Re: On a Samsung ARM Chromebook, could nv-uboot easily boot to stock linux kernels, by way of ARM-GRUB?

Hello Luke,

On Thu, Jan 2, 2014 at 1:03 PM, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <lkcl@lkcl.net> wrote:

On Thu, Jan 2, 2014 at 2:57 PM, Subharo Bhikkhu
<subharo@forestsangha.net> wrote:

> Indeed. It seems that the Utopian technological future that I was hoping for, where solid state hardware would last *even longer* than non-solid state hardware, has been replaced with a distopian present, where the solid state hardware lasts *even less long* than the non-solid state hardware that came before it,

ah if you are referring to NAND flash, that's nothing to do with ARM
processors and more to do with cost (no moving parts, smaller
devices). the issue with NAND is that the smaller the geometries
become (25nm, 22nm etc.) the less reliable the storage and the more we
end up relying on software and ECC. so it's not *planned*
obsolescence! it's down to the physics :)

I was referring to today's ARM-based smartphones (like iPhones, Android phones) and MP3 players (like iPod touch, and iPads), which *are* solid state, where most of which are difficult or impossible to switch the OS (because they're so heavily locked down, intentionally). I've observed that for many of these, OS updates stop being available within a few years, from the corporations that made them. Furthermore, when the non-user-replaceable rechargeable battery won't hold a charge, most people will just opt for buying a new device (for say, $200-$300), rather than getting the battery factory-replaced (for say, $80, which I observed an iPod Touch battery replacement recently was for an acquaintance of mine, and it only had 60% the capacity of the original battery). It's just about impossible to find an MP3 player or smartphone these days where you can replace the battery yourself. For example, I had a rare Sandisk Sansa e280 MP3 player, and a replacement battery was only $13, and I could easily replace it myself with a small Philips screwdriver.

With PC's (which are almost always *not* all solid state), by contrast, you can keep changing the OS to an increasingly lightweight linux distro/Desktop environment over the years, so it's not hard for an average linux geek to get 7 years or more use out of them.

So non-solid-state stuff ironically seems to generally be the better technology, in the sense of durability over time. The consumer-grade solid-state stuff seems to have an expected lifespan of only 2-3 years.

I'm heartened by developments like the BeagleBone Black, and Raspberry Pi, where it's dead easy to install a different linux OS (like Debian/Raspbian, respectively), but those are just development boards, which are a far cry from resembling a sleek-looking smartphone or a MP3 player.

Cheers,

Subharo