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Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Small computing =?UTF-8?Q?recommendations=3F?=
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Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2016 16:06:16 +0100
From: thegeezer@thegeezer.net
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On 2016-10-12 13:16, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On 12/10/2016 13:56, Daniel Campbell wrote:
>> My birthday's coming up in 10 days and my SO and others are wanting to
>> know what to get me for my birthday. I'm slowly growing tired of 
>> trying
>> to keep my desktop Gentoo machine lightweight and "clean", so it'd be
>> fun to hack on a little computer that I could possibly DIY a case or
>> other arrangement for. Maybe a file/web server, or a "freetoo" machine
>> where I can experiment with being rigidly FSF-APPROVED or other fun
>> shenanigans.
>> 
>> I've looked around at the Raspberry Pi 3, the Pocket CHIP (I also have
>> PICO-8 and am hacking something for it), the Pi Zero, and have heard
>> about the Beaglebone and Arduino, though isn't the latter meant for 
>> more
>> interactive or robotic thing due to the large array of IO pins?
>> 
>> If I had the right tools or gadgets, creating my own UMPC would be
>> really fun.
>> 
>> At a minimum, I would prefer HDMI instead of composite or VGA, though 
>> it
>> could be headless and I just use SSH or an Adafruit LCD.
>> 
>> Any opinions or use cases and stories would be much appreciated. I 
>> would
>> prefer running Gentoo on it, but Debian, Mint, or Slackware would be
>> tolerable.
>> 
> 
> 
> Those devices are dirt cheap, ask for one of each :-)

Seconded :)
here are my 2c on my two experiences

Raspberry Pi
great to play with Gentoo ARM, runs well until you do anything related 
to IO.  Really well in fact, so that when you do do anything to save a 
file or emerge (yes you can but i really wouldn't recommend it) it takes 
you by surprise how bad it is.  Also be aware of USB power draw and 
reboots if you can't supply power well enough for all devices!  is more 
of a "computer" in the traditional sense.

Arduino
I really like the Arduino from a programmatic automation point of view 
as the inputs and single threaded C program   make sense to me, and in 
my own simple way of viewing things, things like nest.com are more easy 
to do via Arduino than Pi.  is more of a microcontroller than a computer

Final thoughts
get them all, they are so cheap.   the addons are what make them though 
-- wifi shields or movement sensors etc, otherwise they are just a piece 
of compute.   you may find a Pi controller controlling  arduino leads 
you to a new form of robotics and the limits are your imagination

but if you are looking for a linux box to play with i would suggest 
Intel Atom based Jetway mini-atx with the daughterboards that let you 
have multi-nic or multi-sata
they are fast enough to keep up to date without needed distcc and 
feature rich enough that you can build your own SAN or build your own 
router etc