There are at least two artist by the name of Rocks.

1.
Rocks star… Read Full Bio ↴There are at least two artist by the name of Rocks.

1.
Rocks started out as a three-piece in late 1976 with Bill Webb (a.k.a. Bill Posters) on drums/lead vocals, Peter Davie on guitar/vocals, and Steve Vanderschoot on bass/lead vocals. Doing what came naturally, it was a combination of original songs and covers (Ramones, Sex Pistols, Dead Boys, etc.) that made Rocks one of Australia's best punk bands.

2.
Rocks word samen met zn groep THC gezien als de grondlegger van de nederlandstalige straat-rap. Deze jonge Amsterdamse ,Nederlandse buitenlander heeft een zeer diverse style maar staat vooral bekend om zn realistische en zeer gevoelige teksten waarin hij zijn eigen leven en dat van zijn naasten en lotgenoten beschrijft. Rocks is de voorman van rapformatie THC en samen met zijn rechterhand d'Tuniz tevens ook de oprichter en label-eigenaar van THC Recordz.

Eind jaren negentig verscheen het eerste underground album van Rocks genaamd " #1 Rocks van de THC ". Samen met THC werd daarna de officiele THC Recordz mixtape vol.1 uitgebracht die in 2005 werd opgevolgd door het succesvolle dubbel album " Artikel 140 ". In 2007 dropte Rocks het 2e THC album genaamd " Puur en onversneden ". Ruim 8 jaar na zn eerste solo release dropt Rocks zn mixtape genaamd "Rocky 1 (de B.N'er preview) ". Rocky 1 (de B.N'er preview) is zoals de naam al doet vermoeden een preview op het B.N'er album. "B.N'er (Bekende N.i.g.g.a)" is het eerste officiele album van Rocks dat op 24 Nov. 2008 is uitgekomen op THC Recordz.

Zero
Rocks Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Smash Bros

Tell me why did you leave so fast?
Would you mind if I hold your hand tonight?
What are you afraid of anyway?
I'm not coming back, it's now or never

Tell me why did you leave so fast?

Tell me why does it hurt so bad?
Why you had to spread your wings so fast?
I'll never leave you in the past, nah

They killed my dawg today
It's crazy when they took my dawg away
So I'm going hard today
'Cause for me, he would be a call away
It's raining hard today
These teardrops, they keep falling, ayy
I gotta watch all my enemies
'Cause I know that they tryna get rid of me
They tryna steal all my energy
Plottin' and scheming, they tryna put an end to me
Know it's some people around me right now
They ain't right, they be moving too finicky
You act like I owe you or somethin'
Lil' nigga, I'm startin' to peep all your tendencies
But when I was down and when I was out
I couldn't call you, is you kiddin' me?

Nowadays, I don't even breeze through
Love my hood, but fuck it, I don't really need to
'Cause they killed my bro, they killed a part of me too
Now it's a hole in my heart everybody can see through

Tell me why did you leave so fast? (Did you leave so fast?)
Would you mind if I hold your hand tonight? (If I hold your hand?)
What are you afraid of anyway?
I'm not coming back, it's now or never
Tell me why did you leave so fast? (Did you leave so fast?)
Would you mind if I hold your hand tonight? (If I hold your hand?)

Trapstar, popstar
Trapstar turnt popstar

Trapstar, popstar, locked up, cop car
Bailed out, crazy how I still feel like I'm in jail now
Room full of bitches and I swear I can't even tell now
I don't wanna leave, bitch, I just wanna be by myself now
I feel all alone inside this world, girl, can't you tell now?
They say I sold my soul, bitch, I don't have a soul to sell now
Even though I'm winning, I been taking all these L's now
The odds are all against me, it's like they want me to fail now
Two days, I've been up for two days
Tryna figure out why the good gotta die young
I'm tryna figure out why we always gotta fall victim to the system now
Nick, give me some more volume, gotta pour my feelings out
Yeah, I know it took a while, but I think I get it now
Lot of niggas took my style, but I swear it's different now
But they tryna take me out so I keep a stick around, ooh

Tell me why did you leave so fast? (Did you leave so fast?)
Would you mind if I hold your hand tonight? (If I hold your hand?)
What are you afraid of anyway?
I'm not coming back, it's now or never
Tell me why did you leave so fast? (Did you leave so fast?)
Would you mind if I hold your hand tonight? (If I hold your hand?)
Now or never

Now or never

Now or never, now or never
Oh

Overall Meaning

The song "Zero" by Rocks begins with the lyrics "Tell me why did you leave so fast?" The lyrics are directed towards someone who has left abruptly, leaving the singer feeling confused and hurt. He wants to know why they left so suddenly and he wonders if they would mind if he held their hand tonight. The singer seems to be trying to come to terms with the loss of this person, but also seems to be struggling with the idea of letting go. He is not sure what they were afraid of, and feels like he might be running out of time to reconcile.

