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Operating System Specific Discussions => AROS Research Operating System => Topic started by: Starrunner on December 07, 2006, 05:03:27 PM

Title: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: Starrunner on December 07, 2006, 05:03:27 PM
In my search for a new alternative to the impending horrors of Winsnows Vista, I am curious as to what I would need to get an EIFKA system together to run AROS for example.  I am curious as to how much it might cost as well.

Not sure if this post should be here, but this is where I landed with it.:-)
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: kidkoala on December 07, 2006, 06:47:06 PM
Don't know to much about price, though it will be much cheaper than any Amigaone (not really comparable anyways).

As a system I guess you would need the Efika, a hdd or a flashcard, some ddr-ram, something to put it in, and a small (to match the efika) powersupply.Don't remember the site but you get these really nice extremely small psu's somewhere. Not sure if you need anything else..

but anyway what I really wanted to say is that using Efika and Aros really won't make an alternative to Windows Vista if using your computer to everyday-stuff. Aros is a niche os on a hobby-level (for now).
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: Starrunner on December 07, 2006, 06:56:11 PM
Quote

kidkoala wrote:
Don't know to much about price, though it will be much cheaper than any Amigaone (not really comparable anyways).

As a system I guess you would need the Efika, a hdd or a flashcard, some ddr-ram, something to put it in, and a small (to match the efika) powersupply.Don't remember the site but you get these really nice extremely small psu's somewhere. Not sure if you need anything else..

but anyway what I really wanted to say is that using Efika and Aros really won't make an alternative to Windows Vista if using your computer to everyday-stuff. Aros is a niche os on a hobby-level (for now).


That is what I figured but I am keeping options open and the like.  Thanks.
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: Akiko on December 07, 2006, 06:58:05 PM

I've read somewhere that it already comes with 128 Ram soldered onboard. AFAIK it's not possible to expand beyond this.
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: McVenco on December 07, 2006, 06:58:15 PM
If you want anything competitive to Winblows, then try Linux on the Efika. You'll have plenty of software like Open Office and Firefox so you can do almost anything that you can do with Windows as well.

And the costs? Well, the Efika is 200 dollars, add to that a PSU, a harddrive and some bits and bobs like a mini-ITX case, a keyboard and mouse and a nice TFT screen.
I guess that for 500-600 dollars you'll have a nice system.

@kidkoala: DDR-Ram will not help much, since there's no place to add it :-D (the RAM is soldered on the board)


EDIT: oh yeah, an AGP video card might come in handy too :lol:
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: Starrunner on December 07, 2006, 07:03:31 PM
McVenco
     Thanks for letting me know that.  If I am going to run Linux, I have the latest version of Knoppix ready to go for my Celeron box.  And it may come to that.
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: motorollin on December 07, 2006, 07:04:47 PM
Does AROS run on EFIKA?

--
moto
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: Starrunner on December 07, 2006, 07:11:38 PM
Quote

motorollin wrote:
Does AROS run on EFIKA?

--
moto


I do not think it does yet.  But I was just looking at it as a possibilty.  It also gives me a benchmark on the cost to run MorphOS as well
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: Akiko on December 07, 2006, 07:15:10 PM

How does Linux behave with 128 of ram, hopefully much better than windows, anyone know?
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: adolescent on December 07, 2006, 07:26:00 PM
@Akiko

It depends on what is running.  A modern installation with all of the KDE/Gnome bells and whistles will be quite painfull.  
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: InTheSand on December 07, 2006, 07:36:02 PM
128Mb is too little for most of the modern Linux distributions...

There's a PPC version of XUbuntu, but I've not tried it as I don't have any PPC hardware. Even if it works on the EFIKA board, you'll probably be looking at quite a bit of swapfile usage...

 - Ali
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: kidkoala on December 07, 2006, 08:01:05 PM
I guess that depends on what distro. you put on it? The lightweight distros. I'm sure would run fine with 128mb's, maybe even with a simple gui.
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: Akiko on December 07, 2006, 08:06:49 PM
It come with a light distro? Doesn't sound to me like much multitasking will be happening on an EFIKA. Any gurus know if a 256Mb version is being planed?
I mean my blizzard 030 from 1995 has double the memory of EFIKA and that wasn't even utilized then, but 256Mb seems really the bare minimum by todays standards.
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: TheMagicM on December 07, 2006, 09:18:09 PM
I havent installed Debian on it but I'm sure if you do a 'regular' install it will be too bloated.  KDE and Gnome have gotten bloated over the years..but I read somewhere if you use a different window manager you'll see good results.

The EFIKA only has 128megs ram but it will run circles around your little 030.  I will do as much testing as I can come next week.

Tomorrow I'm going to go check out my race car..Saturday a final exam and flight school..then the rest of the time w/the old lady. (lol).  Monday I will install Debian and see if I can get e-uae or uae working on it and post the results.
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: AmigaHeretic on December 07, 2006, 10:16:32 PM
The good news is though, if I am correct in assuming you are currently running Windows XP, that you can run AROS today on your current hardware!
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: kd7ota on December 07, 2006, 11:52:13 PM
I definately recommend Ubuntu Linux, but for a much lighter system, Xubuntu may work.  I have not gave it a shot, but I dont have a computer which I can test that version out.
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: dammy on December 07, 2006, 11:57:01 PM
Quote
Does AROS run on EFIKA?


Not currently, hence this bounty (http://thenostromo.com/teamaros2/?number=46).

Dammy
TeamAROS (http://www.teamaros.org)
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: InTheSand on December 08, 2006, 01:10:46 AM
Quote
kd7ota wrote:
I definately recommend Ubuntu Linux, but for a much lighter system, Xubuntu may work.  I have not gave it a shot, but I dont have a computer which I can test that version out.


Xubuntu runs fairly snappily on my girlfriend's old-ish Compaq laptop with 256Mb RAM, but I'm not sure about 128Mb... I suppose I could take half the RAM out and see what happens!  :-)

And if you've got >= 512Mb RAM, I also definitely recommend Ubuntu...

 - Ali
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: Tomas on December 08, 2006, 02:45:07 AM
Why buy a efika for aros when aros already runs on a pc?
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: InTheSand on December 08, 2006, 03:11:54 AM
If anyone's interested, Pegasos.org has a review of the EFIKA here (http://www.pegasos.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1265) (and I've submitted that to A.Org as a news item).

The board is [color=ff0000]absolutely tiny[/color]!!!

 - Ali
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: viviancer on December 08, 2006, 03:28:41 AM
http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=PPCG40010&parentCode=MPC5200B&nodeId=0162468rH3bTdG06C10898


Real price of EFIKA
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: coldfish on December 08, 2006, 06:00:54 AM
Quote

Starrunner wrote:
McVenco
     Thanks for letting me know that.  If I am going to run Linux, I have the latest version of Knoppix ready to go for my Celeron box.  And it may come to that.


Seriously, try Ubuntu or Kubuntu, you can get it mailed to you free from their website.

https://shipit.ubuntu.com/

My first shot at Linux was Knoppix installed on my laptop, and while great to learn on, Kubuntu is the mor feature filled package, with the same KDE interface.  

Package management is a godsend. :-D
Title: Re: Cost of an EIFKA system for AROS
Post by: adolescent on December 08, 2006, 04:25:33 PM
Quote

viviancer wrote:

Real price of EFIKA


:-?

You really want to pay extra to get it through Freescale...  They're $199 direct.

https://www.pegasosppc.com/store.php?category=19