Re: arduino + drone fun

[Again snipping the dumb 'cryptocurr' thing from the Subject header.]

Quoting Steve Litt ([email protected]):

> Relative to Raspbian:
> https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=91367

Alvin, meet Steve.  Steve is acting out his characteristic monomania for
your special benefit.

Steve, how much do you want to bet that changing Raspbian to your choice
of other packaged init system isn't a two-line apt-get operation, as it is
with Jessie and Squeeze?

I mean, you would have lost that bet, last time you and others told me
with great confidence my test system wouldn't be able to do that.

I note with approval Raspbian's reliance on tweaked LXDE w/Openbox.

I don't currently own a RPI, but I might get one if there's money in it.
;->  


More seriously, I need a server for the inside home network to do several
infrastructure things (recursive DNS, internal NTP, backup target, NIDS, 
Chef configuration management master, Jenkins), although I was actually
thinking of something on low-power AMD.  RPi's reliance on an
out-of-tree kernel and a special-snowflake bootloader is a turn-off.
That actually -- still -- afflicts all of ARM arch so far.

Anyone shopped for one, of late?  I like fanless but will settle for a
slow, quiet CPU fan and passive cooling for everyone else.  I max out 
RAM (because it's smart over the long term) and insist a server needs
RAID1 mirroring with storage & ethernet on a serious interface,
i.e., not hostage to USB flakiness.  Mini-ITX form factor still strikes
me as the sweet spot (enough room inside for 2 SSDs, still small).

I haven't window-shopped lately, but a few minutes at Newegg brings up
this list:

$114.99 ASRock AB350 motherboard 
  65.62 AMD A6-9500E Bristol Ridge (TDP 35W)
 275.99 2 x Crucial 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 2400 SDRAM 
  99.99 Samsung 850 EVO 2.5" 250GB SSD
  99.99 Samsung 850 EVO 2.5" 250GB SSD
 190.00 Streacom ST-FC8S-ALPHA-OPT Fanless Chassis
 ------
$846.58 pretax total
 ======

That'd be a pretty sweet little server, and _almost_ silent.  This
ASRock has Intel i211AT ethernet, averting the usual Realtek crud.  I
deliberately went low on CPU power -- it'd be for an Internet server,
not a gamer box, and the idea is to keep heat and power draw really low
-- but the ASRock's AM4 socket also supports Ryzen APUs if you want
gonzo performance giving off lots of heat and costing a lot more.