The second verse of the song takes a sharp turn, with the lyrics describing a death in the singer's life. They reference the loss of someone close to them, and the pain they are feeling as a result. Throughout the verse, they describe trying to cope with the loss while also dealing with people who are not trustworthy and trying to bring them down. The singer talks about the betrayal of people who were not there for them in their time of need and even hints at taking revenge on those who wronged them.

The final verses focus on the singer's own struggles, the people surrounding him, and the toxicity of his environment. He talks about feeling trapped, even after "bailing out" and being successful. He feels like he's been a victim of the system and that the odds are stacked against him, which has left him feeling alone and hopeless. The song ultimately ends on a note of ambiguity, with the words "now or never" repeated several times.

Line by Line Meaning

Tell me why did you leave so fast?
Why did you leave me behind so quickly?

Would you mind if I hold your hand tonight?
Can I find comfort in your presence tonight?

What are you afraid of anyway?
What's holding you back from taking risks?

I'm not coming back, it's now or never
There's no going back, it's a do-or-die situation

They killed my dawg today
My friend was killed today

It's crazy when they took my dawg away
It's insane how they could take him from me

So I'm going hard today
I'm pushing myself to the limit today

'Cause for me, he would be a call away
If he were here, he'd be just a phone call away

It's raining hard today
The tears won't stop falling today

These teardrops, they keep falling, ayy
I can't seem to stop crying

I gotta watch all my enemies
I need to be cautious of those who wish me harm

'Cause I know that they tryna get rid of me
Because I'm aware of their intention to eliminate me

They tryna steal all my energy
They're attempting to drain me of my power

Plottin' and scheming, they tryna put an end to me
They're planning and devising ways to bring about my downfall

Know it's some people around me right now
I'm currently surrounded by some questionable individuals

They ain't right, they be moving too finicky
I can't trust them, they're constantly acting suspicious

You act like I owe you or somethin'
You're behaving as if I owe you something

Lil' nigga, I'm startin' to peep all your tendencies
I'm starting to see through your true intentions

But when I was down and when I was out
But when I needed help the most

I couldn't call you, is you kiddin' me?
I couldn't rely on you, are you joking?

Nowadays, I don't even breeze through
These days, I take nothing for granted

Love my hood, but fuck it, I don't really need to
I have love for my neighborhood, but I don't rely on it

'Cause they killed my bro, they killed a part of me too
Because my friend was killed and it feels like a part of me is gone too

Now it's a hole in my heart everybody can see through
Now there's an obvious void within me

Trapstar, popstar
I went from a drug dealer to a successful musician

Locked up, cop car
I was arrested and put in a police car

Bailed out, crazy how I still feel like I'm in jail now
Now that I'm out on bail, it's insane how much my situation still feels like imprisonment

Room full of bitches and I swear I can't even tell now
There are so many women around me, I can't even keep track

I don't wanna leave, bitch, I just wanna be by myself now
I don't want to be alone, but I don't want anyone around me either

I feel all alone inside this world, girl, can't you tell now?
I'm feeling isolated in this world, can't you see?

They say I sold my soul, bitch, I don't have a soul to sell now
There are rumors that I sacrificed my morals for fame, but I don't have anything left to give

Even though I'm winning, I been taking all these L's now
Despite my successes, I've been experiencing a lot of losses lately

The odds are all against me, it's like they want me to fail now
The situation is stacked against me, it feels like everyone wants me to fail

Two days, I've been up for two days
I've been awake for two days straight

Tryna figure out why the good gotta die young
I'm trying to make sense of why the innocent often die early

I'm tryna figure out why we always gotta fall victim to the system now
I'm trying to understand why we always end up being oppressed by the powers at be

Nick, give me some more volume, gotta pour my feelings out
Nick, turn up the music, I need to express my emotions

Yeah, I know it took a while, but I think I get it now
It's taken me a long time, but I think I finally understand

Lot of niggas took my style, but I swear it's different now
A lot of people have copied my style, but I've evolved it

But they tryna take me out so I keep a stick around, ooh
But they're trying to harm me, so I have to keep a weapon on me

Now or never
It's now or never

Now or never, now or never
It's absolutely imperative that I act now

Oh
Indicates an emotional response or exclamation

Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Nicholas Cavalieri, Peter Kim, Rakim Hasheem Allen

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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Comments from YouTube:

Rick

3y↑34

That's an impressive set of specs to fit into the Zero form factor. If they can get their software support issues fixed this could be a fantastic all-purpose SBC!

Dean Styles

3y↑5

I'm interested in the potential of the USB-C ports on this board, possibly more versatile than the microUSB ports on a Pi Zero. I'm sure we'll see improvements in the software support soon.

Faithin Verity

3y↑4

I never tire of videos that explain how awful a random bit of hardware is. Please make more.

SolarWebsite

3y↑8

Looks a great board hardware-wise, but it clearly suffers from the problem many RspPi clone boards suffer from: lacking software support (at this point in time, at least). I hope that support improves, because this looks like it could be a mighty computer in a mini package.

