Tinker Board, SMB, by Asus. A RPi alternative?

[ssfc72]

http://www.zdnet.com/article/raspberry-pi-challenger-asus-tinker-board-hits-us-faster-more-memory-60/

Now available in the USA (Amazon.com, etc),  this Single MotherBoard device by Asus is $60 USD and has high specs, such as 4K video.
Runs Tinker OS which is Debian based.

[Jason]

Thanks, Bill. Seems like the RPi spawned a whole generation of mini-PCs.

I'd like to see some benchmarks on this to see how well it actually supports 4K but I'm a bit discouraged about that end that says only Windows 10 and certain processors can stream Netflix, which really has nothing to do with this particular board but I guess ARM-based boards altogether. For a set-top box, it makes Android more attractive since there is a Netflix app.

[bobf]

Kaby Lake = 7th gen. Intel, AMD's Rizen is its analog, IIRC. I'm supposing, at least in the case of Intel, that DRM hardware codecs are hard/firm-wired into the 'platform', based on the implications as I read them in the article, and <snort!> 'only' Win10 has "driver" software that integrates with it to support full 4K decoding on-the-fly?!

?!?

Yes, definitely possible. Proprietary and sole-solution? Hardly. It may be true that the combination could - right now - be the only available solution, but that others won't build equivalent, compliant FOSS solutions is only a dream of those in both camps who, perhaps, find that notion more erotic than human 'companionship'?

Wishful thinking on their part, perhaps, that we'd all buy in?

It need hardly be said; 'not me'. Linux support built into Windows 10?! You must be out of your mind!! <^8#