Hi,

I have both a pinebook pro as well as several core2duo Lenovo Thinkpads (such as X200) and also considered getting an MNT Reform. Overall, I think that the MNT Reform is a great project and I hope they will be able to reuse most stuff (such as the case) for a future model with a different PCB. In particular, I am hoping for RISC-V using one of the SiFive cores that are already almost available for Mini-ITX desktops:

https://www.crowdsupply.com/sifive/hifive-unmatched

When considering ARM64, both the rk3399 and NXP's LS1088A might be an option. The LS1088A is used in this box which I find interesting as well:

https://www.crowdsupply.com/traverse-technologies/ten64

However, the rk3399 has the issue that it needs a blob for DDR4 training, but this afaik applies to the current MNT Reform as well. Future Rockchip SoCs might be interesting as well, but if you consider that the pinebook pro still does not run an official version of Debian or Devuan shows that new SoCs really need some time for being supported well enough without tons of unofficial patches.

When comparing performance, I found geekbench.com to be an interesting option as it supports multiple architectures. So, if you want to compare the a typical Core2Duo P8600 with the RK3399 the data looks roughly like this:

P8600: 250 (single), 500 (multi)
RK3399: 250 (single), 700 (multi)
iMX8MQ: (unfortunately not benchmarked)

So YES, the rk3399 is almost as fast as an P8600. BTW: The fastest libre x86 option from the core2duo generation is a quadcore CPU in a T400 or T500 (requires some modding):

Q9000: 300 (single), 1000 (mutli)

However, if you consider running a "me cleaned" X230 with an i7 CPU as a viable option as well you will notice that the X230 is still waaay faster (not talking about quadcore i7 in a W530):

i7-3620M: 650 (single), 1500 (multi)

Overall, I am pretty optimistic that we will see some very interesting new options in 2021 and 2022 both based on ARM64 and RISC-V. Regarding PPC64LE (POWER9, POWER10), I am not that optimistic, at least for mobile.

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Erm, not sure. Tracking the cache, perhaps?

I asked startpage.com and it said https://www.noulakaz.net/2019/04/09/dis … t-need-it/

and therein is the answer. This is why i dislike where gnome is heading.

Rod wrote:

Is it? I think this is a better answer...

Thanks Ron

manyroads wrote:

I personally keep my wine secure in the cellar...

In a nutshell:

Dont use "Wine", Use "Windows" in a non personal computer.

dice wrote:

Ive just disabled uefi altogether

No, you haven't. You've enabled CSM ("Legacy" mode), which emulates non-UEFI booting via your machine's UEFI firmware. This means the machine is still open to the many UEFI firmware vulnerabilities.

dice wrote:

my drives are encrypted so good luck to anyone who can get info off them

If you have a rootkit then it can read the contents of the drive once the system is running. Secure Boot would help prevent rootkits from running. It's far from perfect but it is an extra layer of protection.

And before anybody starts bleating about not trusting Microsoft's keys note that it is possible to create your own keys, enrol them in the UEFI firmware and sign the kernel images with them. That's how I have enabled Secure Boot in my Alpine Linux system.

Ulysses_ wrote:

Can't we mix some of MX into devuan?

Why would you want to do that after this post of yours?

MX/AntiX is the work of a state-sponsored political extremist who is openly in the payroll of a state and at the same time pretends to be against the system. Can't be trusted for anything to do with security, privacy, cryptocurrencies, anti-surveillance. Might as well install ubuntu.

https://www.linuxquestions.org/question … ost6188829

Read on for more laughs later in the same thread

steve_v wrote:

dice wrote:

without apple we wouldnt have the hackintosh

Once, long ago, apple was a respectable company with some pretty nice hardware and a loyal hacker following.
That all changed with the ipod, when someone realised there was more money to be made selling pretty disposable toys and building vendor lock-in to keep people coming back.

yeah i know, birth of the smart technology, all the cool hackable tech got rail roaded way back then in favor of the igotsuckedinto apple marketing. I bought an apple ipod 2nd gen when it came out after hearing so much about it mid 2000's, as soon as i realised what a shitfight it was to make the thing work with itunes and such, that was the last apple tech i bought. Its good to see how gnu and linux can hack into macintosh given the right parameters, jobs would be rolling in his grave at that!

Devuan Beowulf with LXQt  desktop on my Netbook. Lower panel is normally auto-hide due to small screen. Wallpaper is from JoshuaFlynn

https://i.postimg.cc/BnQYVN2d/desktop.jpg

Altoid wrote:

Why it is alluring to so many people?

Well the 5nm process is pretty good, especially considering that Intel are still stuck with their antediluvian 14nm dies, and the reported benchmarks are actually quite impressive. But Ryzen still kills it

Anyway I'm with steve_v — Apple are a bunch of ****s. I threw a massive party when Steve Jobs died.

Wayland and Gnome is the only combination (must tell I didn't know how it is on KDE) there you get a completely color managed environment. Even the desktop picture is color managed. Because I use Linux even to photomanagement It's a big step forward. And Wayland works fine.

Thanks for the several comments.  Tone:
some folks dislike criticism.
Fine.  Tough.  Don't read my submissions.

Reading distro notes:   Until Devuan, never wasted one minute reading them.  Either an  OS is transparent, and works effortlessly, or it needs criticism.

Fanboy club:   I am not such a person.

I see some very good things here at Devuan, and including this forum.  I also see a couple of issues that need clarification.  I still don't have the answer to my questions about the distinction between Devuan and systemd, with respect to that obscure file,  and the need to comment out a line of code to enable sound.  How could that attribute (absence of sound on initial boot up after installation) pass inspection/quality control, prior to release of the distro?   There ought to be an explanation for this peculiarity.  Why is this feature something that Devuan developers are PROUD of?  Do the problems that I encountered relate to the Cinnamon desktop in particular?  Does printing work with Devuan, and NOT with all the other distros, because Devuan bypasses systemd, or because of the version of Cinnamon in Devuan: 3.8.8, vs Mint 19.3 :  4.4.8 ?

"That's how we do it here at..."  Nuts.  Nonsense.  Stupidity.

Tone II.  Really?  You  work with LInux, and you want someone to write soothing remarks, in a mild, temperate, inoffensive manner.  Linux, at least back in '94, was created and operated out of anger at the stupidity of society sucking on the Microsoft teat.  I did not catch on, until '98. Even then, I stayed with M$ 98->XP for a decade.

I am ANGRY.  I wasted hours trying to find what was wrong with my computers, because of stupid mistakes.  I made them, and Devuan made them.  But, not reading the release notes, was not one of those errors.

I like that review. I also appreciate having a systemd free distro that works well. Took me a little time and work to get it set up (not weeks like the "CFI" haha), but it was worth it.