While everyone is crazy about the Raspberry Pi, I’m pretty skeptical about it. Why? Well, because it’s a closed source hardware based upon a BGA microprocessor using a 6 layers PCBs.
What does that mean? Well, it means that it’s really a pain in the ass to create derivative projects from it.. So, although the Pi it’s a really awesome device, it’s almost impossible to create a product from it.
With this in mind, I started to look around for alternatives and I found the Olinuxino Maxi, a single board Linux compatible computer based upon the i.MX233 microprocessor, designed by Olimex.
Why this is much more interesting for me? Well, first of all, it’s a complete Open Hardware project so the schematics and PCB designs are available released under CC-BY-SA so that we can take them and modify as we like.
Second very important aspect is that it is based upon a QFP packaged microprocessor using a 4 layers PCBs. This means that we are perfectly capable to solder it by hand and getting PCBs for it cheaply (through OSH Park for example).
This can very well support the creation of derivative hardware starting from the original Olinuxino designs..
So, I got one of these boards and in the following video I show it running with ArchlinuxARM.. looking pretty awesome so far.
What do you think? Should we all use Raspberry Closeberry Pis or look for more open and easily hackable alternatives?