Mak er

3y↑4

Hi Chris, good to see a review on a new SBC. I was very excited to see the form factor. As I have made lots of very small devices using RP0. One major missing component is of course, the camera port. For me this is a deal killer, yes I’m sure a webcam could be used but that’s not a option for me. I need my SBC’s to be able to run MotionEyesOS. Thank for reviewing this board, it was very informative. I hope to see more tiny SBC’s in the near future 🗓

Mark Donnelly

3y↑111

That looked like it had so much potential, but as the video went on, my enthusiasm waned. I am never impressed when software support isn't 100%. This looks like potentially a great device, let down by (for now at least) software.

Paul Luce

I like this board. It looks like something I would definitely buy if there was an OS available that was something like PiOS and not a version of Android. I remember trying to get DietPi to run on a Pi Zero, I didnt find it easy (probably more due to my pickled brain and lack of experience.) It really needs a supported OS that can be slung on and run so that it will appeal to all skill levels and guarantee sales and traction in the market place.

Adryn Charn

3y↑1

@Lassi Kinnunen 81 The special thing about this board is the size with that power.

Lassi Kinnunen 81

well it's just a sbc, with literally nothing special.

imho should have loads more of gpio or something. for the use cases you or someone else can figure out the software stack as long as the bootloaders there and info on access. if you just want to run desktop linux on arm there's dozens of boards for it. the hardware lacks basically any kind of a gimmick to make you use it, only possible reason could be availability over rasp options.

Adryn Charn

@Brandon Allen I wasn't supporting what they did, I was basically saying that the hardware on the board cannot be fully utilized because of the lack of sofware support.

Brandon Allen

@Adryn Charn That's true in any case regardless of the hardware, but releasing a product and and botching it's support this bad is shameful. Their site was offering a false sense of choice I mean the two other "officially supported OS' were dead links, the only ones that worked as expected was the unofficial twisterOS granted it was a beta, but it's rather crumby practice to tout something and not back it or at least offer support for it only a couple months in.

12 More Replies...

Davo CC

3y↑4

For me the turning point with many of these things is when Armbian start releasing builds; I run (amongst others) an original series Rock64 which I use as a server, Pine's reliance on community work was really showing problems but the Armbian build was miles ahead despite not being officially supported.

king of the pod

3y↑11

Just what today needed, a well spoken SBC demo and review that leaves me with the information I need to make a well informed purchase decision.

Paul Luce

3y↑4

I love Chris's barely contained joy balanced by mild frustration when tackling the unboxing of well or over packed SBCs with his faithful backup team of Mr Scissors, Mr Screwdriver and last but not least Stanley The Knife.

Colin Ames

3y↑3

Great review, as always. Great hardware, pity about the lack of software support

allluckyseven

3y↑2

Great video as always, Chris! Like others I'm a bit disappointed with this SBC in terms of software support, although I don't know what takes an OS developer company to port their software to a particular machine. How much of a demand would they need to sit down and actually do it, or even if the community would.
But this looks like a nice piece of hardware regardless, and I'd like to see how it stacks up against similar machines.

onlyeyeno

3y↑5

Thanks for another great "little introduction" to a new "SBC", and my commendations for always "holding back" until You can review the actual "sold product" rather than just "jumping on the launching bandwagon" with all the "caveats" that that forces those """reviewers"" to include. Also a special thanks for lowering the screen resolution to make it very "readable".
I find that there are far too many otherwise great "demonstrations/tutorials" that for some reason are made in the screen resolution that the creator uses for his own work rather than a resolution "optimised for the viewer". An oversight that unfortunately makes the demonstration/tutorial very hard if not impossible to follow if watched on a screen that is smaller than the one it was created on.....
So thanks again for all Your great work.
Best regards.

ExplainingComputers

3y↑4

Thanks for this. I am first an foremost a filmmaker, so always scale things in my videos so that they are viewable "lean back" on a TV, or on a small screen at low resolution. I used to shoot animation on film at the BBC, and if you took in artwork with lettering that would be too small in the final shot, they simply would not put film in the rostrum camera.

Pete VanDemark

3y↑5

Looks like a great piece of hardware but no software support, and can’t find one for sale anywhere yet. Hopefully it will all come together soon. Love it when EC has an SBC video. It’s going to be a good week!

AJ

3y↑4

Another great video as always, hopefully support on the software side gets better soon, if not I guess we'll have to wait for the Raspberry Pi Foundation to update the Raspberry Pi Zero which really needs an update on the specs! Too bad the Pi 4 is more important for them, it obviously makes them more money and R&D is not cheap!.

ConfuSomu

3y↑5

Apart from the current lack of software support, this is the Raspberry Pi Zero successor that everyone on the Raspberry Pi forums wants. The Radxa Zero has good connectivity with its USB-C ports and its support of USB 3 and 4K/60 over HDMI. Thank you for this great video!

Vocassen

3y↑1

Tbh no camera stack is a big letdown as well, especially with all that power

Permanent Wardrobe

3y↑1

My goodness. I wish I wasn’t old enough to remember using cp/m on my Amstrad PCW, my first PC (an Amstrad 1512), how much it cost and how pleased I was when I could afford a 20 gigabyte hard disk card. These things are amazing. Looking forward to quantum computing. Keep well.

