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Raspberry Pi 500+

raspberrypi.com

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Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#51

Post by JdeBP »

rbanffy wrote: post #2

> When we’re designing new Raspberry Pi products, we naturally look back to the computers of our childhoods: the tastefully beige BBC Micro, the Sinclair Spectrum with its rubber keyboard, the Commodore 64 “breadbin”, or the grandfather of them all, the Apple II. Now someone needs to make the keycaps with the right themes - black with function keys for the BBC, QL-looking for the Spectrum, shades of brown for the 64,…

Although for many years people have just been putting Pis inside actual home computer cases. In the BBC case, as a (software programmable) Second Processor connected over the Tube.

* https://youtube.com/watch?v=mP7fiaync5E

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#52

Post by qhwudbebd »

LiamPowell wrote: post #22

All the marketing for this advertises it as a desktop computer. What's the appeal of this compared to a cheaper and more powerful N150 NUC, or a used mini PC if it's for personal use where you just need one? A N150 has about twice the CPU performance, hardware video decoding that isn't crippled, and much more software built for its architecture among other things.

And the N150 had mainline linux support from day one, whereas I'm not sure if there's proper support for pi5-family devices in a released mainline kernel even now, two years after the launch.

They used to do an good-to-adequate job of linux support, but nowadays they seem rubbish at it. Nobody wants to be stuck on a downstream kernel full of cobbled-together device support that's too poorly-written to upstream.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#53

Post by wewewedxfgdf »

XorNot wrote: post #41
wewewedxfgdf wrote: post #16

What's the point of this? Where does it fit, who is it aimed at apart from Explaining Computers and good old Jeff Geerling (hiya Jeff!). Maybe if it has been designed into a retro style case or something? As it stands it's very hard to see who would want this.

This one has been on my radar as a first computer for my son for a while - just lock out the wifi and set it up with a "boot to basic" image maybe? Certainly something which could grow to support some Arduino work. EDIT: Admittedly this would be a no brainer if there was an off-the-shelf Atari ST style thing - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_ST purely for the sheer mass providing some protection.

Kids don't want "boot to basic". Old fogey's like me brought up on Commodore 64 look back on boot to basic like the good old days, but "boot to basic" is long gone and no-one is interested in that, except conceptually old people think it makes kids learn because that's what made them learn, but back in the old days you tolerated boot to basic in a world in which the only computer for 3 square miles was the BBC micro sitting in front of you.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#54

Post by florianist »

So many comments are very negative here. I'm currently using a Pi 4 as my home desktop computer and I will probably replace it with a Pi 500+. I really want to avoid a pre-installed Windows, want my computer to be 100% silent, low energy, and I fancy the computer-is-in-keyboard feel. Sure, I might get a mini PC for a bit cheaper but I like to support Raspberry Pi. The products are easy to get into, have great and lasting software support, and a large community behind it.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#55

Post by card_zero »

jsheard wrote: post #49
boredhedgehog wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It requires a separate keyboard, which means more space usage and more cables. And not sure, but I think the N150 has a fan, so more noise.

N150 machines come with or without fans, the chip is cool enough to run passively with a decent heatsink. e.g. https://www.minix.com.hk/products/minix-z150-0db-fanless-min... The ones with fans tend to be cheaper and have better sustained performance though.

Looks like the whole tiny case is the heatsink, I like it.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#57

Post by pengaru »

JonChesterfield wrote: post #17

I'm confused by the use case for this. The keyboard gets a cable running to a monitor. Might need a power cable as well but let's assume usbc covers both. An alternative is a raspberry pi on the vesa mount, or attached to the monitor arm. The cable to a keyboard is now optional, wireless USB being much easier than wireless displayport. Keyboard can now be flat too. When is this a good idea?

I thought these kinds of ~affordable computers in keyboards were obviously aimed at families/young users plugging into an existing TV in the living room, like a modern take on the C64.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#58

Post by LiamPowell »

XorNot wrote: post #40
ceayo wrote: post #35

The 20 dollar minicomputer has now become the 200 dollar rgb keyboard. Still, I’ve tried and using a raspberry pi as a desktop computer but everything is so impractical. Maybe the pi 5 is better, but I do not believe it’ll ever replace normal desktop computers. Raspberry Pi’s started as a small board which you can even run Linux on, with low power consumption, so toucan run it day round for services like home assista…

By the inflation calculator that's dead on the money though: https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1960?amount=1 > $1 in 1960 is worth $10.95 today $20 * 10 = $200

The first Raspberry Pi was not released in 1960.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#59

Post by threatofrain »

pjmlp wrote: post #29
threatofrain wrote: post #19

Depending on what you want to experiment with, a Mac Mini might be far more cost-productive for most people wanting to play with software and servers.

Sure, where can I get a new one at comparable Pi prices?

If you're buying Raspberry Pi's, either the form factor or power requirements really worked for you, such as if you're in robotics, IoT sensors, or hardware-adjacent stuff, or you knew you were spending a little bit extra for the hobby space.

That includes all the people setting up home labs for their own learning. An M1 is about $250 refurbished under Amazon's protection program. If you intend to use this as a hybrid device, which many frugal people do, then you'll also likely be using this as a desktop device connected to a monitor. The cost of electricity will rival your purchase in a year.

If you're gonna buy a throwaway computer for a child to experiment with, IMO a used Mac Mini delivers unbelievable price efficiency as a general-purpose computer. Use it as a server, use it for programming, use it for homework.

Re: Raspberry Pi 500+

#60

Post by boneitis »

Kim_Bruning wrote: post #13
OhMeadhbh wrote: post #3

Oh man! It has a REAL keyboard! TAKE MY MONEY!

Is it ... is it worth buying for the keyboard alone?

If it's just the keyboard appearance itself piquing your interest, you might check out the Keychron K3 (the brand has apparently grown a lot since I was last shopping around for keyboards, so it looks like they have a "K", "K Pro", and "K QMK" as well as several other "[Insert Letter Here]" lines of models now... back then all they had were K keyboards).

To clarify, this is to say I'm looking on their website right now and seeing at least five variants of "K3" alone.

It's hard to tell when all the promotional photos are showing either a partial shot or an aggressive angle, but it looks so much like my K3 that I actually thought they were going to say they collaborated with Keychron on the design.

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