On Wed, Nov 04, 2015 at 10:56:26AM -0600, Nathan Moore wrote:
> Have any of you-all considered replacing (student) linux workstations with
> small single-board arm ​systems (eg a Raspberry Pi2 or TI's Beagleboard)?
> In terms of unit cost and power consumption they seem like an attractive
> solution for run of the mill, interactive work.    ​
> 
> Related question, is there a fork of SL/RHEL that comes precompiled for
> arm?


We use ARM-based machines for data acquisition work and so far only ARM Fedora
seems to be usable (other than the specialized linuxes such as Yocto).

The main thing is ARM Fedora provides "ready to run" userland images (none of this
stupid business of "use graphical installer to install ARM linux from dual layer DVD").

The ARM machine I have used are somewhat underpowered, roughly equivalent
to the "dual athlon" era PCs - in CPU speed, memory size and "disk speed" (SD/MMC flash).

Machines I have do not have graphics, so cannot say anything on grapics performance
and usability of graphical applications such as Firefox.

To repeat, to get running quickly, look at the "ready to run" unserspace images
provided by the Fedora ARM port.


-- 
Konstantin Olchanski
Data Acquisition Systems: The Bytes Must Flow!
Email: olchansk-at-triumf-dot-ca
Snail mail: 4004 Wesbrook Mall, TRIUMF, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 2A3, Canada