Bharat Mohanty

3y↑11

Greetings from India sir...Excellent video...one thing I would like to add that community support makes any board successful......for example few years ago banana pi was the worst suported board alongwith orange pi...but now banana pi is in better position compare to orange pi...

MadManMoon The Gamer

3y↑1

Can't wait to see how this handles h264/h265 networked HDR UHD mkvs ... seems like it could be (with a little dev time) the ideal, cheap, hdmi dongle!

Beauregard Slim

Great review as always. My problem with this board is that needing 3A means it really isn't made for portability, even though the form factor would suggest it is. The Pi Zero may be slow, but it will run for a day on an 18650. If you do a future video with this board, it would be helpful to see how many amps it pulls at idle and maybe running a game emulator at 720p.

garret robinson

2y↑1

Chris, Thank you for yet another informative video! My name is Garret, and I'm an amateur computer hobbyist pursuing a a career in computers/IT. I'm relieved to hear that you struggled with this SBC as I have. I attempted to follow the radxa wiki instructions on altering the android bootloader (adb android tools) on both windows 10, and linux mint mate. I came closest to success on a lenovo t460 running windows 10. Can you make a video walthrough of installing any OS on the flash module? Thank you either way!

bogac kaynak

Thanks for another great review. I hope there will be a board with a good gpu support in the feature. More or less many of the SBCs available as of 2021 have anemic gpu performance for the streaming. I really wish someone or a company can produce a SBC with proper support for mainstream linux distro including proper gpu support. SBC field becoming crowded with products but without proper GPU acceleration and streaming support. Great hardware without software support is a bad product.

Marcos Codas

3y↑7

Ah, yes, the software issue. The reason why I sold my Rock64 and bought a Pi Zero W instead, and am muuuch happier, despite the huge drop in raw power.

Alex Tirrell

I had high hopes for this board and I still do! Hopefully they'll get on the support issues. I was able to find a spot on the web site explaining how to erase and flash the eMMC, but the images for some of the other OS's are still missing.
I was hoping for a bit more performance-wise in desktop Linux. Maybe it's the distro/optimization? Also, I wonder how this compares to a similarly spec'ed Pi4?

MotiOnTech

3y↑4

Beautiful, straight forward and honest review...... the software support is a bit of let down..... but oh well! We only need to figure out how to override emmc boot. Have you tried Ventoy or Yumi?

ShuttlePod One

3y↑9

I so hope support builds quicky. Looks like a very good SBC!

Perry McClusky

That is such an impressive board! Please test its performance after they get the software sorted out. Really, I’d like to see this board in another video in a few months. It may be the best zero type board yet, as far as hardware goes. Looking forward to your next video!!!

Gaptastic

3y↑2

Seems pretty powerful compared to PiZero. Look forward to followup videos of this SBC. Thanks again for sharing the video!

xYoshiox

It's sad that this awesome SBCs have poor software support, but I'm still tempted to buy one of these to test that sweet raw power.

Boris Levenzon

3y↑2

Thank you so much for the video as always, your content is brilliant. Chris can you do a shot of all your SBC/SoC collection? Would love to see this

Boris Levenzon

3y↑2

@ExplainingComputers aha exactly I know the collection has to be quite big. Would be awesome to see. Better yet make it into a poster and sell as merch 😃😃

ExplainingComputers

3y↑3

I've come closest to a group photo early in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcvMxC81r_g -- but still less than half of my little SBC friends!

Justin Champion

3y↑6

Christopher, thank you for another interesting SBC video (I love SBCs). I have to say, while I love the RPi Zero Form-factor, $45-$85 for a zero-form s905Y2 board is too much. At those prices why not run a CM4, given how much better the community support is for the RPi? Just my 2c (or 2p if you prefer). Thanks again!

arch1

3y↑1

the cost of cm4 and a good board is alot more than this, and the base cm4 does not have usb 3 ports

ExplainingComputers

3y↑6

To be fair to Radxa, the prices are $15 to $85. But your point is well made.

Nza420

3y↑4

I liked the way you as genially as possibly slam dunked the OS support of the board. Hopefully the developers watch this and rectify the situation.

Robb403

3y↑6

I hope that someone collects all of these SBCs and their OS for future generations to explore. A lot of technology is lost over time and that board you have could equate to C3PO's great, great, great granddad.

Alex Hudspeth

3y↑1

Or great great great great grandson? C3PO came online

A long time ago...

energyideas

3y↑8

Seems like the clear case packaging that the board comes in could easily be a clear case to operate the SBC inside if it had holes and a place to mount the fan.

Paul Luce

3y↑2

I loved the fact that it was in 4 layers of packaging.. shrink wrap/ cardboard sleeve/ clear plastic case and FINALLY... an anti static bag
.

Barry Clarkson

3y↑3

I love your video, thanks for all the work that you put into them. This looks like an interesting
board.

