Jack Lang - Chairman of Raspberry Pi gave a great talk at Business of Software Europe on how RP came to be and its success since.
http://businessofsoftware.org/2015/11/the-story-of-raspberry...
Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer
201–210 of 521 posts
Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer
#202Amazing. If only I'd get my act together and do all the amazing stuff I planned when I bought my first pi - then I could justify buying this
Two years after buying mine, I put the pi to a good use only last week! Now I am using it as ad-blocker thanks to http://pi-hole.net/ , works like a charm. I ported the web interface for pi-hole to Go single executable ( https://github.com/girishso/pi-hole-web ) Now looking for something interesting to do on my second pi! Edit: Added pi-hole-web link.
That's great, thanks!!
I have a pi as a media server* connected to a projector via HDMI, that reads media files from a NAS on my home network; very efficient and lightweight.
I will definitely try pi-hole; maybe I can have both running on the same pi.
* via Raspbmc, which I just found out has apparently ceased to exist...
Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer
#203For $5, I'm in. Now: What the heck can I do with it?
Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer
#204Amazing. If only I'd get my act together and do all the amazing stuff I planned when I bought my first pi - then I could justify buying this
Same here. Had them laying around for two years before I dusted them off to port Processing to it (shameless plug: https://github.com/processing/processing/wiki/Raspberry-Pi).
Still haven't done anything truly original, but I learned a lot about the hardware and the kernel writing the scaffolding and plumbing - and hoping that this will make the curve less steep for the ones that do.
Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer
#205The 80s are widely considered as the golden age of hacking, but what the hell? I just bought ten microcontrollers that can run Lua/Python/C for $20, there are full-blown computers for $5, and all the supporting ecosystem (sensors, components, etc) is cheaper than most toys. I am very optimistic about the future, given that people (and children) these days have trivially cheap access to powerful programmable and easil…
Plus standardisation (linux, usb, arm, etc) which I understand was one thing lacking in the 80s.
Lacking because we were building it.
Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer
#206Raspberry still costs more than 100$ in my country, due the rarity of such tools sometimes we found ourselves obliged to buy it with that price and pay the difference, and even though this is such a great step, i really doubt it would have any effect on 3rd world countries where this is really needed.
Sounds like a big market opportunity (if a market exists!) - import a couple of thousand and resell them at a nice markup.
Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer
#207Next awesome step would be RPi with integrated wifi/bluetooth, and it would become ultimate IoT/embedded development platform. Such step would increase price, I know, but AFAIK, most people are almost always buying either wifi or bluetooth dongles anyway. All in all, RPi ables to deliver exciting, rather (for me) unexpected and most importantly great and user-friendly products.
Have you heard of this? http://vocore.io/
Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer
#208I find the lack of ethernet or wifi concerning. I get that they're trying to keep it small and low cost, but I can't immediately see any use for a Pi that can't run standalone.
I can think of plenty of interesting projects¹ where the Zero is perfect as-is. However, you can just add WiFi or Ethernet via USB if you need it.
Remember, on the first Raspberry Pi, the Ethernet port was connected via USB internally, too.
¹ One example https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1985705009/piplay-deskc...
Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer
#209Oh Nice! They are finally delivering on what I feel was the great promise of the Raspi in the beginning. Full linux install in the size and price of a micro (read: Arduino).
Some people are bound to gripe about the "lack" of ports but its not like this one displaced the A or B models. Its just another spin of the concept where you don't have to pay for expensive physical parts you don't need. Its a linux server at a price cheap enough to buy one for each little project you want to do and then leave it there. Makers rejoice.
I've got to hand it to the Raspi folks. They've really done an outstanding job creating their product line and getting it out to the masses. When they started, there was nothing but a sea of vaporware and "next-year" promises in the inexpensive SBC linux world. I rather famously doubted them at first. I am very happy to have been wrong.
Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
> (Although it lacks WiFi AC that the new chromecast has, and probably way weaker graphics, but a cheap WiFi adapter or ethernet and having most stuff streamed should be workable.) This irks me a bit with the new "$5" RPi. Yes, it's $5… For a device without a power cord, without networking, and where you need adapters (and/or solder on a UART) to plug anything into it.
So... you will need to buy a power adapter and an Ethernet cable? That will come to, what, another fiver?
There's no ethernet port. So, also an ethernet adapter. But there's only one USB port (µUSB, too, so you most likely need an adapter to regular USB). So if you want more than just ethernet, you'll need an USB hub. But the RasPi's power supply has always been weak, so better get an actively powered one…
And soon you're paying four times as much for the accessories than for the RasPi.