tech - God bless the AMD

The Pi is a good embedded stuff thing, but it's a pretty soykaf computer. If you want a good mobile computer, I'd go for at least a Banana Pi, or a converted tablet.

But, for features? Try to find a way to make the OS Storage something that isn't an SD card. They're unreliable in my experience and easy to brick. An SSD with SATA would be ideal.

>>13358
I can make the pi boot from USB storage.

You are right though, the pi is soykaf at being a general purpose computer even the pi2, I currently use a soykafty 2009 hp netbook running slackware so the Pi2 would still be an upgrade haha.

>>13353
the pi is not at all open.
you need some closed source soykaf to even boot it.
also the specs are shitty. if you want a cheap laptop go for a used one.

>1366x768 resolution

No thanks.

>>13358
I can make the pi boot from USB storage.

You are right though, the pi is soykaf at being a general purpose computer even the pi2, I currently use a soykafty 2009 hp netbook running slackware so the Pi2 would still be an upgrade haha.
>>13366
Neither is my shitty hp netbook, I can't even install a different wifi card because of bios whitelist. I have plenty of cheap old laptops laying around... battery life is shit, 4 hours max, they are heavy and they run hot.

I'm looking for a laptop I can upgrade, hack, get 12 hours battery life, maybe install an SDR inside it so I'm not carrying more crap with me.

>>13377
get a librebooted x200 w/ a 9 cell battery and throw an SSD and some more RAM in there. AFAIK there's a spare miniPCIe slot which you might be able to stick an SDR in.

>>13378
Seriously not a fan of x86, it is an ugly architecture, however the x200 is an excellent computer!
HackRF + X200 + Slackware + XFCE

>>13379
>Seriously not a fan of x86, it is an ugly architecture
Are you writing assembly code?

>>13379
>>13378
Hell yes, Thinkpad + Slackware is the best thing I ever did. Although I'm using stock boot ATM.

>>13377
If you want to do anything wifi related with that hp, you can actually fix the whitelist. I had to do that with mine. You can extract the bios, change one of the vendor, product and subsys ids to match your card and flash it.
SDR sounds great, otherwise I'm not too sure what else you would put in it.

So would this be a good disposable computer? I'm trying to find the cheapest possible with the best specs I can get

>>13391
Chromebook loaded with arch you should be able to get one for under 100$.
http://motherboard.vice.com/en_ca/read/hackers-activists-journos-how-to-build-a-secure-burner-laptop

>>13380
Not him, but I do. When I had to switch from ARM to x86, I seriously thought that my job sucked.
x86 never was a good design and it's age doesn't improve anything.

>>13380
Planning to, really into embedded electronics and micro-controllers.
Learning C, Java and Python at the moment for Uni, mainly Java, Python is in my own time.

>>13384
Slackware is great isn't it.

>>13389
Apparently not that straight forward, I have removed whitelists and unlocked other HP BIOS' however this one seems to be obfuscated.

>>13391
That's about right!

>>13394
Chromebook isn't upgradeable;
>wifi
>battery
>RAM (doesn't concern me as much)
Also most do not have enough USB ports and none are durable enough for carting around all day.

>>13404
x86 does suck, it's boated crap that was meant to make programming easier for assembly coders but it just promotes big companies to churn out poor code.

MIPS > ARM > other RISC > X86

>>13391
If you want the cheapest possible with the best specs, look into used laptops. They're trying to charge you $300 for this while you can get 4 T61 thinkpads for that price.

This computer seems to be a laptop for kids, to learn about electronics and soykaf.

If you hate x86 THAT much, get an ARM chromebook or an android phone or tablet


And you don't need a $300 piece of plastic to use a $30 device. The only things you'll need to use it is a screen and a keyboard, which you would have to try to surpass the $300 price point.

Don't buy this. There are hundreds of laptops under $300 that are more powerful, regardless of soykaffy architecture

>>13450
Wasn't going to buy the pi-top, you are right it is overpriced for what it is, I just wanted to get an opinion on what you guys think using a device like it would be like.

I'm really tempted to build my own from scratch, RISC boards with expansion options that suit my needs aren't that great though.

>>13448
Making programming easier ? How ? The mul instruction has hard-coded input registers. Seriously, why ? Who thought this was ok ?

Never did some MIPS however, how does it look like compared to ARM ?

>>13353
This looks pretty awesome to hack at, if only the driver board had LVDS or VGA instead of HDMI only, then you could add whatever the fuarrrk you wanted inside of it, I'd love to have this just to swap out various dev boards.

Laptopify Minix3 or OpenBSD on a Beaglebone Black.