Very cool, although a win10 minipc would probably make far more sense for people who specifically need a tiny windows 10 computer, especially as they basically cost less than what a copy of windows 10 pro costs.
(A fully functional fanless atom x5-Z8350, 4GB ram, 64GB flash, Win10 pro x64 Mini-PC will set you back $139. A copy of Windows 10 pro x64 is $168...)
And I know, some folks might say "why not a lattepanda?" to which the response really is "because that costs three times as much". Sure, you don't get GPIO pins on a minipc, but given that you can just buy a $10 data acquisition module that connects via USB, and that you can talk to using UART... that's hardly a problem?
> Sure, you don't get GPIO pins on a minipc, but given that you can just buy a $10 data acquisition module that connects via USB, and that you can talk to using UART... that's hardly a problem?
Bandwidth for USB GPIO: 8 kHz if you're lucky and there are no other devices on the same controller. Bandwidth for the direct GPIO: up to tens of MHz.
So, not exactly a problem for anyone who wants to use a raspi but also windows? If you need MHz of GPIO speed, you're basically in arduino land now, and raspi+win or a minipc+win doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But hey, you can you also just connect an arduino to the minipc and get the best of both worlds.
Of course you can, but this article is about folks who want to use Windows (for whatever reason). If you want to use "the raspi" as a controller, there is zero reason to look for a way to put Windows on a tiny board. A standard raspi already does what you need.
I got a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate for free from Microsoft as part of a developers conference. Then I upgraded to Windows 10 Pro for free. I bought some Windows 7 upgrades and 8.0 upgrades that convert to Windows 10 as well. Microsoft has a good upgrade policy and the upgrade versions are cheap. I bought some when Amazon had a sale on pre-orders of 8.0 upgrades.
I bought my Win10 Pro key from a grey market site for like $10, so I figure it's likely an illegally sold volume license copy. Yeah, I totally acknowledge that it could get voided, but I know several other people who have bought their Windows key from these types of sites, and none have ever had a problem.
As a customer, the question of the legality of the license key is not my concern.
I purchased it, Microsoft checked it, while knowing my IP address, and decided it was good to go. The fault is theirs: if they don't want volume keys to work outside some markets, add some limitation like geolocalization.
(A fully functional fanless atom x5-Z8350, 4GB ram, 64GB flash, Win10 pro x64 Mini-PC will set you back $139. A copy of Windows 10 pro x64 is $168...)
And I know, some folks might say "why not a lattepanda?" to which the response really is "because that costs three times as much". Sure, you don't get GPIO pins on a minipc, but given that you can just buy a $10 data acquisition module that connects via USB, and that you can talk to using UART... that's hardly a problem?