Maor Shliefer

2y↑2

"Come on browser! come up! You can do it.
There we are, always give it encouragement if you want it to work for you"
I just love the humor inside the video :) Thank you Chris for another very informative and well narrated video:)

Jim Donegan

3y↑11

One of these days I am going to look at the possibility of building a super NAS with an entire swarm of these SBC machines. Meanwhile it's really great knowing that you are keeping us all up to date with this gear. Thanks!

Poorgeniu5

3y↑1

Or a compact Kurbernetes/Clusters!

Jyv Ben

3y↑1

eta prime had video on that recently, could hold 2 full size and 2 smaller ssd.

Alex Hudspeth

3y↑8

This feels like the heady days of C64, when hardware outpaced software. Computer Wild West 2.0.

K.B. Tidwell

3y↑1

Man, I miss my Commodore.

Stacey Ayodele

3y↑3

Another good video.
Sadly this SBC lacks in the software side.
Makes me wonder though, why if all these SBCs run on ARM, is it hard to get software support? Is it that every single ARM SBCs has their own specialized firmware that makes it harder to develop software for or something?

Stacey Ayodele

3y↑1

@ExplainingComputers Wait...so if there's no standardized ARM platform, wouldn't that mean we're back to where we were in the 1980s with Commodore, Amiga, Atari, etc...
I mean at least we have standardized Operating Systems and filesystems now, but still...

My next issue is upgradeability with ARM systems. Every SBC (and even Apple's M1 systems) have everything soldered to the board and there's no upgrade path short of buying another one. Is that going to be the case with all ARM systems going forward you think?

ExplainingComputers

3y↑2

Thanks, and you are correct -- there is no standard ARM platform like there is with x86.

Steve Taylor

The RPi foundation hasn't updated the Zero in a while. Hopefully boards like this one will show how much more the platform can do for a reasonable price. Thanks for another great video Chris.

luke B

3y↑2

impressive specs for a credit card sized sbc cant wait to get one
Thx for the review chris😁

youzernejm

This board could prove great for a portable retro console build, much smaller than RPi4, much cheaper than CM3 or 4 (at least with adequate 2GB ram and no gpio pins), Retropie already available, it could really be great for that build. It would be a waste combining it with existing Pi Zero cases though, lack of buttons and analog joysticks would be a waste of decent power.

phil spencelayh

Reminds me of a Triton SBC I bought. It was faster cheaper and in every way superior to a PI. Eventually got an OS to boot but every time I tried to get it actually do something, it couldn't. So I threw it in a box and bought another PI.

piyush

3y↑21

Stanley the knife had been showing signs of aging.
Interestingly, here Radxa's GPIO pins are color coded. And the USB connectors are USB - C unlike micro USB in various other SBCs.

Paul Luce

It has always interested me that a lot of the non pi SBCs which use the same Pi originated GPIO standard.. use the colour coded GPIO connector whereas Pi Manufacturing do not...

William Horton

3y↑2

It's not age, it's character.

Kris Kruz

"Stanley the knife had been showing signs of aging. " - yes it needs an upgrade quick!

Joseph Tremblant

3y↑2

@haziqsembilanlima Correction, there are 2 USB-C connectors on the Zero board, 1x USB2(for power & OTG) and 1x USB3(Host)

haziqsembilanlima

3y↑1

It's still USB 2 so apart from convenience there's nothing significant

1 More Replies...

Ηλίας Ζαχαρόπουλος

3y↑2

Mixed feelings about this SBC. I've spent a lot of hours trying to install BSD to raspberry 3B+ without grate success, even if there are tons of articles and community support. I guess that with this little board things will go much worse

RoboNuggie

What BSD were you trying to install if I can ask? I've don't it quite a few times and it works perfectly....

Grey Line

3y↑2

Great video! My Radxa Zero arrived from allnet this week. The links on that Radxa site have been updated and they work. Looking forward to another Radxa Zero video as I'm interested to know what type of heat sink might be required.

ExplainingComputers

3y↑1

Thanks for the info on the links -- I'll try them again! :)

moutazmizo87

3y↑2

Great video as always, the SBC on the hand is underwhelming to say the least.

MarshMan

3y↑1

I love the specs of the Radxa boards but hardware availability is generally sketchy at best. Even before the current situation.

DukeSpook'Em

3y↑2

Shame there isn't more image support for the board yet, because I'm interested in it just on specs and FF alone.

somedeveloperblokey

Flail for the king baby!

MGSBESTProductions

I know it would probably be a bother but by any chance could you run cat /proc/cpuinfo in command line so we can see the supported instructions of the CPU? Thanks! Keep up the great videos!

Aftersun 20XD6

OS support and good GPU drivers is a must. If someone wanted to use this as an all around entertainment computer (games/videos/music/etc..) then getting the right OS and drivers is a must. I hope this improves because I really would love to get this SBC.

Jimmy GoldenDex

3y↑1

What an excellent SBC ... Amazing video as always .

