Really cool modular, "Earth-friendly" computer (EOMA68)

[onpon4]

This is a crowdfunding campaign that launched recently:

https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop

It's for EOMA68, a standard for more modular, "Earth-friendly" computers. The idea is you have a "computer card" which has the actual processor in it, and you plug that into a case which could be a desktop case, a laptop case, a tablet case, or anything else you can think of. To start with, a wooden mini desktop computer and a 15" laptop are available, as is an ARM computer card decent enough for general use (like Web browsing and document editing). If the campaign reaches its goal, more types of cases can be made available (tablet, handheld game console, etc), as can more powerful computer cards.

There are so many things that are super neat about this project. Just a few examples:

* It makes upgrades much cheaper: rather than having to get a whole new laptop for hundreds of dollars, you just get a new computer card for maybe $50 or so (depending on the card, of course). Everything that doesn't need to be upgraded can be kept.

* It can give computer users more choices, since you can combine whatever computer card is best for you with whatever case is best for you.

* Everything is libre. So, for example, you can change the case design and 3-D print your modified case, if you are so inclined.

* It adds possibilities for how you can use your computer(s). You could have your OS stored on the computer card and use effectively the same computer in multiple forms depending on what you're doing. Or alternatively, you could have your OS stored in e.g. a laptop case and upgrade your computer card without having to reinstall the OS. Or, since the computer cards are reasonably cheap, you could have different computer cards for different tasks, for example.

I of course backed this project right away when I found out about it. I really hope it succeeds!

[Truhan]

So let me see...

$65 for a computer card.
$500 for the laptop casing
When I'm looking to replace a $600 laptop from 2009.

All I can say is

[Zephyr_DragonLord]

This looks rather promising so far. While I don't have too much money to throw at crowdfunding sources right now, I hope this succeeds in meeting its goal. Looking at the progress meter, I think it will. Sharing this with us is still rather smart, as we are in a need for a computing revolution that's environmentally sound.

[Mata Hari]

If you're looking at the website you already have a computer

[Truhan]

If you're looking at the website you already have a computer

Yeah, but, you know. It's an interesting concept, since you could put the thing in a tablet or laptop case (if the cases didn't literally cost more than a Windows PC). I can't imagine anyone in their right mind ever using one of these for a desktop. Also, one could be perusing the website from a phone.

[onpon4]

If you're looking at the website you already have a computer

You do upgrade occasionally, don't you? It would be quite an achievement to be using the same computer forever and never have to get a faster processor or anything like that. ;)

That's one of the really neat things about this design: its modular nature means you aren't throwing away a ton of perfectly good components just because you want a faster processor. You can get a computer card (at a much lower cost) and keep using the same case you were using before. And the case can be repaired modularly as well, so for example if you just have a crack in the plastic, you can 3-D print a replacement while keeping everything else.

This also means you'd be able to afford more frequent upgrades.

I can't imagine anyone in their right mind ever using one of these for a desktop.

Personally, I'm planning on making this my primary computer: the desktop housing when I'm at home or when I want to do something on the TV, and the laptop housing when I'm on the go. (My current laptop can be repurposed for gaming that the A20 card can't handle.)

Here's a huge reason to use this as your (non-gaming) desktop computer instead of whatever you're using now: ever since 2010, every Intel CPU refuses to run without a proprietary program that literally makes it possible for Intel to do anything to your system, including reading the entirety of your system RAM. Since 2013, every AMD CPU is similarly backdoored. You can read more about them here:

https://libreboot.org/faq/#intelme
https://libreboot.org/faq/#amdpsp

The Libre Tea computer card has no such malicious features in it. If this campaign succeeds, it will be the first newly manufactured computer to be given the Free Software Foundation's "Respects Your Freedom" certification. So that means: this is a computer that you can trust, unlike any modern x86 computer, and that doesn't restrict what you can do with it, unlike many tablets and phones.

This is the top reason why I'm planning on switching to this computer even though my laptop hasn't reached the end of its life yet (and relegating my current laptop to gaming only).

[Truhan]

Sorry onpon, but 8 GB just isn't enough internal memory to justify that. I don't care if AMD and Intel are watching my RAMs being used while I watch porn, it's more important that I have enough space to download it all. That's not even taking into account that I literally use my desktop for almost nothing but gaming. I would think the reason the desktop set is selling so well is because the laptop casing is unreasonably high in price. If the fully assembled case was something like $200, I can imagine it outselling the desktop set and pushing the funding as a whole far higher. As it stands, this is cheaper, higher powered, has a respectable amount of internal memory, and is coming from a company that overprices their (sometimes literal) shit. I'm not saying I hope this fails, by any means, but they should have seriously reconsidered the pricing and/or assembly of those laptop cases.

[onpon4]

The prices couldn't have been lower for this, unfortunately, at least not for the first run; Dell manages to achieve those prices because they can order extremely high volume, and a small project like this can't do that. The OpenPandora had the same problem, and severely underestimating what they would pay nearly led to the failure of that project. (The Pyra fixed this problem; of course, though, that means that it costs roughly $700.)

It sucks, but oh well. The good news is, over the long run, you still save money by reusing the same laptop housing when you upgrade your computer card. (Example: if you normally buy $300 laptops every 3 years, that's $1500 over the course of 15 years, but that same upgrade frequency for EOMA68 cards with a single $500 housing at a cost of $65 per card is $825.)

EDIT: By the way, worth mentioning: the internal 8GB NAND can be bypassed if you put the OS on a microSD card instead (and either ignore the NAND or use it for additional storage). This is probably what I'm going to do, ultimately. Just to point out that while the amount of storage the Libre Tea card has built-in is only 8 GB, you're not exactly stuck with that amount. ;)

[onpon4]

Lots of updates have happened.

Of note:

* It is now possible to order a set of cables to use a computer card without any housing at all (so that you can use it like one of those various single-board computers). These cables can also be used to add an extra USB port and a second monitor if you do use a housing.

* It is now possible to order a "passthrough card", which lets you use the laptop housing with some other computer. So, you could e.g. plug it into your phone and use your phone like a laptop, or you could use your laptop housing for a powerful desktop computer (rather than having a keyboard, monitor, speakers, and mouse specifically for that desktop computer), and use the less powerful computer card on-the-go. Future housings could give more possibilities, e.g. you could use a portable game console housing as a regular game controller with this thing.

* Versions of the computer card installed with Fedora or Devuan are now available. (I find the Devuan card to be rather silly, because Devuan is silly, but whatever.)

Also, there's a video here of the computer being demonstrated to someone at a conference:

https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micr ... /hope-2016

As of the writing of this post, it's 38% funded, and 25 days are left. :)

[onpon4]

With 36 hours to go, it looks like this is going to be really close!

https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop

[Truhan]

With 36 hours to go, it looks like this is going to be really close!

https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop

It's funded.

[onpon4]

More accurately, the goal was reached (it'll actually get funded when the campaign ends). ;) But yeah, the campaign is a success! :D