The Verge’s Paul Miller has some harsh words for the $242 open source DIY laptop kit TERES-I from Olimex.
Instead of buying one hyper-integrated board that has all of the laptop’s brains and I/O on it, you buy several little boards and wire them together. Then you put them inside a mostly finished case built by Olimex — although if you want to go ultra DIY you can 3D print your own case, too. Everything, from the shell’s CAD design to the motherboard’s wiring, is available on GitHub for perusal or modification, and the modular nature of the internals means you can add a more powerful chipset or modify just about anything you find unsatisfying about the computer if you have the know-how or if Olimex or others offer compatible parts.
But, unfortunately, almost everything about this laptop is unsatisfying right now. It runs a quad-core ARM64 chip, though x86 and MIPS chips might be offered later on. It has a tiny 11.6-inch screen, a huge bezel, a tiny trackpad, a cramped-looking keyboard, and a whole lot of plastic. The OS (Linux, naturally) runs off a microSD card. At least the LCD comes in a 1080p variant, because the default 1366 x 768 resolution is a real throwback. There’s even 802.11n Wi-Fi, which has me questioning what decade it is.
But are there any better alternatives? In the comments share your own thoughts about open source laptop kits.
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