I love the concept, but those specs and that price point just do not converge for me. I guess enough people found use in this however, since it’s 3x funded now.
I still don’t understand why that board costs $500 when it’s not terribly different from a $50 Beagleboard. $700 for a resistive touchscreen (at least it has a decent resolution) and a bit of stamped aluminum seems a bit much as well.
The point of this is not just “a bigger beagleboard”. It is a DIY open source laptop specifically for hardware engineers and hackers, and the added FPGA hardware is not available on anything else.
I agree that “$700 for an LCD and a bit of aluminium” is a bit much to swallow… but it’s become much better value now that the MyriadRF stretch goal is reached - it’s now $700 for an LCD, a bit of stamped aluminium and a $300 SDR peripheral. I’m on the tier below it, and I’m struggling to decide whether to upgrade (if I still can at this point, with 50min to go.)
It is about x4 the reasonable price - it’s not vastly more functional than a raspberry Pi. I guess it’s an interesting concept and a person worth backing as much as a specific product
If you believe that, then you’re definitely not the target audience for this device, and you absolutely should not buy one. This is specifically a niche device. Claiming that it’s overpriced and underspecced misses the entire point - you’re free to go buy a mass produced laptop if you want and reap the benefits of Chinese labour and economies of scale.
But no other manufacturer is producing something with the features that you’re so blithely claiming are worthless. They’re worthless for you perhaps, but not for me - and I’d end up paying hundreds for an equivalent dev board to get those features anyway.
Your comment doesn’t appear to be a reply; was someone’s comment removed or something? Ctrl-F “worthless” brings me to your comment first; as in, it appears that you’re not just arguing a strawman, you’re arguing with a strawman.
The point isn’t specs. The point is having a hardware device you can hack at completely that’s as close to 100% FLOSS as you can get. Bunnie and Xobs are doing what RMS dare not even dream of.
This is for people who have more money and time or than they know what to do with. or they’re pretty tinfoil hat paranoid(and justifiably so). If you care about your freedoms more than you care about gHz, then this is the machine for you.
I hate to be anal about this. It really IS an awesomely cool project. If I had a lot more time and money, I could see myself enjoying playing with this.
However, it is VERY misleading to call this a “laptop.” When somebody used the phrase “laptop” you expect an all-in-one design with the keyboard under the hinged display. The Novena will not even be able to come close to this form-factor. The best that you can get is a large, clunky tablet with a separate keyboard.
As I said, very cool, and I wish them the best of luck, being an open-source hardware fan. Just don’t call it a “laptop.”
On their crowdfunding page they actually have at least one honest to god laptop. It’s made of wood and costs as much as a decent used car.
The official laptop tier would be better described as a portable computer I think. You wouldn’t be able to use it on your lap very well.
The good thing is that, being open source, there is the option to build it yourself if you can do so at a lower cost. The fun is to remix the design or expand it
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