NetBSD Now Supports The Raspberry Pi 2

[phoronix]

Phoronix: NetBSD Now Supports The Raspberry Pi 2

The latest BSD operating system now supporting the Raspberry Pi 2 is NetBSD...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NetBSD-Raspberry-Pi-2

[kaprikawn]

Glad to see more OSs and distributions receiving attention on the ARMv7 instruction set. The continued support is appreciated.

The RPi2 is a worthwhile upgrade. It's prompted me to finally get around to learning C++ because the RPi2 is perfect for a development environment for me. I have one running XFCE on Arch Linux which I can just remote into using x2go whenever I feel like doing some coding. Due to my workflow being a lot more convenient in this manner I'm a lot more inclined to code whenever the desire takes me. And I get to use the RPi for its intended purpose which is an added bonus.

The desktop is noticeably faster on the RPi2 than it was on the original. The only issue I have is that I had to use XFCE / Xorg. I would have loved to have used Maynard or Gnome with Wayland had a remote desktop solution (that I could install / use) existed.

[dragorth]

How does the RPi 2 GPU stack with the previous RPi. I know it is the same GPU, but the RPi was majorly CPU limited, do you find the RPi 2 is GPU limited now?

[Morpheus]

How does the RPi 2 GPU stack with the previous RPi. I know it is the same GPU, but the RPi was majorly CPU limited, do you find the RPi 2 is GPU limited now?

AFAIK, the video decoding part is just as good as for the RPi, and even better if you consider much more data can be fetched into RAM (more suitable for network-read huge files). As for the 3D part, I never tested it, it was already damn slow for a desktop usage. I bet with the ARMv7 support, it will be more valuable.

[riklaunim]

How does the RPi 2 GPU stack with the previous RPi. I know it is the same GPU, but the RPi was majorly CPU limited, do you find the RPi 2 is GPU limited now?

For a wider desktop use any OpenGL ES GPU will be a bottleneck for OpenGL 3D games/applications. Raspberry isn't that much limited by GPU as it wasn't in general used for anything GPU heavy (aside maybe some multimedia playback) as it just couldn't do any real/cool 3D that is doable for better Intel/AMD/nVidia GPUs.

[AndyChow]

Question: Where can I get a raspberry pi 2?

I live in Canada. I can get the Odroid C1 for 35$+ shipping. The raspberry pi 2, I see it on amazon for 72$ + shipping. It's on Newegg for 50$ + shipping. Shipping the Odroid from Korean costs the same 9$ that it costs to ship the raspberry pi from newegg canada.

So is the 35$ price point a scam? Is it actually possible to buy it at that price in Canada? I just want to use it to play around, but if I end up paying almost double what it's advertised for, I'd feel like I got ripped off.

[Morpheus]

The RPi is made in UK if I'm right, even with the Commonwealth thingy you may have customs charges to this class of material. It's the same here in France when you buy something from North America, aside the pricier transportation cost, you pay somewhat big importation taxes.

[curaga]

@AndyChow

Don't the official distributors have presence in Canada? Farnell and RS-electronics IIRC. Also, do you quote CAD or USD?

[AndyChow]

@AndyChow

Don't the official distributors have presence in Canada? Farnell and RS-electronics IIRC. Also, do you quote CAD or USD?

You're 100% correct. I have canadian and us money, in different accounts. A few years ago, the rate was 100% to 100%. Actually CAD was higher for a while. So I never looked at the exchange rate. I have addresses in both countries, so usually just buy on nominal price. I just looked, and the exchange rate is like 25% in favor of USD.

I feel like a dope now. WTH is CAD worth so little? Anyway, I guess that explains that.