zlacker

>>ekianj+(OP)
My experience with the OrangePi 4 LTS has been poor, and I'm unwilling to purchase more of their hardware. Mine is now running Armbian because I didn't care for the instability, or for the Chinese repos.

They seem uninterested in trying to get their hardware supported by submitting their patches for inclusion in the Linux kernel, and popular distros. Instead, you have to trust their repos (based in PRC).

>>anonym+qH
"Chinese repos" is a very charitable interpretation of the Google drive links they used to distribute the os. It seemed like it was on the free plan too, it often didn't work because it tripped the maximum downloads per month limit.

>>eyegor+251
It's always better than a link in the sticky post on the manufacturer's phpbb forum. I bought some audio equipment directly from a Chinese company, and everything look like a hobbies/student project.

>>Berett+C61
I bought a MiniPC directly from a Chinese company (an AOOSTAR G37) and the driver downloads on their website are MEGA links. I thought only piracy and child porn sites used those..

I am somewhat amazed how you can manufacture such expensive high tech equipment yet are too cheap to setup a proper download service for the software, which would be very simple and cheap compared to making the hardware itself.

Maybe it is a Chinese mentality thing where the first question is always "What is the absolutely cheapest way to do this?" and all other concerns are secondary at best.

..which does not inspire confidence in the hardware either.

Maybe Chinese customers are different, see this, and think "These people are smart! Why pay more if you don't have to!".