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Comment by lostmsu | Hacker News Reader

If Pi was chosen for its price, there are quite a few laptops on Ebay, that would have been much cheaper.

The value of the Pi is, that it is affordable brand-new. You can buy one or as many as you want and be sure that they are in a perfect working state, no repairs or special set up required. Just having identically machines is of extreme high value, if you are looking not only for a personal item, but something you can rely on for some kind of professional work.

Another nice thing is, that the Pi can boot and work solely on a single micro-SD card. That makes it easy to have any number of install "disks" ready at hand, you don't have to set up the systems hard disk first.

Finally, the Pi gives you a nice set of IO-ports, you can immediately start with any hardware tinkering project.

Affordable is relative. Once you factor in a power supply, mouse, mini-hdmi cable and SD card, you're looking at the best part of £100. And that's if you already have a monitor or can use the TV

There's a hell of a lot of ex office PCs that can run python for much cheaper, if not for free

Yeah but then you have to do the research that you have all the correct drivers and so forth. Also with time things such as harddrives deteriorate. And also by your same logic. If you are able to get computers for free then you would also be able to get the keyboards, mouses and displays for free right?

I'm not talking ancient computers. A Core 2 is still a very capable machine nowadays. That age of hard drive is hardly breaking left right and centre

I think you are missing the point. Doing that for one machine for yourself: easy, cheap, maybe even fun. Doing that for 5-10 unknown machines for other people to use in a class... Each may be different, you have to setup each one, they may fail or misbehave at any moment, even during class... Not my idea of easy, cheap or fun. Talking from experience in exactly that kind of situations, working with donated hardware in a school setting.

Yes, you can get a random PC that is faster than a Raspi for cheaper. But it is a random used PC which you have to individually set up. Not counting that it is much larger, usually not portable and needs more electricity.

The Raspberry Pi 400 is a pretty much usable desktop computer out of the box which you can buy as a complete set for 100€ new, including a nice book. It is also very nice to use as it is compact, very portable and doesn't need more than an USB power supply.

In comparison it is very easy to grab an used screen, as the screen doesn't need to be set up. In addition, the Pi works well with a current TV. Brings back the best of the home computer age in the 80ies.

I'd agree that, in a teaching context, it's vital to have a consistant hardware / software experience - especially with beginner users, even different keyboard layouts are going to cause confusion. The Pi 400 is a great device, nice and compact - if you get the starter kit you just need to add a monitor / TV. That does somewhat assume someone has a bit of room, though - some space to plug in to what might be a shared TV. The really nice thing about Raspbian is that is does actually work on older laptops (with a couple of catches - no free Matlab), so, if you have an older laptop available and can spend a bit of time setting it up, you can give someone a very similar experience on a more all-in-one device.

> There's a hell of a lot of ex office PCs that can run python for much cheaper, if not for free

There are plenty of places that would donate to a cause like this. Or to anyone willing to cart the stupid hardware away, regardless of the cause. It is only "free" if one considers their time - and somehow, the gasoline they buy - to be worthless. The hours spent soliciting offers, picking up hardware, performing admin and tech tasks on old hardware, recycling the hardware that doesn't work, rinse and repeat would better be spent preparing a curriculum for the children.

Seriously, how does the above process not sound like hell to you?

But also now you have to try and fix up five rando laptops that you got off ebay or friends. Who knows what the state of the batteries, screens, keyboards are.

The pi400 kit is $100. Flash five cards and you are done. If you scavange anything it's monitors, there is a whole aisle old flatscreens at my local goodwill, you could find decent enough ones for under $20 apiece. Alternatively any local techish business probably has a closet of monitors they would happily give away just to get them out of the building.

If you're a broke kid who knows computers, then old office PC is 100% the way to go. A bike, $20 and craigslist ad and some door knocking will probably set you up by the end of the day.

If you're trying to help other people, something new in box is 100% the way to go. It's not worth the time of gathering and messing with dissimilar hardware.

Both valid strategies. A question of pull vs push.

Likely, as it was the library that bought them they had to buy via a pre-vetted supplier. Also, if you bought from eBay I'd be quite surprised if your overall time costs didn't multiply. There's something to be said for the Pi's ability to work right out the box without having to do any additional OS configuration.

The Pi also has the advantage of having a huge huge community, so any of the people learning from this person and deciding to get a Pi of their own will be able to find a lot of help online while they are experimenting with the Pi at home

You get what you pay for though, you don't need to spend hours cleaning up someone else's grubby old laptop, and it's a consistent and open source system.

Chances are you don't have to spend hours cleaning up an used laptop. 15 minutes should be sufficient to get rid of dust and upgrade memory of an old Thinkpad for example.

I agree about the open source part though, Raspberry Pi is a good fit for teaching purposes.

> chances are

There you have it

Not in my experience. In fact one in particular would have been more suitable for the furnace.

The advantage of giving a "toy computer" to a kid is that parents will not freak out if the kid tinkers with it. If a 10 year old opens their laptop, even a cheap one, a lot of parents will freak out.

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