A Guide on Your Options for non-x86 Computers (2017)

[commodorejohn]

That's kinda what I suspected. Really though I should just get my Orange Pi setup rolling, only there's a lot of BS involved in getting it to work with monitors that are *gasp* *shock* not 1080p.

Well, anyway, I did manage to get this far, in that I got Debian rolling with a boot script that delivers an absurdly paltry 800x480 resolution but at least that can be upscaled to fit on my 1280x1024 monitors. Now I just need to see about purging systemd and figure out how to get it to use the actual resolution of my monitor...

One of these days I should just take some time and build a gorram proper laptop out of plywood, a decent keyboard and trackball, and a passable SBC. All the extra room in the case can be taken up by batteries or something.

[bifo]

That's kinda what I suspected. Really though I should just get my Orange Pi setup rolling, only there's a lot of BS involved in getting it to work with monitors that are *gasp* *shock* not 1080p.

Well, anyway, I did manage to get this far, in that I got Debian rolling with a boot script that delivers an absurdly paltry 800x480 resolution but at least that can be upscaled to fit on my 1280x1024 monitors. Now I just need to see about purging systemd and figure out how to get it to use the actual resolution of my monitor...

One of these days I should just take some time and build a gorram proper laptop out of plywood, a decent keyboard and trackball, and a passable SBC. All the extra room in the case can be taken up by batteries or something.

motorola used to make a 'lapdock' that works with raspberry pi boards, probably orange pi too. it's not a pretty solution but it's not too expensive and works out of the box with the right cables http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R4 ... k&_sacat=0

[praetor242]

Sunway Taihulight is NOT Alpha based, I would know as I was in China, did some research there.

Yummy. Did you get to play with it?

[Raion-Fox]

No, I did meet an engineer who did some work on it however. I also inquired if Shenwei would build an Alpha based PC. The answer? They'd need at least 50-100k units at around $1,000 for the bare board including CPU but no RAM.

[praetor242]

That's actually not too bad for a board with that sort of beastly processor. I mean, those PPC boards are like 2 grand. I'm sure they could get the units if they did it.

[bifo]

No, I did meet an engineer who did some work on it however. I also inquired if Shenwei would build an Alpha based PC. The answer? They'd need at least 50-100k units at around $1,000 for the bare board including CPU but no RAM.

they should drop VSI a line, given the continuing use of alphas for mission critical VMS applications and the dead-ending of itanium they could easily push that in partnership with a server reseller in the west if it ran VMS. so long as it's a properly made alpha it'll still be preferred over the upcoming x86-64 VMS conversion, although that will include an interpreter for alpha applications on initial release according to VSI. $1500-2000 is basically commodity server pricing anyway, and the interpreter may not be reliable out of the gate as it's totally new tech for x86-64 they're spinning up in-house.

[ClassicHasClass]

motorola used to make a 'lapdock' that works with raspberry pi boards

The Atrix dock will work with pretty much anything you can hack to plug into it. I have one for an old RPi which I use as a RISC OS laptop.

Speaking of, the Pinebook is now taking orders if you already registered. I picked up the $89 11".

[commodorejohn]

The Pinebook would be interesting to me if it weren't yet another goddamn Chromebook with the fucking clickpad and chiclet keyboard. Ye gods.

[Y888099]

RISC OS laptop

do you use DDE ?

[ClassicHasClass]

The Pinebook would be interesting to me if it weren't yet another goddamn Chromebook with the fucking clickpad and chiclet keyboard. Ye gods.

I'm looking at it as a portable RPi-type unit with internal hackability. I already have an Exynos Chromebook (it's in its box gathering dust). At $89 it was worth a spin.

do you use DDE ?

No, it's just to play with. I don't do any development on it.

[praetor242]

RiscOS is so....weird. It's like this OS/2-ey, Mac OS weird combobulation. Does anyone actually do any serious work with it. I know it is/was big in the UK.

[japes]

Pinebook huh, I got in on the PINE64 initial kickstarter and it was....bumpy. It took two additional emails to get all my bits. Are they really in a position to be successful with a $100 laptop? I mean I'd drop a $100 on one to play with...but I don't feel like their product was supported very well and they must have lost a huge wad of money on the PINE64 boards and add-ons.

[ClassicHasClass]

I'm not sure how sustainable it is either. I was actually willing to buy two (my wife wants to play with Linux), but they only let you buy one, so we got one and we'll share it.

Meanwhile, I have a line on a decent RiscPC and I'm trying to talk myself out of it. (233MHz StrongARM, Ethernet pre-installed.)

[Raion-Fox]

Don't torture yourself Classic. I'm sure your wife has her own collections of stuff you can justify the purchase :p based on.

My girlfriend for instance has an entire commercial class studio I made her pay for since her painting and drawing left messes on my hard wood floors of this house I'm renting. She also has around 50 pairs of shoes and takes up a room's worth for her clothing. So every time she balks at my synth or vintage computer or other purchases I just remind her she's paying $650 for a studop AND taking up just as much space even then in my own house and that usually ends any debates on my end, especially since I keep my hobbies out if the bedroom​ and in my office/workbench. But she's pleased that the PDP-10 is out of our garage (no, it wasn't mine. I was holding it for a friend.) So arguments have been to a minimum recently

[Adrenaline]

They're not worth your time. Qualcomm's ARM offerings outwin them in speed and driver support.

I'll second that - I got one thinking it would be comparable to ARM offerings, but was largely disappointed.