Conspiracy theory much?
Getting a copy of the boot blob is trivially easy. Just download any OS from the RPi website, or copy it
from any SD card that will run a Pi. No need to think there is some sort of skullduggery going on.
Korean outfit Hardkernel has snuck out a Raspberry Pi-compatible board it says targets developers with an interest in the wearables and Internet of Things space. Due to ship towards the end of August, the Odroid-W uses the same Broadcom SoC as the popular Raspberry Pi – Broadcom's BCM2835. It includes an RPi-compatible 15-pin …
Well, yes. if you use the same SoC as the RPi otherwise you maybe up the creek.
I think the best thing to say, is "The greatest form of flattery is imitation" pretty sure we have not arrived at the IBM PC clone market. Many of the "RPi like devices" have always been, the same but different, but this seems to be a clone. Though not that cheap, when compared to a RPi B+, as you need the docking board for the Odroid-W to get the USB and ethernet, but the eMMC is interesting, if you need it.
Guess we will have to see if Odroid-W puts £1,000,000 into an education fund and more than that into open source development, with the profits they make.
OK I am a staunch support of the Raspberry Pi and more so of the achievements and direction of the RPi Foundations :-)
"Guess we will have to see if Odroid-W puts £1,000,000 into an education fund and more than that into open source development, with the profits they make."
It would be nice to know how much mark up there is on each Raspberry Pi sold. How much goes to manufacturers, retailers, to Raspberry Pi Trading and how much of that actually reaches the charitable foundation.
It would also be nice to know exactly which open source development projects the foundation is supporting with their multi-million dollar income and how much it gives to those project.
"Though not that cheap, when compared to a RPi B+, as you need the docking board for the Odroid-W to get the USB and ethernet"
It appears the board itself does have USB but it's unpopulated. My guess is that the physical connector was too large for their envisioned purpose and left it so the user can install one if they feel so inclined. A nice consideration IMHO as I've seen too many Daytona Beach type boards where it's tiny and low profile with a coastline packed with highrises.
All politics aside, the battery backup and exposing extra GPIO pins (41 for example, allowing a second UART or second hardware PWM) along with the size is exciting, although I still think the new B Plus is far better value (and of course there's the new Pi, the "MC" in development... shush).