[geerlingguy]

It's sad how 'being able to actually use GPIO pins in software' is an achievement for an SBC. But I do applaud StarFive for actually seeming to throw some support behind their boards.

We have been spoiled with Raspberry Pi the past few years prior to the shortages. I wish another vendor could get close to Pi's position to give more competition in terms of support and documentation.

[mikerg87]

We should remind ourselves that Raspberry Pis are in abundance, just not in the hobbyist channel. Current situation is not unlike the graphics card shortage when crypto miners were on garaunteed purchase contracts

This board has so much going for it. The native M.2 is a highly desireable feature. The only knock is the lack of wifi/bluetooth which can at least be solved with a dongle.

[somethingwitty1]

The no-wifi seems to just be the kickstarter. When I ordered mine a little while back, they had an option for wifi (extra $8-$10, as I recall). I haven't received it yet...so not sure if it actually does.

[snvzz]

I understand it is just a usb dongle, shipped together.

[phkahler]

>> it's sad how 'being able to actually use GPIO pins in software' is an achievement for an SBC

Yeah, but with an OS and MMU you don't get to just write to a port or other registers. The plumbing has to be in place.

[philliphaydon]

I don’t know much about this stuff. But Khadas has some stuff. They provide quite a lot of docs. Even cad model so you can design cases for their stuff.

I just got an Edge 2. Damn so much faster than my pi4. The downside is I think it’s hard/impossible to get an OS on it other than the ones they provide. ubuntu/android.