapest, or the fastest. But because I want to see more projects like in the future that will be faster and possibly cost competitive in the market.
I certainly won't be bothering. There are much more interesting bits of hardware I could get. -- len Sorensen