What is all this fascination about Rasberry Pi?

[Alpha]

I'm seeing it on the front page of all the major tech magazines now for months. For $25, you get your little own linux box, and the possibilities are endless. But realistically, what are you going to do with it?

 

http://www.raspberrypi.org/

 

If this thing came out 7 years ago, I could see it really getting a lot more usage, but now it seems we've adapted to run everything we already want on handheld devices (our phones... ? lol) with HDMI outputs and laptops. Hell, I would even add old XBOX's with XBMC, hacked PS3s, PSPes, DSes, etc. as more reasons why I never would need a Rasberry Pi for homebrew, Linux, and running miscellaneous software. All the hoo-ra seems rather pointless to me. If anything, it's eliminated the need for products like the GP2X (a million years ago ), as this thing is smaller, cheaper, and more efficient (just without the built in gamepad and little screen).

 

What are your thoughts?

[ken_cinder]

I own one and can use it for XBMC or anything else I want for that matter, just by swapping SD cards. It's the size of a credit card, only higher.

 

Seeing as it's just as capable, if not more, than something like an AppleTV or anything like that, and at less than half the price, I think it's a no-brainer.

 

I'm not retarded enough to own a $700 smartphone, or be locked into a contract with my cell provider in order to get one at a lower price/free(I'm on contract, but not locked in and my provider kisses my ass to keep me as a result), and never will be...the masses of sheeple can continue to be, but no thanks.

 

The old XBOX isn't powerful enough to stream HD or the like, or even high resolution SD for that matter. Hacked PS3? I know nobody with one...it's still a pain in the ass, and streaming video to the 360/PS3 is STILL lame as shit with no SMB support and lacking codec support and DLNA is fucking LAME.

DS and PSP aren't even worth mention here...

[sypherce]

I personally still want one of these things. Since months before it came out I thought it would be amazing to install it into an old NES and utilize all the built in ports, the controllers, power adapter, power buttons. http://lifehacker.com/rebuild-a-broken-nes-with-a-raspberry-pi-489799308 the guy on this page did it.

 

For actual functional uses, it has Nes, Snes, and XBMC, that's all I use my tv for already, for only $25 it's a steal.

[ken_cinder]

It's $35 for the Model B...the Model A might be $25, but it's rather useless given it has only 1 USB port, no Ethernet and 256MB RAM instead of 512MB.

[Hard Core Rikki]

It's cheap enough for impulse buys, throwaway experimenting and single tasks. Being ARM-based, it's also highly energy-efficient.

I'm picking up one or 2 sometime for local servers.

 

Its biggest flaw is it's not provided in a case but naked and vulnerable to static electricity, dust and other hazards unless you can find one not covering the ports.

Edited July 24, 2013 by Hard Core Rikki

[ken_cinder]

It's cheap enough for impulse buys, throwaway experimenting and single tasks. Being ARM-based, it's also highly energy-efficient.

I'm picking up one or 2 sometime for local servers.

 

Its biggest flaw is it's not provided in a case but naked and vulnerable to static electricity, dust and other hazards unless you can find one not covering the ports.

 

Actually it does come with a case, albeit a simple clamshell type one that it ships in, but it does have notches inside to lock the board into. Open it up for access, or you could easily take a dremel and cut holes where ports are to make it a permanent solution.

 

http://www.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-original-shipping-case-hack/