ESP32(en.wikipedia.org)
16 pointsby doener16 hours ago1 comment
  • bArray13 hours ago
    The ESP32-P4 [1] could be interesting for running native Linux [2], but as the article suggests it was supposed to be released in January 2023. We're now approaching January 2026 without a final design [3].

    I believe there is a strong market out there for a low-level Linux capable controller with WiFi, Ethernet, USB host, etc, capabilities. The USB itself would be especially killer - imagine being able to just load the appropriate kernel driver for a USB device and being able to communicate with it directly.

    [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP32#ESP32-P4_-_January_2023

    [2] https://esp32.com/viewtopic.php?t=45499

    [3] https://www.reddit.com/r/esp32/comments/1ilyjpe/when_will_th...

    • theamk2 hours ago
      For the hobbyist, the best part of the modern embedded chips with few MB of RAM (including ESP32) is that they _don't_ run Linux.

      I maintain a few devices at home, both Linux and non-Linux, and the non-Linux are just so much nicer from operation perspective. Everything is described by a few files checked into git, and there is literally no way to sneak any other state in. If the device breaks, or I want another one, or I want to see what changed, it's just a few text files to examine.

      Compare it with typical Raspberry Pi, which started with huge microsd image, then there were unknown "apt-get install"'s and some system files modified... Unless you are very, very good with documentation, each one is a special snowflake. The best you can do is to run backup script on them, and restore on rebuild, but it's much worse experience than having a single "pio run -t upload" in the git repo.

      (I know there are ways to create immutable Linux system and push it from main PC, just like with microcontrollers - but this is not very well documented path. And much bigger size of the Linux system makes this impractical for rapid iteration)

      I think USB device drivers are the _only_ reason to run Linux on the small device. If you don't need those, keep away from Linux. (not that ESP32-P4 would be any good on it - the spec mention "768 KiB SRAM", which is laughably small for Linux. And putting PSRAM on board will make it as expensive as other Linux computers)