On Sun, Dec 6, 2015 at 1:37 AM, Steven Hamilton <[email protected]> wrote: > > Ah, when I first read your email I thought you already had a plan. I'm > afraid you're in for an awakening. Depending on what functionality you > want will constrain your board. Basically, anything with wifi and/or a > GUI beyond basic console (headless) will not be free as you'll need > non-free firmware to get wifi and GPU working. I have a Hummingboard > from Solid-run. It's imx.6 based and runs headless with no firmware > blobs. Even the bootloader is free although not mainlined into U-Boot. > > TL:DR - You're board will be headless only in order to be Free.
This is less true these days. I'm actually thinking about buying a Hummingboard specifically because it uses the same Freescale i.mx6 processor that is in the Novena. This chip contains a Vivante GPU core, which is currently being liberated via the etnaviv project that was partially funded by one of the Novena's stretch goals in their crowdfunding campaign. Thus, I think Freescale ARM chips are very attractive from a freedom perspective. It should soon enough be possible to have 2D/3D graphics acceleration in total freedom. I want to build my own handheld gaming machine that runs 100% free software, and provided the etnaviv driver is working acceptably it's a very achievable goal. - Dave
