Will soon start selling single-board computers with Trisquel preloaded
I will soon start selling single-board computers with Trisquel preloaded:
Those with minor flaws include the Pine64 ROCKPro64 - Rockchip RK3399 Cortex A72 / A53 + 4GB RAM which has a usable GPU. I'm also working on a Guix Port for this machine.
The BeagleBone has a serious flaw, its GPU does not work with free software. But I use it with an FPGA cape for GPU prototyping and other things.
I won't sell the Raspberry Pi until the reverse engineering of its Microsoft ThreadX based firmware is completed. I want to fix its fatal flaws.
At the end of my LibrePlanet talk I will announce another hardware project with Respects Your Freedom Certification in mind.
I am a member!
Amazing! I'm really looking forward to see the talk on LibrePlanet!
Are you going to have a storefront? Where and how will you be selling these?
Thank you for that information, megurineturilli.
I think
https://github.com/OLIMEX/OLINUXINO
also may have some free as in freedom hardware designs that anyone can build and sell.
Though I do not know if all or any of these in this repository can work with only freedom supporting software.
Part of the Readme shows
OLINUXINO is completely open source - including hardware and software, this means you have access to all CAD files and sources and you
can reuse them for your own personal or commercial project. There are NO restrictions to manufacture and sell these board for your own
use or resale, just keep credits that your board is based on OLinuXino design and make sure to change the silkscreen to not confuse people that you are selling original OLinuXino.
Though I do not know if one of these boards can run Trisquel, or if all of these count as single-board computers.
I think there may be 20 hardware designs in the repository.
I did not check the source code, or hardware for bugs or other problems yet though.
https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/single-board-computers
shows in part
Rockchip devices, particularly based on the RK3288 or RK3399 chips, are usable with free software. Accelerated video encoding/decoding is supported with free software, with upstream support on-going via the "hantro" driver. These Rockchip devices have Mali GPUs supported via the free Lima and Panfrost drivers. Display out over type-C requires a proprietary firmware on RK3399, but HDMI may be used instead. Wake-on-word functionality with the RK3399 DSP may require a proprietary firmware.
Boards based on the FreeScale i.MX6 platform are almost entirely functional in freedom. The i.MX6 uses the free boot firmware U-Boot and does not enforce signature checks. The Vivante GPU is supported via the free etnaviv driver. The only major component which is not usable with a free software stack is the VPU for accelerated video decoding, which requires non-free firmware uploaded to it at run-time. This task can be done in free software on the CPU instead.
Allwinner Axx and R8 platforms come in many popular GNU/Linux boards. Be aware that Allwinner is notorious for GPL violations; consider this when making a purchase. Accelerated video encoding/decoding is supported with free software on these Allwinner VPUs through the Cedrus project. 2D acceleration is supported with free software with Xorg. These chips use an Utgard series Mali GPU, well-supported via the free Lima driver. Likewise, the Mali T720 in the Allwinner H64 is supported via the free Panfrost driver.
I do not know about Rockchip devices or the FreeScale i.MX6 platform, but I think if anyone can make OLINUXINO computers, than the problems with Allwinner can be avoided if people find another company or person to make that computer, if most OLINUXINO computer designs or parts are made by Allwinner now, though I do not know.
Than many companies or people can hopefully make free as in freedom hardware as well as software.
It could be nice if anyone can build there own computer without buying it from a company, though people can also buy computers made by you, megurineturilli, if you can also make them.
I do not know if these computer designs can be 3d printed, or if there are other freedom supporting hardware and software to make the computer parts yet.
If you're planning on selling them online and offering shipping to Canada i'd be a customer of yours. Best of luck regardless !