@reiddragon @afriendlykittycat or have to deal with #embedded stuff of the #Vortex86 variety...

But maybe that's me who believes in #FrugalComputing and that any box that could run #WindowsXP should still be useable for basic browsing and stuff.

• Not like 8k120p HDR YouNuke and shit, but like basic sites (i.e. Wikipedia), eMail, RSS, IRC & XMPP+OMEMO.

But maybe that's me who thinks that shit should be accessible even if the user:

• Only has an original EeePC 701 with it's Xandos-based OS
• is blind and/or deaf
• is stuck on a 2400 bit/s connection via Iridium
• or all three combined!

@deliri Either way, @bananapi illustrates the problem with (halfassed) #RaspberryPi competitiors:

• It's not enough to just spit out an SBC and some bootable ROM! The people want proper #documentation. And besides @raspberry_pi / #RaspberryPi, very few actually write those (i.e. @olimex )…

Cuz if people like #ChrisBarnatt struggle to do anything, why should anyone even more competent like @geerlingguy invest his precious time to make fundamental basics work?

• I mean as much as he jokes about having to compile the #LinuxKernel, I'm pretty shure $5 in hardware cost savings isn't going to get him up and fanboy things.

Personally, I think everytime he has to fiddle around that neck-deep, I consider this a fundamental failure by said SBC if not #ARM64 as #architecture, as in almost all cases this is something that just works on #amd64!

• Espechally since these are "consumer-facing" boards with "consumer-style interfaces" and advertised to consumers, not some obscure embedded/industrial SOM like a #Vortex86!

@philpem maybe search the #changelog|s if support for said SoC / board got yeeted in the meantime?

• Cuz that does happen quite often due to the sheer size of the #ARM "device zoo" and the fact that not everything gets maintained and if noone maintains nor complains broken stuff gets rather yeeted.

Personally I hope #i486 (incl. #i486SX) support remains in the #Linux #Kernel because old / legacy industrial/embedded/critical infrastructure systems quite often still use that stuff or get re-deployed with #Vortex86-SX and other #SoC|s for #ISA support and oftentimes a Linux running ddrescue and/or dd is the only worling and reproduceable way to #backup and/or #restore systems that old.

• It's one of the reasons I started @OS1337.…

@mrmasterkeyboard @hexaheximal I hope not, but then again there were also calls to yeet #i486 / #i486SX support.

• Which would really suck because a lot of newly deployed #embedded systems in #industrial applications are still i486SX-#ISA based like the low-spec #Vortex86 offering #Vortex86SX...

Which you may know from the #Wee86 by @rasteri …

But in the end #support will be up to the #Linux community and @torvalds ...

I.e. #Itanium support as shortly dropped after that got #EoL'd because it was a dead-on-arrival shitshow and basically any buyer stuck with #HPUX on #IA64 anyway…

@krutonium @fuchsiii use a #VM?

Or build yourself a new #RetroPC with like a #Vortex86-SBC/SOM like @rasteri did...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJEp4ZUG7BI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P1E2vjpcRo

• I really need to learn PCB layouting and shit for the tiny486…

@slaine I know. #VIA did keep a foot in #embedded since they were still offering new C7 chips in 2016 and are only beaten by like DM&P's #Vortex86 SoC's and their #ICOP-branded #SOM|s...

• The main problem was just that many cool ideas they did - like the #Artigo in 5,25" form factor - were never available outside of closed "big" #B2B-only distributors where one needs to first sign up as a client to even be allowed to browse their catalog and have to fax or call to get actual pricing info.

This is why #RaspberryPi (and to an extent #DMP) own the market, as I can literally just order either conveniently online with not much of a hassle.

• The #OpenBook by VIA is one of the inspirations for the #NUCbook, tho that's because #UCFF is actually an Open Standard as it's dimensions and port arrangements are normed, so one can actually support it.

https://github.com/KBtechnologies/nucbook