Beagle Boards

Beagle Boards are (in a funny sort of way) what I imagine all computers are going to wind up like (for a while at least) – a small, portable iphone like thing that you can plug keyboards and screens and whatnot into.

I don’t think it will be Apple (or any of the other big players) that do it though. Real innovation seems to need to come out of left-field. The established players seem to evolve by tiny increments. Apple occasionally bucks this trend, but not as much as open-source is (or will)

So Beagle-Boards are an open-source computer… a step in the right direction I think – displaying (again) Amory Lovins‘ ideas about efficiency – ie: the economics of efficiency are irresistible because it allows you to completely dispense with whole subsystems. In the case of the Beagle Board, it doesn’t need fans etc.

Is it for wizards and rocket scientists and people with beards?

Yes it is.

But remember folks, there are huge sums of money to be made by creating interfaces round the wizardry/rocket-science so normal human beings can join in.

(from Lady Ada)