I couldn't get them for use as ambiance devices so I bought some cheap Lenovo Ideapads, they work great.
At last, the Raspberry Pi shortage is finally coming to an end
31–40 of 153 posts
Re: At last, the Raspberry Pi shortage is finally coming to an end
#32I feel like the Raspberry Pi foundation hasn't met its objective of computers being accessible to everyone (eg. children). The Pi itself is prohibitively expensive, and it looks like they cater to companies first.
Arduino and it open sourcing the hardware meant very cheap but less powerful SBCs. I hope to see something in a similar vein from them.
Re: At last, the Raspberry Pi shortage is finally coming to an end
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree completely. I've ranted on this a bit on HN before but in many ways the Raspberry Pi is a victim of its own success. It more or less became the "jack of all trades master of none" for a staggering variety of projects and applications - even when it is far from the best approach. I personally cringe when I see people trying to string together a bunch of drives on a shared USB bus for a NAS application, or tryi…
The answer to all of this is "where's the fun in that"? I can afford to pay Amazon The original home computing explosion didn't come about because of the power of those early platforms -- it was because the thrill of accomplishing something under the limitations of a popular platform is the reward early pioneers needed to keep going. So yeah, the Pi is not ideal for so many use cases, but successfully arm-wrestling t…
> The answer to all of this is "where's the fun in that"? I can afford to pay Amazon How is this any different from self-hosting on any other hardware? Other than the admittedly fun and engaging aspect of putting the work in to string together a bunch of USB hubs, cabling, and SATA bridges, etc. I think a lot of that thrill comes from the challenges of pounding a square peg into a round hole along the journey.
Again, whatever works for you but it's been curious to watch it progress over the years.
Re: At last, the Raspberry Pi shortage is finally coming to an end
#34The shortage ruined the brand for me. Any sort of commercial product based on this cheap platform had supply issues, which caused a pivot. I had an old boss balk at me for suggesting we use Pi's back in 2013, I now see why. Glad to see the gouging finally come to an end!
How is that the brands fault? For better or worse they even prioritized commercial products despite it not being their core audience.
How is the impact of the brands choices the fault of the brand? Did you forget an /s?
Re: At last, the Raspberry Pi shortage is finally coming to an end
#35Excellent news. I just bought a Fujitsu thin client for €18.00 to scratch the Raspberry itch but will definitely try to get my hands on a Pi 4.
Can you run Linux on a thin client? Also where did you buy them for so cheap?
> Can you run Linux on a thin client?
Yeah, these originally came preloaded with eLux.
> Also where did you buy them for so cheap?
Second hand on Ebay, I'm located in Europe.
Re: At last, the Raspberry Pi shortage is finally coming to an end
#36Excellent news. I just bought a Fujitsu thin client for €18.00 to scratch the Raspberry itch but will definitely try to get my hands on a Pi 4.
Can you run Linux on a thin client? Also where did you buy them for so cheap?
This person has had success with the idea: https://weisser-zwerg.dev/posts/dell-wyse-fujitsu-futro/
Re: At last, the Raspberry Pi shortage is finally coming to an end
#37Thank god! I’ve been so frustrated I couldn’t get one of these and then put it in a drawer and immediately forget about it.
Re: At last, the Raspberry Pi shortage is finally coming to an end
#38Each time this topic comes up, some broad threads emerge:
- people saying that there are "more performant" devices. Sure, there are. How do they perform in terms of kernel support and documentation?
- people (often Americans) saying that the Pi has been "supply-constrained for five years". It really hasn't; it wasn't particularly supply-constrained in the UK until about five or six months into the pandemic. Yeah, some models have been more popular than they expected.
What I don't understand is this: how is it, if you've not been able to get hold of something for _five_ years, there's been no obvious co-ordinated attempts to get mainline support for the alternatives, or even any attempt to match the documentation? Five years was plenty of time to pick a single series of devices and match the same level of kernel support, surely? Couldn't it have been crowdfunded?
It's almost as if most of the people whining are just upset there isn't a cheap device they can drop into a Kodi box without any effort.
The truth is that the Raspberry Pi SBCs are unique because they are the product of their funding model. If you want "more performant" devices that are as good, you might need to front up the cash.
Re: At last, the Raspberry Pi shortage is finally coming to an end
#39The shortage ruined the brand for me. Any sort of commercial product based on this cheap platform had supply issues, which caused a pivot. I had an old boss balk at me for suggesting we use Pi's back in 2013, I now see why. Glad to see the gouging finally come to an end!
Just to reinforce what another commentor said, Pis were still being made available to sectors like business and education, so vendors who built products around rpi were still able to operate. We worked on a project in 2021 where we needed around 150 and had no problem sourcing them from a single vendor at MSRP alongside their product. Of course, that's not what I expected since I'd been personally affected by the sho…
What was the path you took to get volume from vendors? Any links would be most appreciated.
Re: At last, the Raspberry Pi shortage is finally coming to an end
#40Not sure if rpis are that relevant as of now when there are so many other, usually more performant and overall compelling offers in the same form factor and upstream support to a certain degree.
I agree completely. I've ranted on this a bit on HN before but in many ways the Raspberry Pi is a victim of its own success. It more or less became the "jack of all trades master of none" for a staggering variety of projects and applications - even when it is far from the best approach. I personally cringe when I see people trying to string together a bunch of drives on a shared USB bus for a NAS application, or tryi…
I'm looking for a noiseless low power NAS solution. Any recommendations?
After my transtition to an M1, now I can't stand any fan noise running on the background.