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Remix Mini Review: a $70 Android Desktop PC (liliputing.com)
walterbyrd writes: Earlier this year, Jide released a 2-in-1 tablet called the Remix Ultra, which shipped with a custom version of Android called Remix OS. The software features a taskbar, a desktop, support for keyboard shortcuts, and support for running many apps either in full-screen mode or in smaller windows. The Remix Ultra tablet comes with a keyboard cover and touchpad, allowing you to use it like a laptop — and it worked... kind of. But the Remix Ultra is also kind of expensive. Now Jide is offering something much more affordable: the Jide Remix Mini is basically a small, low-power desktop computer that ships with Remix OS. After running a successful Kickstarter campaign to raise money (and awareness) this fall, Jide is now shipping the Remix Mini to customers.
I got one of these from the Kickstarter campaign. It works reasonably well. I haven't tried to do much with it, but as a tiny desktop computer it's OK.
I had initial problems getting the display to work, because my monitor (a Benq GW1255) only accepted 1080p on its HDMI interface and the Remix output 720p. I first connected the Remix to a monitor that could handle 720p and changed the Remix's display settings, but I finally ended up getting a HDMI to VGA connector (from Amazon by CableMaster, about $10) and it now works fine.
I use the Remix just for playing around. It prints fine with a Brother driver over my wifi to a 2360DW.
I use my Apple keyboard (wired) with its attached trackball via USB, and they both work without any problems.
So far, I like it.
(Wow - I sure haven't posted in a loooooong time - look at my sig)
This is the Constitution.This is the Constitution under the Bush administration. Any questions?
I saw Android 2-in-1s going for 80 last week. And Win10 2-in-1s starting at $100. And those include display/keyboard/trackpad so they're ready to go out of the box. They're not amazingly powerful but neither is this thing. Why would I pay $70 for something in the same class that lacks input devices, a display, and a battery? $25 tops.
Do you get linux drivers for it?, I mean without 3D acceleration (OpenGL) and without wifi but with wired ethernet still it would be fine ; but if you get a blank screen it's not nice and what such a device maybe lacks is a RS232 port that gives a serial console. I may be unfair here : Mali GPU do get some support but what about the specific SoC?
If you intend to get a GNU userland running under Android thus negating most driver concerns, then why not, but the underlying Android OS will probably not get timely security updates.
For all the petty dislikes I may have against the Raspberry Pis, they do get huge community support so you can run straight GNU/Linux or even BSD or other.
ODROID have some favorable reputation. Banana Pi?
Some PC hardware is not far at all in price (486 + BIOS or Atom + UEFI).
Some complete 20 euro solution without special tricks would be great if we just want it to respond to pings, ssh and serve static or better html. I guess we'll get there eventually.
Android computers are a bit like CP/M of old : they run the same software but CP/M machines needed their own custom BIOS (and warts of the time such as a hundred different floppy formats). End result you get a CP/M version tailored to your hardware and floppy. With MS-DOS machines except early ones the BIOS were compatible (and we ended up with 360KB floppy, 1.2MB, 720kB etc.) so you ran unmodified OS on unmodified machines of any vendor. I think we may get there : we'll have ARM + UEFI little boxes like we have x86 + UEFI ones. (and even MIPS + UEFI, etc.)
We do have it easy even in the current situation because a lot of things are extremely standardized : USB, eMMC, SD, ethernet, Wifi, HDMI, VGA, PCIe. File systems too. It's beautiful that things can be used without special consideration.
Sorry, but Android is totally unusable as a desktop operating system. (And I'm not saying that it's particularly usable on phones either.)
But how about installing some good GNU/Linux on it? Does it run?
Exactly. Android and iOS are significantly handicapped because they are designed to work on a phone with almost no resources available. iOS bascially tries to not have a file system at all. Android is missing critical things like the ability to mount a network share. Sure you can access them through apps, but I'd rather just have any application be able to read files from the network transparently.
This is the reason that even for tablets I think that iOS and Android are useless. Sure they may work most of the time, but when I need to do something more advanced, they fall flat. Simple features are missing that would be present in any modern desktop OS.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Was going to load up RemixOS on a VM to try it out, looked at the website found this:
Disclaimer: Remix OS is only licensed to authorized business partners and pre-loaded on specific product models of those partners;it's not intended for personal use.
I know they have their part of the software that doesn't have to be GPL, but the rest has to be released. Scrutinize....
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