4 ms·

> If you want to support proper open source development ... buy Beagle board and other alternatives. What more open alternatives are there with similar price a

> If you want to support proper open source development ... buy Beagle board and other alternatives. What more open alternatives are there with similar price and performance? The Beagleboards are ridiculously underpowered compared to a Raspberry Pi 4. I like the ODROIDs but I don't think they're any more open than Raspberry Pi. They also tend to be more expensive. YMMV on all of this stuff: * Some folks are doing microcontroller-esque things and care about openness more than performance. * For my applications, I need the performance. The sort of open hardware, no blob stuff you're talking about would be great on principle but I may or may not take advantage of it. I'm still able to run and develop open-source Linux userspace apps without it.

rektide 6y ago
Odroid series come with a wide variety of chips. The Amlogic S905X3 has good upstream support (largely via a very active volunteer community) & is on their Odroid-C4. If performance is your top concern, you should stick with x86. There's no ARM gear with anywhere near the bang/$ of an Odroid H2+, which is an rpi-like $120 x86 single-board system. It is fantastically well supported by the cpu vendor.
- scottlamb 6y ago
  The ODROID H2+ is perfect for one of my applications, with the extra CPU power, second NIC, included real-time clock, onboard SATA and an official case option that fits 2 3.5" drives, and onboard eMMC socket. $120 [edit: plus RAM cost] rather than $35 is a whole other price category though.
  - ausjke 6y ago
    at that price range why not just go all the way to mini-itx, when you hook SATA etc you will need a larger case with some cooling space inside, mini-itx seems to be a much more practical option then, a quick search found https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813157930 https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813157930 there are many to choose from actually. or just nano-itx, both are easier to get cases and power supplies etc.
    - scottlamb 6y ago
      I think we're getting more and more expensive. The Raspberry Pi 4 made a lot of deliberate trade-offs to stay at $35. Going to the ODROID-H2+ means paying another $85 plus (I forgot this in the parent) RAM cost. Then going to a "real mini-itx" board probably means paying for a "real" mini-ITX case and power supply. It'll be nicer for sure but there's significant price creep. Looks like the CPU isn't included either. The ODROID-H2 Case Type 1 has a fan and space for two 3.5" drives for $20. The ODROID-H2 power supply costs $9.40. I'll be astonished if anything compatible with that ASRock board will match that.
  - StillBored 6y ago
    Sure but the rpi's can be quite price misleading. If you go pick them up at your local retail store that carries them its frequently a $120 date by the time case, heat sink, powersupply, and disk are thrown in. The base cost for the 8G rpi is something like $70, Then you still have to figure out what to do about the missing RTC, SATA, whatever, for a lot of applications. So, yes its obvious that the $35 model (which at a minimum is really more like $45 because its not usable without a powersupply and maybe SD card) is sufficient for a lot of things. But its also being wedged into places where its not $35 anymore and in those cases its fair to compare with more expensive boards if those boards come with features that someone is adding a hat or external device for.
    - scottlamb 6y ago
      That's true for the ODROID H2+ too—you need to add in the power supply, case, eMMC, battery, SATA cables, and also RAM. (I forgot to mention RAM in the parent, so the difference is more like $85 + whatever you pay for RAM.)
ar-jan 6y ago
Orange Pi looks pretty good
- pishpash 6y ago
  And Banana Pi, better designed hardware. Lots of alternatives.
MayeulC 6y ago
Pine64's offering is pretty good, and they are all-in into open source, although their boards might be a bit less competitive now that the RPi4 is out. the Rockpro64 for instance has a PCIe connector. https://www.pine64.org/ https://www.pine64.org/ https://www.pine64.org/rockpro64/ https://www.pine64.org/rockpro64/ http://wiki.pine64.org/index.php?title=ROCKPro64 http://wiki.pine64.org/index.php?title=ROCKPro64

rektide 6y ago

Odroid series come with a wide variety of chips. The Amlogic S905X3 has good upstream support (largely via a very active volunteer community) & is on their Odroid-C4. If performance is your top concern, you should stick with x86. There's no ARM gear with anywhere near the bang/$ of an Odroid H2+, which is an rpi-like $120 x86 single-board system. It is fantastically well supported by the cpu vendor.

scottlamb 6y ago
The ODROID H2+ is perfect for one of my applications, with the extra CPU power, second NIC, included real-time clock, onboard SATA and an official case option that fits 2 3.5" drives, and onboard eMMC socket. $120 [edit: plus RAM cost] rather than $35 is a whole other price category though.
- ausjke 6y ago
  at that price range why not just go all the way to mini-itx, when you hook SATA etc you will need a larger case with some cooling space inside, mini-itx seems to be a much more practical option then, a quick search found https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813157930 https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813157930 there are many to choose from actually. or just nano-itx, both are easier to get cases and power supplies etc.
  - scottlamb 6y ago
    I think we're getting more and more expensive. The Raspberry Pi 4 made a lot of deliberate trade-offs to stay at $35. Going to the ODROID-H2+ means paying another $85 plus (I forgot this in the parent) RAM cost. Then going to a "real mini-itx" board probably means paying for a "real" mini-ITX case and power supply. It'll be nicer for sure but there's significant price creep. Looks like the CPU isn't included either. The ODROID-H2 Case Type 1 has a fan and space for two 3.5" drives for $20. The ODROID-H2 power supply costs $9.40. I'll be astonished if anything compatible with that ASRock board will match that.
- StillBored 6y ago
  Sure but the rpi's can be quite price misleading. If you go pick them up at your local retail store that carries them its frequently a $120 date by the time case, heat sink, powersupply, and disk are thrown in. The base cost for the 8G rpi is something like $70, Then you still have to figure out what to do about the missing RTC, SATA, whatever, for a lot of applications. So, yes its obvious that the $35 model (which at a minimum is really more like $45 because its not usable without a powersupply and maybe SD card) is sufficient for a lot of things. But its also being wedged into places where its not $35 anymore and in those cases its fair to compare with more expensive boards if those boards come with features that someone is adding a hat or external device for.
  - scottlamb 6y ago
    That's true for the ODROID H2+ too—you need to add in the power supply, case, eMMC, battery, SATA cables, and also RAM. (I forgot to mention RAM in the parent, so the difference is more like $85 + whatever you pay for RAM.)

ar-jan 6y ago

Orange Pi looks pretty good

pishpash 6y ago
And Banana Pi, better designed hardware. Lots of alternatives.

MayeulC 6y ago

Pine64's offering is pretty good, and they are all-in into open source, although their boards might be a bit less competitive now that the RPi4 is out. the Rockpro64 for instance has a PCIe connector. https://www.pine64.org/ https://www.pine64.org/ https://www.pine64.org/rockpro64/ https://www.pine64.org/rockpro64/ http://wiki.pine64.org/index.php?title=ROCKPro64 http://wiki.pine64.org/index.php?title=ROCKPro64