[GTALUG] Raspberry Pi as a desktop or settop computer

[Evan Leibovitch]

On Sat, Jun 22, 2024 at 12:13 PM D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <
talk at gtalug.org> wrote:

When the Raspberry Pi first came out, it was appealing to think of it as an
> ultra-inexpensive computer for your desktop (perhaps as a very secondary
> unit) or to play media on your TV.
>

I never thought the first two or three revs had enough power to do this.
They were a good fast way to learn Linux without reconfiguring a Windows
PC, which is mainly how I used them. I tried OpenELEC and some of the other
media distributions and was frustrated. IIRC you had to pay separately to
unlock hardware support for certain codecs.
Out in the world, paired with cheap peripherals they were a
ground-breakingly inexpensive way to create a WWW-access desktop.

Note: this wasn't the intent of the Raspberry Pi designers.  They wanted a
> totally hackable, cheap, simple (as possible) computer to encourage kids to
> dive into computing.  They fondly remembered they youth spent hacking and
> mastering BBC Micro and other home/educational computers.
>

That may have been how they started out, but things evolved. As a pure
hobby/maker platform they had solid competition from Arduino, but as a
cheap computer they had the field mainly to themselves for quite a while
before we saw workalikes like the BeagleBoard.


> There was little competition at the price point of the Raspberry Pi.


This self-awareness of early near-monopoly status went to their heads.
Wearing multiple hats and in many different contexts I found the Foundation
impossible to work with as a partner. This opened a window for others in
the space who were hungrier.

- a bunch of new SBCs inspired by the Pi have been released.  Each has its
> own advantages and disadvantages compared with Raspberry Pi models. None
> has the depth of support of the Raspberry Pi.
>

True that none of the others could match the community around the Pi. That
meant the Pi could have multiple custom Linux distributions for it while
with other boards you mostly had to trust the vendor's distro. But at a
corporate entity IMO the Foundation offered nothing that I would even
charitably call "support".

- Raspberry Pi models improved a lot but the price crept up.  Note: older
> models are still available at roughly original prices.
>

They came out with the Pico which seemed like little more than more
aggressively competing with Arduino. And the Zero looks more like an
embedded device than a hobbyist one.
Then, after a year the audience  were hoping for an upgraded  board from
the V4, all they gave us in 2020 was that embedded-in-a-keyboard Model 400
crap. The V5 didn't come out till 2023.
As far as I was concerned all of the innovation in that space was coming
from the case manufacturers.

- streaming media players were introduced at RP prices.  They play better
> with the many forms of DRM that infest the services.


Used as media devices, they also have much better UIs, remote control
support, etc.
IMO the Pi was never a credible player in this field. Nobody ever used them
as the core of a pirate media device.


> - tiny x86 boxes have become a lot better and cheaper
>

Just last week my technophonic friend needed a new no-frills PC to replace
their decade-old Dell. I helped them get an Intel NUC on sale at Canada
Computers. Small as anything, powerful enough for anything except gaming,
less than $600 complete, includes Windows and runs it well, and it still
has a 3.5" audio jack. A Pi 5 kit with all parts is about $250, but that
still means you have to assemble it yourself (with the added complexity of
needing a CPU fan) and primary storage is still a MicroSD card.

My current opinions:
>
> - instead of a desktop computer, consider a laptop.


I would only give that advice to people I dislike. I would say to avoid
laptops unless portability is a requirement.

There are SO MANY reasons;

   - Desktop RAM tends to be cheaper and more expandable.r
   - Desktops can upgrade their GPU to enable gaming, video editing or AI
   assist; laptops can't.
   - Picking the right keyboard for me is critical as it's where I spend
   most time interfacing with my computing world.
   - Ditto screens. What if you want yours higher resolution, or larger, or
   curved?
   - Most laptop keyboards and speakers SUCK. Ergonomics? Forget them. And
   not everyone likes trackpads as their pointing device.

The main reason for buying a laptop that's not mobile is for simplicity.
The components are all pre-matched (regardless if the matches are optimal)
and pre-assembled, including peripherals. If you have any interest in
expandability, gaming, AI, or decent input devices, a laptop isn't your
best bet.


>   That market is much larger and the competition has produced some quite
> good option.
>

The simplicity means that you can probably buy a laptop easily at Walmart
or Bestbuy.
As is frequently the case there are always tradeoffs as one chooses their
balance between simplicity and flexibility.

As for me... I have zero interest in the Raspberry Pi now. Its day is done
and its producers are jerks.

If anything, I am hoping to see the next generation of commonly-used
Raspberry Pi style experimenter boards to be using RISC-V instead of ARM.

- Evan
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