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Two million Raspberry Pi sold

raspberrypi.org

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Re: Two million Raspberry Pi sold

#31

Post by johnchristopher »

Theodores wrote: post #20

One of those two million is sat under my desk, collecting dust. I know a few others that are, and, I wonder what percentage of that 2 million are in the same situation? Because you need a few bits and bobs to get your pi working there is a major disincentive to complete and finish whatever that hobby project was to be. Hence the situation with my pi - the wait for bits and bobs, a small bout of illness and the initia…

> What I would like to see is a raspberry pi that works like a 'hardware virtualbox', networking over USB, power over the same lead so you just plug it into your PC/Mac and you have something right there, ready for whatever web/hardware development needed.

But it is. My Pi's are running headless and I access them over Ethernet. They suck less power than a VM running on a more powerful hardware and that's the point.

edit: I admit that it's easier for Web dev than for HW dev. I'd use Arduino for HW hobbies before a Pi if the project can be done with both.

Re: Two million Raspberry Pi sold

#32

Post by JetSetWilly »

I have found mine very useful. It turned my old USB printer into a fancy-pants wifi printer. It has been running tiny-tiny rss since google reader shutdown. It runs an irc bouncer for me. It runs a dyndns updater for me much better than my buggy router.

It would also run an rss-full-article-fetcher process I wrote but it turns out to be impossible-mission to get ghc to compile or cross-compile anything for arm.

I've found it really useful for lots of low-power bandaid solutions to various problems I have had.

Re: Two million Raspberry Pi sold

#34

Post by Derbasti »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #28
Derbasti wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! I am waiting desperately for a Raspberry Pi with an updated CPU!

What about the CPU are you waiting for? Higher performance? 64 bit vs 32 bit? And what is the application that is made possible by that you can't do now?

More cores, mostly. I tried using the Raspberry Pi with server software such as Owncloud or calendarserver. It just barely works, but it is still very slow. Like, response times upwards of four seconds.

Recent smartphone processors have since about doubled their clock speed and quadrupled the processor count. Even half that would bring response times below a second, which would be much appreciated.

Re: Two million Raspberry Pi sold

#35

Post by Derbasti »

joezydeco wrote: post #19
Derbasti wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! I am waiting desperately for a Raspberry Pi with an updated CPU!

Try a Beaglebone Black. Or move up to something like a Boundary Devices unit (Quad-core A9 @ 1Ghz)

Yes, I own a Beaglebone Black. But the operating system and the ecosystem surrounding it is oh so aweful compared to simply-Debian it-just-works Wheezy for the Raspberry Pi.

That probably doesn't matter too much if you are building some embedded thing, but I am mostly using my Pi as a web server, and I like that is so easy to set up and configure.

Re: Two million Raspberry Pi sold

#37

Post by cdcarter »

Theodores wrote: post #20

One of those two million is sat under my desk, collecting dust. I know a few others that are, and, I wonder what percentage of that 2 million are in the same situation? Because you need a few bits and bobs to get your pi working there is a major disincentive to complete and finish whatever that hobby project was to be. Hence the situation with my pi - the wait for bits and bobs, a small bout of illness and the initia…

> What I would like to see is a raspberry pi that works like a 'hardware virtualbox', networking over USB, power over the same lead so you just plug it into your PC/Mac and you have something right there, ready for whatever web/hardware development needed.

This is actually how the BeagleBone Black works. Install one driver, plus it in via USB, and it's powered and networked to your computer, and a JS IDE with GPIO control is automatically loaded.

Re: Two million Raspberry Pi sold

#38

Post by andyidsinga »

johnchristopher wrote: post #31
Theodores wrote: post #20

One of those two million is sat under my desk, collecting dust. I know a few others that are, and, I wonder what percentage of that 2 million are in the same situation? Because you need a few bits and bobs to get your pi working there is a major disincentive to complete and finish whatever that hobby project was to be. Hence the situation with my pi - the wait for bits and bobs, a small bout of illness and the initia…

> What I would like to see is a raspberry pi that works like a 'hardware virtualbox', networking over USB, power over the same lead so you just plug it into your PC/Mac and you have something right there, ready for whatever web/hardware development needed. But it is. My Pi's are running headless and I access them over Ethernet. They suck less power than a VM running on a more powerful hardware and that's the point. e…

its a good point about arduino being easier for hw dev than some of the other boards out there. Once you slap a full OS like linux on a device writing high level software is easier and very low level hacking becomes an exercise in operating systems and drivers etc etc and not a quick weekend long project controlling servos and whatnot.

I was particularly impressed with the approach of the Getting Started with Arduino book - for artists / non-electronics / non-programmers.

Re: Two million Raspberry Pi sold

#39

Post by Derbasti »

Theodores wrote: post #20

One of those two million is sat under my desk, collecting dust. I know a few others that are, and, I wonder what percentage of that 2 million are in the same situation? Because you need a few bits and bobs to get your pi working there is a major disincentive to complete and finish whatever that hobby project was to be. Hence the situation with my pi - the wait for bits and bobs, a small bout of illness and the initia…

My RasPi is certainly collecting dust as well, but not for the lack of uses--It is connected to power, ethernet, and an external hard drive. I only ever access it over ssh and never need to touch it.

It runs a Time Machine backup server, a calendar/contacts server, and Bittorrent Sync. Really, one of the best buys I made in the last few years! I literally use it every day!

Re: Two million Raspberry Pi sold

#40

Post by cdcarter »

middleclick wrote: post #12

I would love to get a Raspberry Pi but I don't know what I would like to do with it. Suggestions?

Get some GPIO breakout boards, and turn things on and off, read sensor values, and make an internet of things. Get some relays and learn how to turn off your TV/Sound System when it's not in use to save some power. Or control some christmas lights.
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