Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions • Hacker News Board

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions

#121

Post by kingosticks » Sat, Nov 07, 2020, 8:17 PM UTC

HeyHoJoe wrote: post #37

simonh wrote: post #34

So going through the actual comments here, what this really needs to make a compelling product is: A built in touch pad, an audio jack, a full size HDMI port (even thought the accessory set includes an HDMI cable), an M.2 or SATA connector and a backlit keyboard. Anything else? Maybe an Intel processor, Windows, a built in battery and a hinged screen that folds down over the keyboard. Are we getting there yet?

That’s sort of the point, there’s lots of demand for a cheap laptop, there’s very little actual demand for the raspberry pi, which is why everyone is trying to morph the rpi into a laptop.

You do realise how many they have sold, right?

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions

#122

Post by kingosticks » Sat, Nov 07, 2020, 8:21 PM UTC

shams93 wrote: post #94

walrus01 wrote: post #73

One of my main concerns about the use of a raspberry pi as a desktop PC is microSD card write lifespan. microsd cards were not meant to be used as the boot disk for a live operating system. The amount of times you can write over one sector on them, and the write wear leveling algorithms, are much worse than even a $45 consumer grade SATA3 interface SSD. Yes you can now boot a raspberry pi from an external usb3.0 hard…

While the pi gets better and better this is still meant for the classroom rather than the enterprise user. Apple moving to arm will help with docker image availability however you’d need faster clock speeds and a lot more ram to be use for local development.

Upton talks about enterprise usage in https://www.hackster.io/videos/774 but as a thin client. I got the impression they are pretty interested in that market.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions

#123

Post by mikkelam » Sat, Nov 07, 2020, 8:30 PM UTC

walrus01 wrote: post #73

One of my main concerns about the use of a raspberry pi as a desktop PC is microSD card write lifespan. microsd cards were not meant to be used as the boot disk for a live operating system. The amount of times you can write over one sector on them, and the write wear leveling algorithms, are much worse than even a $45 consumer grade SATA3 interface SSD. Yes you can now boot a raspberry pi from an external usb3.0 hard…

I've been using log2ram [1] which helps my sd cards survive longer than otherwise.

[1] https://github.com/azlux/log2ram

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions

#124

Post by elcritch » Sat, Nov 07, 2020, 8:35 PM UTC

rainworld wrote: post #92

walrus01 wrote: post #73

One of my main concerns about the use of a raspberry pi as a desktop PC is microSD card write lifespan. microsd cards were not meant to be used as the boot disk for a live operating system. The amount of times you can write over one sector on them, and the write wear leveling algorithms, are much worse than even a $45 consumer grade SATA3 interface SSD. Yes you can now boot a raspberry pi from an external usb3.0 hard…

Industrial-grade SD cards seem to be the way to go: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16776344

They'll still fail fairly regularly if you have regular power outages (a reality in many IoT systems). Speaking from experience with several industrial card brands. Also they're as expensive as just buying a USB or even full SSD drive.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions

#125

Post by elcritch » Sat, Nov 07, 2020, 8:39 PM UTC

freerobby wrote: post #114

castratikron wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you save the log on a reboot or power loss?

I have a reverse-ssh tunnel + script to upload the logs to my home server on demand. If the MCU crashes or reboots unexpectedly, I would lose those logs. Ironically, my system for downloading the logs writes them to an SD card on a raspberry pi.

Just stick a secondary USB drive in and do your log writes there. Then your SD card won't have the wear and tear.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions

#126

Post by HeyHoJoe » Sat, Nov 07, 2020, 8:52 PM UTC

FandangoRanger wrote: post #113

HeyHoJoe wrote: post #25

> I own several Raspberry Pi computers (1, 2 and 3). Most of them are the Model B format, but I have couple of Zeros too. All of them sit in a box, unused. Same for me and most people I know who have bought an rpi. Buy it because it seems like a cool toy and then stick it in a box and never use it for anything.

I notice this comment repeated on every web site, Reddit, Slashdot, even 4chan. It’s too similar and comprehensive to be anything but astroturf. My suspicion is Intel’s still got sour grapes about burning billions on Edison, and are extra angry that people seem to be doing just great without x86.

Nah, I’m a real user. I just don’t find the raspberry pi to be very useful for me, even as a toy. Seriously, you think intel is going around badmouthing the raspberry pi because they’re threatened?

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions

#127

Post by HeyHoJoe » Sat, Nov 07, 2020, 8:56 PM UTC

kingosticks wrote: post #121

HeyHoJoe wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s sort of the point, there’s lots of demand for a cheap laptop, there’s very little actual demand for the raspberry pi, which is why everyone is trying to morph the rpi into a laptop.

You do realise how many they have sold, right?

Yeah, I bought some of them. I use none of them. There’s more demand for laptops.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions

#128

Post by sys_64738 » Sat, Nov 07, 2020, 8:58 PM UTC

HeyHoJoe wrote: post #25

> I own several Raspberry Pi computers (1, 2 and 3). Most of them are the Model B format, but I have couple of Zeros too. All of them sit in a box, unused. Same for me and most people I know who have bought an rpi. Buy it because it seems like a cool toy and then stick it in a box and never use it for anything.

Your buying it wasn't in vain as it allowed the RPi 400 to be made. Without people buying it would have petered out.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions

#129

Post by sys_64738 » Sat, Nov 07, 2020, 9:08 PM UTC

Can you connect a USB keyboard to the RPi 400?

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 – First Impressions

#130

Post by 29083011397778 » Sat, Nov 07, 2020, 9:11 PM UTC

LeoPanthera wrote: post #112

walrus01 wrote: post #73

One of my main concerns about the use of a raspberry pi as a desktop PC is microSD card write lifespan. microsd cards were not meant to be used as the boot disk for a live operating system. The amount of times you can write over one sector on them, and the write wear leveling algorithms, are much worse than even a $45 consumer grade SATA3 interface SSD. Yes you can now boot a raspberry pi from an external usb3.0 hard…

If you have a home NAS, you can netboot the raspberry pi. I have five or six pis around my house doing different things, and they all netboot. https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberry...

This is what I've done with mine, and it works a treat. Never having to worry about uSD card lifespan or troubleshooting why my Pi won't boot randomly is fantastic, and I cannot recommend it enough.