heh
what's the library (api and examples) and software devel (system) like?
the arduino (that I currently play with) is not a full-out processor. it has strong limits on what it can do and how much thruput its capable of (with some processing in the middle).
linux systems, otoh, are getting closer in price, size and power to the controller guys. its squeezing out the middle things, I think.
look at the hackable wifi routers, for example. some good cpus inside (way more than controller), ethernet, some nice rf hardware (lol) and some have usb ports, too (usb/spdif audio, anyone?) you can have fanless diskless linux systems for $40 and under, if you hack these routers and access point thingies.
and the linux environment is not *an* environment but a SET of them! its rich as you can get, really. way more luxurious that some 'IDE' you get for arduinos, etc.
then there's the learning curve. the middle boards (not low end controllers but not unix hosts, either) take time to learn. otoh, 'everyone' already knows how to install/boot/program linux systems.
need more power? fanless mini-itx boxes that still run the SAME software (that you spend a lot of time writing) that ran on the wifi router hackables but now you don't have to play as many ugly hacks just to host your code on that platform.
so, I'm not sure what the goal of the middle boards are (as I'm calling them). I love the very low end controllers (that have rich IDEs and libraries and many shared opensource examples). and I like full fledged linux development. but I'm not so excited about learning a new platform that doesn't justify itself. I'd just as well grab one of the wifi thingies and go from there. (or maybe an embedded freebsd. maybe.)
) to start an open audio player project.
