Today we're announcing that the Parabola community is grateful to the EOMA68 project for choosing Parabola as the default system distribution for one of its products, the Libre Tea Computer Card. The EOMA68 is a new crowdfunding project on CrowdSupply, aiming to create a computer which:
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Is seeking RYF certification
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Is easy to repair yourself
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Is eco-friendly
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Is easily upgradeable
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Doesn't cost the Earth (literally and figuratively!)
The EOMA68 (named Embedded Open Modular Architecture) is also the name of a standard to connect computers to various other components, allowing end-users to choose which components to use. This means that various computers can make use of this standard. As such, the EOMA68 is making its first offerings, one of which is the Libre Tea Computer Card that uses Parabola as its default system distribution.
Thanks to their decision, society will be one step closer to being free, while fostering ethical and responsible use of the ecological and financial resources required to design, manufacture, acquire and maintain our personal computing devices, so completing the missing pillar of sustainability.
The most important aspect of the Libre Tea Computer Card isn't necessarily a technical advantage, but shows how EOMA68 cares to make sure that the Libre part of the product's name is taken literally: They are seeking a certification aimed on making sure that the Libre Tea Computer Card is, by default, usable and ready with Free/Libre Software. More information on the Respects Your Freedom certification can be found here.
After working closely with the developers and reviewing a sample test board [of the Libre Tea Computer Card], we are confident that their plans are to create a device that can achieve our Respects Your Freedom (RYF) certification. And because the project is running their crowdfunding on Crowd Supply, users can financially support them anonymously and without the use of proprietary Javascript [...] The Libre Tea Computer Card is built with an Allwinner A20 dual core processor configured to use the main CPU for graphics (Free Software Foundation's Licensing & Compliance Lab).
The EOMA68 standard allows people to upgrade their computers and components without having to replace the whole set, and so allows people to easily continue using the remaining components together with the same, or another, computer card. Furthermore, the standard is designed to be useful for at least a decade, if not longer, and fosters ecological responsibility.
Features & Specifications
Libre Tea Computer Card
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Compliant with the EOMA68 Specification
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A20 Dual-Core ARM Cortex A7, 1.2 GHz
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2 GB RAM
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8 GB NAND
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Micro-HDMI Interface (for 2nd monitor)
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Micro-USB-OTG (bi-directional power)
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Micro-SD Card Slot
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Pre-installed with Parabola GNU/Linux-libre Operating System
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Respects Your Freedom (RYF) Certification from the Free Software Foundation (currently in progress with no known blockers - a full refund will be available if certification is for some reason not granted)
The potential for new NSA-free (backdoor-free) computers is upon us. Join the crowdfunding campaign and help us change the security dynamics to favour end-users.
For further details: