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Comment by jokoon | Hacker News Reader

I'd prefer such product if I can just power it and control it over SSH. I don't really need an actual screen plug, as I would not use a home screen on such a tiny thing: it doesn't make sense.

Although the rasbperry pi zero seems interesting, I don't know if I can plug a minimalist, small and cheap screen on a mini-hdmi. Overall there is no point using a classic screen on such tiny devices.

This seems to compete with the raspberry pi zero, and RPi zero doesn't have wifi.

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Documentation for using the CHIP headless: http://docs.getchip.com/chip.html#headless-chip

Yeah. One of the nice things about CHIP is that in theory (mine hasn't shipped yet) you can just plug it into your computer over USB right out the box, open a serial terminal to it and configure it that way, no messing around with SD cards etc. The Pi Zero can't do that because it requires an SD card and also the driver support for USB-OTG is poor and requires manual configuration of device mode.

Not just in theory--that's precisely how I got mine (I KSed it, and got my pair at least two months ago) booted up and configured for the first time. Super easy, in fact--way easier to bootstrap than a RPi (I ordered a RPi 3 some time since).

> I'd prefer such product if I can just power it and control it over SSH.

It would seem like you can, or is there something I'm missing? Is it a concern with how you'd actually do the initial setup?

In fact, this is no problem at all. You can configure CHIP for ssh access, stick it in a panel in the wall somewhere, and just forget about it.

Raspberry Pi Zero has no wifi, no bluetooth and no build in 4GB storage. BUT: it is cheaper at 5$! :-)

thats true but sadly you cannot find pi zero anywhere in stock for 5 bucks, since a while at least.

they're ramping up the availability at the moment, adafruit has them I think http://whereismypizero.com/ - some places only have them as part of a kit admittedly, but I managed to buy one on its own. I'm confident availability is getting easier, and the new version has a camera slot too.

Well...nowhere online. I've got a MicroCenter nearby. They claim to have a bunch in stock in their store, and I've heard other people claim that they bought theirs there. I've got to imagine that there are other electronics shops in a similar situation.

this is what I loved about beaglebone - onboard flash with OS pre-installed with SSH enabled and no setup required.

20 seconds from opening the box to bash$

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