[Openec] Lemote Yeeloong (laptop rms uses) / chinese mipsel computers - group buy (was: Re: Nonfree EC issues pop up again - Lemote YeeLoong netbook)

[Daniel Clark]

2010/1/22 Daniel Clark <dclark at pobox.com>:
> Thanks. The people working on OpenEC, GRUB2 (as full on-PLCC
> replacement for PMON), and other Lemote Yeeloong-related hardware
> hacking are all on #gnewsense-dev on freenode IRC (I'm djbclark
> there).

There are now 3-4 people hanging out on #gnewsense-dev starting to or
interested in working on OpenEC on the yeeloong. If you are interested
but don't have a yeeloong, you may want to get in on a group buy I'm
doing:

I'm putting together a bulk purchase from Lemote of their Yeeloong
laptops; this is the laptop that rms uses at the moment; it has free /
no binary blob wifi, boot firmware, etc. See [1,2,3,4] for details.

Other than the software freedom angle the hardware is also nifty if you
like:
* Playing with alternative architectures (MIPS little endian)
* Cute, cheap little computers
* Real time operating system hacking
 ( http://ur1.ca/lgxl , http://ur1.ca/lgxn )

I'm trying to get a count of how many people would be interested in
buying one. The price would be about $389. This is less than the $472.70
+ shipping from Europe from http://tekmote.nl, because Lemote wants to
encourage development of free as in freedom GNU/Linux distributions such
as gNewSense for their computers (and even if you don't do that, they
just want more US users in general, and getting more shipped to the US =
cheaper per unit).

This would be the white 10" screen YeeLoong 8101B model [5].

I'm also purchasing some of their Fuloong mini servers [6]; these will
be around $239 (vs tekmote $298.92 + shipping from Europe). These have a
binary blob (VGA BIOS) needed to make video work, so I would recommend
them only to people interested in reverse engineering that blob, or
running them as headless servers using the serial port for human I/O (my
plan). If you want a desktop, the Yeeloong does have VGA out, and you
can of course connect USB keyboards and mice to it.

If you can pick up or have someone pick up for you at the Libreplanet
2010 conference [7] that would be ideal, but I can also ship or deliver
in the Cambridge / Boston area before then.

I hope to finalize the order by Monday, so please reply as
soon as possible to dclark at pobox.com if you are interested.

[1] What do people use to get the job done?
  Richard Stallman, Freedom campaigner
http://richard.stallman.usesthis.com/

[2] gNewSense Wiki: Lemote
http://wiki.gnewsense.org/Projects/Lemote

[3] gNewSense metad
http://wiki.gnewsense.org/Projects/GNewSenseToMIPS

[4] Nanonote degrees of freedom
  (explains yeeloong hardware freedom)
http://lists.qi-hardware.com/pipermail/developer/2010-January/001738.html

[5] Lemote YeeLoong 8101B 10" mini-laptop Pure White
http://ur1.ca/ldop

[6] Lemote Fuloong mini server
http://ur1.ca/lgxt

[7] Free Software conference: Libre Planet 2010
http://groups.fsf.org/wiki/LibrePlanet2010

Happy Hacking,
- --
Daniel JB Clark | Free Software Activist | http://pobox.com/~dclark