Somebody already asked about RISC-V and there are plans for a SoC based on RISC-V like the lowRISC project... but what do you think about creating a Raspberry Pi using free / open ISAs like OpenRISC, OpenSPARC or even RISC-V?

In a way, it's basically what you say -- a "card" that slots into thin plastic case... Except:

• wooden, actually (for the current micro-desktop)
• and a laptop case which is mostly plastic, only with added components (battery, LCD, keyboard, touchpad and so on) that you don't need / want to throw away when you upgrade the heart of your computer

Probably interesting for many folks around here... there are plans to submit these projects for the Free Software Foundation's Respects Your Freedom program (contacts already started).

It's not modular down to that level, it's modular in the sense that you can upgrade the CPU-card while keeping all the housing, and reuse the CPU-card for other devices like NAS, micro-servers, routers, etc. (or sell it, if there's enough market).

For example, if such CPU-cards are marketed in the future, you can swap the current ARM-32 bits CPU-card for a future ARM-64 bits in the laptop housing that you purchase (or 3D-print) today. You can even completely change the architecture to be MIPS or Intel, if such cards are created in the future.

When one looks into devices like laptops, tablets or mobile phone available in the market today, this project clearly offers a step forward in modularity for many classes of devices.

Currently the CPU in the CPU-cards available in the campaign is an ARM 32 bits ("armhf" for Debian systems).

In the future, if things go well, there are plans to launch other CPU-cards that meet requirements of low power, hw and sw freedom (not requiring proprietary firmware blobs to run), etc. Other CPUs have been already considered, including different architectures, like MIPS. The housing (laptop, micro desktop, etc.) can be reused, it's just a matter of swapping the CPU-card -- that's one of the main points of this project.

I'm hoping that there's enough interest in the project and goes ahead, that the ecosystem thrives and other CPU-cards based on free designs like OpenRISC or RISC-V will be produced in the future.

Probably interesting for many folks around here... there are plans to submit these projects for the Free Software Foundation's Respects Your Freedom program (contacts already started).

Currently the CPU in the CPU-cards available in the campaign is an ARM 32 bits ("armhf" for Debian systems).

In the future, if things go well, there are plans to launch other CPU-cards that meet requirements of low power, hw and sw freedom (not requiring proprietary firmware blobs to run), etc. Other CPUs have been already considered, including different architectures, like MIPS. The housing (laptop, micro desktop, etc.) can be reused, it's just a matter of swapping the CPU-card -- that's one of the main points of this project.

I'm hoping that there's enough interest in the project and goes ahead, that the ecosystem thrives and other CPU-cards based on free designs like OpenRISC or RISC-V will be produced in the future.

First of all, thanks for all of your amazing contributions to free software and free culture movements in general.

I would like to hear your opinion about projects to create free hardware, in particular CPUs like the OpenRISC and RISC-V, or projects striving to create full systems respecting the GPL and without binary blobs like Rhombus Tech's EOMA or lowrisc, or any other that you might know that goes beyond refurbishing existing computers.

In the case that you hold a favourable opinion, I also would like to know if the FSF is in touch (even informally) with any of the teams behind these projects and plan to support them in any way (other than accepting changes to GNU software so it can run in these systems), e.g. by working with them from early on to ensure that they can later be endorsed by Respects Your Freedom.