ILLUMINATI

3y↑1

Shame I was considering buying from beginning of video. Since the support is quite slow I will pass and stick to Raspberry Pi. Thank you Chris for your great work. 👍

Roger Moss

Interesting, but, as usual, I'll be waiting for a while to consider it. I would, however, like to know more about that new Twister beta.

Insane Mainstream

3y↑37

Stanley is an underrated guest of the show. He has a sharp wit.

Christopher Smith

3y↑1

One might say that he can be quite cutting

Ben Abbott

one thing people forget with these when they compare to the zero saying how much better it is, is that even now with the zero 2, it fits all it's components on a single side whereas this needs both sides essentially giving them double the space. obviously once you solder a header onto it the space saved by doing that is negated but I do love the pi zeroes for that

James Collins

3y↑2

The date on that SBC is September 2021. Assuming this video took a couple of days to shoot, edit and process, that's an impressively fast journey from the factory to the consumer.

James Collins

@ExplainingComputers Thank you for continuing to invest so much of your own time and money into making these videos for us. Hopefully your recent problems with the unpredictable YouTube algorithm will come to an end soon.

MotiOnTech

@ExplainingComputers divine sync, the universe signals its approval

ExplainingComputers

3y↑1

This is correct. I pre-ordered the board on Allnet in late August and it was due "in about a week", and it arrived on time and shipped quickly. I got it Tuesday September 14th.

heck raiser

3y↑1

Mine showed up Friday and my experience has been the same. I spent all weekend trying to boot anything but android from emmc but I guess we're just not there yet. Disappointing but I'm excited to get things going once the support is better.

John Clarke

3y↑128

Mr. Scissors could have done the job, with his flashy dual blades on a pivot and handle with finger holes, but Stanley was there, basic but always willing and ready.

Paul Michael Freedman

Sounds like I'm back in Kindergarten.

Alan Livingston

A relationship with Stanley comes with thrill of risk of bloody injury that plain old meat and potatoes Mr Scissors can’t offer.

boink800

3y↑1

@Geoff Farmer Stanley the Knife is the sharp guy with the Cockney accent -- you know wadda mean, innit?

Geoff Farmer

Mr. Scissors must be cut up about losing out to Stanley.

boink800

3y↑2

I thought Stanley the Knife was banged up but it appears he's on bail. Philip the Screwdriver must be the one banged up now. Mr. Scissors is doing alright, it seems.

ProgressDay

Sad we won't ever get an x86 version of this sbc format. Closest thing is the rare Rock Pi X. Great video nonetheless! I love these things. 👍

Gustavo M's Trash Can

3y↑1

Honestly, Id consider it a "feasible Rpi alternative" if it had a lower energy consumption compared to a pi3.

allluckyseven

3y↑1

Chris, have you considered making a video about Raspberry Pi compute module clusters?
I believe it could get expensive making one with many CMs, but it probably could be pulled off with 2 or 3 just to start... If that would be of interest to you, that is.

Ric D'Intino

3y↑2

Hopefully after seeing your review, Radxa will improve the OS support situation.

Balsey Dean De Witt, Jr.

Interesting! Makes me want to get rid of my Pi's! 9:15 Twister OS I thought only had 32 bit versions. I think I'll get one of these and see if I can get Windows 11 to work.

CAPTAIN FYITA

When it comes to describing specs, this man is the best, his pronunciation is correct and on point, non of that five point "Ou" that every other claims.

Joseph M

3y↑1

I always thought of SBC's as something you use for a custom embedded products not to run desktop applications like browsers etc ... so I would think you would have to be an operating systems type programmer/hardware guy/gal.

Youri Khan

I wonder if it's possible to make it boot using the serial pins. (Like I do with the rpi zero)
It would make for a nice custom kernel development board.

BeOurBee

3y↑39

Christopher: "Mr. Scissors could have done that, couldn't he? But no, Stanley [the Knife] got in first."
Me: "Okay Keysha the Car Keys, got a few Amazon boxes for you..."

I'd be interested in seeing this device given the full Barnett treatment as far as benchmarking, projects, etc. Seeing xfburn in the menu from TwisterOS gave me an idea: what about a low-power, automated DVD cloner to back-up discs?

Real shame about the software situation, though. This seems worse than average for the time being, even among SBCs.

Paul Luce

3y↑1

Don't forget Harry the Hacksaw... 🤔

MotiOnTech

3y↑2

Seriously guys, don't forget Charlie the chainsaw!

Paul Luce

3y↑3

@Cindy SparkleFarts Don't forget Angela The Angle Grinder...

Parrot Raiser

3y↑2

Great "warts and all" review. If manufacturers are going to ship "machines", (which seems ostentatious for a small sheet of lumpy plastic with some plugs, however clever it is), in such a part-finished state, they ought to supply a "Basic steps to rolling your own OS" for it, at least as a downloadable PDF. It would be in their own interest, because that would be sure to get enthusiasts doing the job.
This class of boards is just barely competent as light, general-purpose display devices, but I have a suspicion that there is a niche for them that nobody has really discovered yet. I wish I knew what it is. :-)*

DFX2KX

The original Zero found use in all sorts of DIY projects that didn't need much power. GPS loggers, brains for robots and drones, dropping them into busted Gameboy Advance shells and making handheld emulation devices, I think there's a Geiger counter or two floating around out there, ect.

