I can imagine this little ARM board can pretty much do everything that the huge stonking great PC under my desk does for me.
Back in the day the little cheap micro-processors, and Intel started much of that, displaced minicomputers. They were not so fast and powerful and perhaps had less memory and I/O capability. But hey, they were dead cheap and useful and soon everybody had one.
Once we get away from the "I need Windows for my software" hence "I need Intel for my Windows" mentality then we are in a whole new world where small, low power and cheap rules.
I'm not saying the "Wintel" PC is going away very soon. But the writing is on the walls as it was for the PDP/11 back in 1976.
Well, actually Apple ][s ran SuperCalc for about $2K. It replaced financial models on minis and mainframes that cost $20K (software), ground the minis/mainframes to almost a halt, and took forever to calculate. That was the writing on the wall, way before the IBM PC.
But hey, yes - it was Intel & msoft that keeped upping the ante requiring more powerful processors to control the bloat (both in software and hardware - yes, the x86 is loaded with old backwards compatibility too). Now a lot of what is being done doesn't require the power any more.
The best buy for a tiny *nix box has got to be the MK802 II for ~$50. It comes in a USB style dongle with an HDMI connector, 2xUSB plus a uUSB connector for power, and a uSD card, plus WIFi. The processor is an Allwinner A10 (cortex A8) plus a MALI GPU and 1GB DDR3 ram. This should make a fine platform for prop development.
I have an Asus EEEpc for my portable/field work computer and I love it so much that when my wife's ca. 2002 desktop tower died I bought her one, and she loves hers. Another friend spilled a full glass of red wine on hers and, while it permanently ruined the keyboard (couldn't get it to stop feeding phantom keystrokes no matter how many times I cleaned it) in the end I just unplugged it and she uses it with an external keyboard. I have never had a problem with mine except for a virus hosing (fixed by running the restore DVD, since I got it with XP when they still supplied those). I regard it as being disposable past the warranty replacement date, and I consider it serious lagniappe if a dropped computer survives at all. Some of the places I take mine are high risk for electronics of any kind so lighter and cheaper is best.
Meanwhile my personal 15-inch Dell laptop has needed 2 batteries even though it's hardly ever run on battery power and 2 LCD backlight inverters in 3 years.
yes, the x86 is loaded with old backwards compatibility too...
The latest IvyBridge processor have finally dropped support for the A20 gate. So, that means they will fail to run some ancient DOS programs natively, and will require a level of emulation by a higher level OS.
I also have an ASUS Eeee Netbook. Even with Windows 7 Starter on it I still love this thing, especially since I got it for under $300.00. I believe it was $269.00 with free shipping when I bought it last year. The first thing I did was upgraded the RAM and have used it ever since both in my living room and on the road. I like that it has Bluetooth and when not by a Wi-Fi hotspot I can connect to my phone and use it"s Internet connection. It does everything I need it too and the small footprint helps when traveling.
It is a bit dated at this point, but in 2010 when I was getting ready to start a travel binge I bought an HP Mini 110 which still serves me well and does everything I ask from the usual Office stuff to PCB design and Prop work. It has been around the world a couple of times, suffered drops and "bag hits" that would have killed my 17" laptop and when doing field work on my Prop projects I can't think of anything that would work better with its 'almost full size keys' keyboard and 10.1" screen. I still work on it almost every day.
And it plays Civilization 4 which was VERY important for those long plane flights.
Been playing with the PI. Did see that 89 other unit. But when you start to total up cost and some restrictions on it. Is not that good of a deal.
But as some reviewers have stated about the Stick type units. They are not really a developers unit. It just adds Android to a TV.
Am slowly building up the PI to be a internet radio station. Running regular LAMP + add on to handles special PHP stuff. Storage is a 32GB SDHC with over 22GB of show/music programs. Using icecast/ezstream for two of the streamingside. Doing this to replace the current "Station" which is a PC running W2k and Winbase icecast-ezstream with custom program management play time control setup.
And also using it to get better skills on Linux, php, etc.
Comments
Well, actually Apple ][s ran SuperCalc for about $2K. It replaced financial models on minis and mainframes that cost $20K (software), ground the minis/mainframes to almost a halt, and took forever to calculate. That was the writing on the wall, way before the IBM PC.
But hey, yes - it was Intel & msoft that keeped upping the ante requiring more powerful processors to control the bloat (both in software and hardware - yes, the x86 is loaded with old backwards compatibility too). Now a lot of what is being done doesn't require the power any more.
The best buy for a tiny *nix box has got to be the MK802 II for ~$50. It comes in a USB style dongle with an HDMI connector, 2xUSB plus a uUSB connector for power, and a uSD card, plus WIFi. The processor is an Allwinner A10 (cortex A8) plus a MALI GPU and 1GB DDR3 ram. This should make a fine platform for prop development.
Oh and let's not forget VisiCalc whilst we are recounting early PC history.
Meanwhile my personal 15-inch Dell laptop has needed 2 batteries even though it's hardly ever run on battery power and 2 LCD backlight inverters in 3 years.
And it plays Civilization 4 which was VERY important for those long plane flights.
But as some reviewers have stated about the Stick type units. They are not really a developers unit. It just adds Android to a TV.
Am slowly building up the PI to be a internet radio station. Running regular LAMP + add on to handles special PHP stuff. Storage is a 32GB SDHC with over 22GB of show/music programs. Using icecast/ezstream for two of the streamingside. Doing this to replace the current "Station" which is a PC running W2k and Winbase icecast-ezstream with custom program management play time control setup.
And also using it to get better skills on Linux, php, etc.