Hi, I'm olliver from the Linux Sunxi community.
Lets make sure people don't overreact and only see 'They violate GPL hate, run' etc.
First off, yes, they do violate the GPL, but.
For the SoC in this device, the only violating bit is the VPU (Video codec) and they are working on resolving that. Right now, they feel they are in their right, the community dissagree's, but they are trying to work it out.
The bigger question is, what DO we get from Allwinner, or rather what have we, the community, achieved so far.
The A13 used in this device, the sun5i mach, is next to identical to the more commonly known sun4i (A10) and very similar to the better supported sun7i (A20, a dual core cortex-A7 variant). These 3 chips are all very descently supported these days in the mainline! kernel.
Are there things missnig and not perfect in the mainline kernel yet? Of course, there's no VPU, GPU support yet (MALI). The VPU IS reasonably well reverse engineerd however.
Then there is the bootloader, mainline support? YES!
How many cheap SoC's can claim all that.
Can you pop in an SD card and run Kodi from Linux, no; but that's not really the intended market is it? Would we want more support from Allwinner, of course. Is there work still needing to be done? Absolutly. But things are not as bleak and dark as they are made out to be.
TLDR; On the cheap side of things, this SoC is still the most promessing, even though there are set-backs. The community has done a lot of the legwork and while this is a 3 year old SoC, it is well supported now and has a strong community behind it. This kickstarter is offering something valueable, a cheap development platform.
P.S. The HDMI and VGA bits are allready supported on the SoC. The boards they sell are just breakout boards for the pins.
Slashdot Mirror
Hi, I'm olliver from the Linux Sunxi community. Lets make sure people don't overreact and only see 'They violate GPL hate, run' etc. First off, yes, they do violate the GPL, but. For the SoC in this device, the only violating bit is the VPU (Video codec) and they are working on resolving that. Right now, they feel they are in their right, the community dissagree's, but they are trying to work it out. The bigger question is, what DO we get from Allwinner, or rather what have we, the community, achieved so far. The A13 used in this device, the sun5i mach, is next to identical to the more commonly known sun4i (A10) and very similar to the better supported sun7i (A20, a dual core cortex-A7 variant). These 3 chips are all very descently supported these days in the mainline! kernel. Are there things missnig and not perfect in the mainline kernel yet? Of course, there's no VPU, GPU support yet (MALI). The VPU IS reasonably well reverse engineerd however. Then there is the bootloader, mainline support? YES! How many cheap SoC's can claim all that. Can you pop in an SD card and run Kodi from Linux, no; but that's not really the intended market is it? Would we want more support from Allwinner, of course. Is there work still needing to be done? Absolutly. But things are not as bleak and dark as they are made out to be. TLDR; On the cheap side of things, this SoC is still the most promessing, even though there are set-backs. The community has done a lot of the legwork and while this is a 3 year old SoC, it is well supported now and has a strong community behind it. This kickstarter is offering something valueable, a cheap development platform. P.S. The HDMI and VGA bits are allready supported on the SoC. The boards they sell are just breakout boards for the pins.