This gives you the option of having something in a similar size, but having way more power. I'd imagine it'd be used a lot in those DIY handhelds or cyberpunk-inspired 'cyberdeck' computers, perhaps.

Mads

This reminds us that we need some update for the RPI Zero. Some dual core, at least, would be fine

Dana Vixen

As a person who only dabbled with X86, this is what scares me about Arm... Arm seems to have a greater need for software tailored to suit each case for it before it works at all. x86 stuff seems to handle generic stuff much better and the methods of getting an OS to boot seems more straight forward

Phone Without Question

3y↑2

The Radxa Zero is probably the most powerful commercially available computer of this scale wouldn't you agree?

Igor Pecovnik

And it is constantly throttling.

ExplainingComputers

3y↑2

In the form-factor, yes.

Poorgeniu5

3y↑3

An RPi Zero sized board with USB C, built in memory and Wifi AC support sounds like the ideal base for an Pwnagotchi.

MotiOnTech

Nobody tell Hak5...... Darren will pwn the world with this board!

Warren Gibson

3y↑33

“Mists of time” indeed. Extra points for Chris! Literate tech presenters on YouTube are, as we say in the Midwest, scarce as hen’s’ teeth.

Ozymandias

Covering all the bases with those apostrophes I see 😉

Trashbean Soup

3y↑2

If Radxa is viewing this, may I make a suggestion?

Make the shipping box double duty as a case for the working board.

ninline2000

As with so many "Raspberry Pi Killers" the lack of software support lets them down. Impressive hardware but without software it's a niche system. What the Pi lacks in power it more than makes up for in the support.

Noah Boddy

3y↑2

And, once again, the old adage applies, "If it's too good to be true, caveat emptor." Thank you for posting this review.

Surya A.

3y↑2

Finally the video is out. And very full of information. Very interesting. Thank you so much for the video, Chris.

Nick Apperley

Would love to see ExplainingComputers do some video reviews on some open hardware SBCs this year :). Is ExplainingComputers planning to review some of the newer Beaglebone boards?

Thaddeus Cosse

3y↑40

That's the biggest issue, as always with these alternative raspberry pis, the software support.

David

@DFX2KX it's not just software support, it's community. If there's no community, there's going to be a lack of support all around.

DFX2KX

@boink800 Even 8gb of ram doesn't make the pi 4 THAT fast. There are other SBCs with the same amount of RAM, faster big/little setups, better GPUs... The only thing it's really got is software going for it.

boink800

@DFX2KX If you want a SoC, the Raspberry Pi 4 with 8 gb ram does have the reasonable hardware, with very good software support.

DFX2KX

3y↑1

@boink800 The problem is that as great as the software is, the hardware's a bit lacking if you want to use it as a full desktop replacement. I'd love to see something that has good software and fast hardware, but that might be asking a bit much.

boink800

3y↑7

That's why you get the Raspberry Pi -- it has the very best software support of any ARM SoC.

1 More Replies...

Bacon Press

3y↑1

Would love to see some of those features on the RPi Zero W! Thanks!

Alan Thornton

My Sunday is now complete. An interesting SBC (I feel there are too many choices) it would be more cost effective to manufacture & supply a standard board with GPIO headers, decent WiFi & Bluetooth leaving a choice of mmc & memory. It'll be a good board once it's updated with support for other OS's

John

That looks like a good basis for a physically small cluster. Pity about the OS situation.

Haku Arise

3y↑3

Board seems real nice, but, i wonder about external hardware support like screens that attach to gpio

Paul Luce

It would appear that most if not all SBC manufacturers have adopted RPI Foundations GPIO as a Standard.

Stephen Lawrence Mitchell

Interesting new SBC adding to a rather crowded field of competitors. It's a fun field to explore, for sure. Still, as this is in beta, it seems to lack some things, as you pointed out. It would be great to have a camera connection. I have nothing against eMMc drives. I use them frequently on certain SBCs that support them. Odroid, for example, has eMMc slots. At least mine do. The big question for me is can the eMMc module detach or is it soldered in. If the module could be snapped out and replaced with another eMMc burned with another operating system, that would be a great selling point for me. If Radxa wants to spend some effort on their current default OS, update Android for crying out loud! Beta's beg for input so it should be interesting, indeed, to see the finished project. I am very, very interested in this little toy thanks in part because of your video introduction to it. Thanks and sorry for the long comment.

Joseph Tremblant

eMMC on the Zero is soldered-in(non-removable)

Jens Schröder

Now at the end of 2021 I would either use the Raspberry Pi Zero W (which is well supported, cheap, but slow) or the Banana Zero (faster and software OK).
The Raxda Zero has a lot of potential when the software is running.

0x 52696368617264

Great review.

