I don't think they are out to compete with anything, but provide educational tools and an amazing community.
So I believe a lot of people simply misunderstand what the Raspberry Pi foundation is trying to do.
So I believe a lot of people simply misunderstand what the Raspberry Pi foundation is trying to do.
My first thought was that what you want for education is a best bang for your buck computer so that a student has an affordable option. In that sense the most competitive option would be the best choice.
But I’m probably missing some extra feature or idea that makes the pi a better option even if comparatively more expensive? What’s is it?
Back in the 90s, schools were filled with either IBM or Apple computers. Not because they were cheap, but because they were predictably compatible with the types of software that educators wanted to use in those environments. They could’ve bought cheaper clones.
Pretty much any computer that runs windows or a Linux distro will have access to equivalent tooling, wouldn’t it?
https://www.raspberrypi.org/about/
https://www.raspberrypi.org/research-impact/
https://www.raspberrypi.org/teach/
https://www.raspberrypi.org/learn/
It wasn't until later that hobbyists and commercial interests also started using Raspberry Pis for things outside of the classroom. But that's where they came from.
The foundation still owns part of the quoted company and retains its educational purpose but it doesn't make the computers now.
It never did. The structure hasn't changed meaningfully recently, apart from the massive windfall of floating the commercial arm.
The foundation's purpose hasn't changed, its just now a fucktonne richer.
But the thing I'm not quite sure about is why that matters, virtually every other player, apart from adafruit is a corporation all about shareholder value.
Not true that nothing has changed though. Commercial arm has to answer to outside shareholders now which wasn't the case before.
Well it wouldn't have GPIO and really well written docs on how to use those GPIO.
You have to remember how hard (and expensive) embedded linux was until raspberry pi came along. Sure you had gumstix and BeagleBoard, but they were >$300 and needed a fuckton of work to get going. Even more so before you could deploy anything workable to it.
Lattepanda is a thing now & no one is forcing you to buy an Rpi.
How many $200 all in one machines have a fully hackable RGB keyboard with public firmware and docs to make your own firmware, plus a SBC to do basic computer thing?
if thats expensive, then perhaps just buy the 500, it half the price.
obviously QMK exists https://www.keychron.uk/products/keychron-q6-he-qmk-wireless... but that doesn't come with a SBC