I appreciate your rambling, in fact this it’s exactly the kind of answer was looking for. OK, maybe I suck at asking questions, I’d appreciate your input, anyone’s input on what exactly to ask the next time to generate an answer like your. On the other hand we can think of a forum discussion like this which evolves and may change direction as it unfolds. This isn’t Reddit or Stack Exchange to have a single best answer to upvote.
You say the main selling point of the Raspberry Pi is being cheap, albeit adding the pi-top [3] laptop option makes it quite expensive. Roughly as expensive in fact as the x86-based laptop I’m otherwise looking for. This doesn’t mean that the ability of the single board computer to turn it into a laptop is a must for me. It’s just something nice to have.
That’s for the most open processor. But speaking of a transitional, pragmatic solution that is available and affordable today: I don’t even know if we can consider ARM or x86 based computers to be more free.
Where would you place NXP i.MX boards with respect to freedom, cost effectiveness, and the community around them compared to the rest of the ARM pack?