The Raspberry pi has a LOT of support, both official and community. Yet even with all this, I often still struggle to get my pi to do, what I want it to do. Virtually all software has 'issues' which need to be solved. Good software support is 'ABSOLUTELY' critical, without which the Radxa Zero will lead to a lot of frustration.

This board seems like a cross between the pi zero and the pi 4, with little to distinguish it. It's even more pricey. Perhaps the biggest advantage, the one you took immediate exception to, is that it comes in a whole range of configurations.

Honestly, if the Radxa Zero were the 'only' board on the market, I'd probably think it to be fantastic. But there's so much out there to choose from now, so I'm going to give this one a pass.

Leon Mailfert

3y↑6

Usually with Armbian you can do "sudo nand-sata-install" to copy the OS on to the emmc

David Fleener

@Igor Pecovnik I would call that a violation of the GPL, but not "piracy" since they didn't take something that belongs to somebody else through the use of force or the threat of force. If you seriously believe them to be in violation, you can take legal action against them (if they are in a country where the GPL is enforceable).

Igor Pecovnik

@David Fleener Armbian is open source software, all sources are available, it respects open source licence. Not a problem with that. Good luck finding sources for Twister. Can that be classified as a piracy or its alright?

David Fleener

@Igor Pecovnik Pirated? Strange word choice for open source software, but okay. From the Armbian Documentation page of your website: "Lightweight Debian or Ubuntu based Linux distribution specialized for ARM development boards".

Leon Mailfert

3y↑4

@Igor Pecovnik oh, I just realised that you are the Armbian author, lol

Igor Pecovnik

3y↑4

Twister OS is pirated version of Armbian. There is no Armbian for this board.

slembcke

3y↑1

Hot darn! A tiny little Vulkan capable SBC! Super temping to make a little handheld with that. :D

PSIHedgehog

3y↑2

I kind of wish you'd tested it out with Lakka OS as I'm curious how it would work in a Minty Pi and if it could emulate PlayStation games.

PSIHedgehog

3y↑1

@ExplainingComputers Ah. I was wondering what kind of capabilities it would have had as an alternative to the Raspberry Pi 0 in the latest revision of the Minty Pi since the two look similar. I might have had and RP0, but I kind of suspect it would struggle with Playstation 1 emulation. Plus the onboard storage would have been nice to have. Then again, Sony did release the rather small PlayStation Classic, so I could be wrong on that. On that note, I know that Retroarch has been ported to the PlayStation Classic, which is why I was curious about it.

ExplainingComputers

3y↑1

As far as I am aware, Lakka OS is only available for a Raspberry Pi. Pi OS images will not run on a Radxa Zero.

G GG

3y↑1

It’s a shame so many neat,powerful little SBC’s are released but starved of software.Always seems such a waste.

reggiep75

3y↑1

This is a well stocked board and if I was needing a Pi zero form board and didn't need a camera port, this would be top of the list as it ticks a number of boxes.

As for the different models, there's covering all your bases to make an impact but there really are more than enough configs of this especially when 4 might be enough with 512MB, 1GB, 2GB & 4GB RAM options. I'd potentially drop the eMMC and just opt for an SD card for all storage.

Asger Vestbjerg

3y↑1

Interesting board 👍😀
Thanks for sharing your experience with all of us 👍😀

D Lewis

3y↑1

Big pass. If they are going to have a page that says these OSes, there should be "These OSes". If they can't take the time control to even keep a web page UpToDate , it puts into a question how good the hardware is.

"I'm sure software support will..." Yeah, QC stinks but they'll change. Sure they will.

Маrio Mаrio

Amazing, whole computer, size of the bigger watch, and u can do so much with it!

TheBluadept

Amazing that you didn't dwell on how expensive this board is compared to the raspberry pi zero. $55 for this board is outrageous even if it was working perfectly. You need to make sure everyone knows this is a specialty board with a very small nitch that is going to sell in the hundreds not millions. Because of that, software support is going to be very slow developing if it ever does. In your excitement over a new board let's make sure everyone know this is going to be a small run system with very little system support. Not that it is a bad thing if you need it, but it is a very specialized product for a specific use case.

ExplainingComputers

The equivalent board to the Pi Zero is the 512MB model, selling for $15, as I clearly indicated in the video. But the 512MB Radxa Zero for $15 has a quad core CPU and USB 3.0, whilst the $5 Raspberry Pu Zero W is single core and USB 2.0. I completely agree that this is a board that will sell in low thousands compared to hundreds of thousands or more.

I stressed in three segments of the video the poor software support for the board -- which I think you'll find makes me very different to anybody else who has reviewed it on YouTube! :) I don't think that anybody could come away from this review without the impression that this is good spec hardware for those with good OS knowledge only.

Benjamin Salazar

:o thanks for sharing. I had no idea about this board, and was looking for something just like this. 👍👍

William Hart

Funded the hackboard 2 unhappy about the wait myself even though I'm hidiusly patient . great looking SBC good specs sadly not enough os support thanks for your patience involved with the review of the radxa 0