Devterm vs uConsole, a look back today

I’ve had a Dev term from pretty much the beginnings, had some ups, and a whole lot of downs. Most of that time has had it sitting in a drawer. I finally broke down and bought a cm4/4gb for it and got Rex’s Trixie image loaded up and back operational. Used it today while moving some network switches around and needing a serial terminal.

I also own a uConsole with pi4/8gb, this is making a transition since I just received the Openterface V2. I’ve used this a lot without the KVM, and it gets work done. Depending on the work in front of me, it’s the right tool, but not always.

Now that I have a pi4 and can run the newer OS on the Devterm, I remember why I like it. When I need a serial terminal, the keyboard and display work better for me. This is one of the reasons I bought this in the first place, and reminded of this today. Wasted a lot of money along the way, A06 board that couldn’t be updated past kernel 5.10, tried a CM3 but the display doesn’t work with anything newer than the Clockwork release.

Once I get the Openterface V2 set up in my uConsole, I’m not sure which one will go to work with me each day. The uConsole can be used for a greater number of tasks, but the text being smaller kind of does hurt me. Might have to just come down to the tasks at hand, I think the old Devterm still has value. I also think they might want to consider a Devterm V2 that is CM compatible from the beginning, maybe with a newer display that plays along better, not sure.

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I think the biggest fix it needs is fewer keys so they can be normal size

I’ve used small keyboards for years, some better than others, these are OK. One of my most favorite of all time was a Psion series 5. But if they made a V2, I’d say they should chose a better keyboard, just better key action would be enough. I know better is out there, I’ve used tiny Bluetooth keyboards with better action in the keys, just a matter of cost.