On 1/6/2014 9:23 AM, Larry Stotler wrote:
Then something like the underpowered Raspberry Pi comes out & people fall all over themselves to add support for it. For not much more than the cost of a RPi, I can pick up a cheap Pentium 3 laptop off eBay, which would have same as or more RAM(The RPi originally only came with 26MB, but 512MB is now standard), better expansion & have basically a whole computer that's better supported and much faster(I doubt that the armv6 core in the RPi is faster than a P3/500 at most things).
For 35 bucks you get a whole computer with the Pi. For about $65 you get a bunch of auxiliary features like a power supply case, cables etc, that you really don't need. But the $35 price includes every thing you really need, including a fully capable linux distro (three of them actually, as well as BSD). Up and running in 15 minutes, and, sporting the same processor as the Iphone 3Gs, it is no slouch in performance. The Arduino by comparison is bereft of physical ports, even when you buy the $74 dollar version (seemingly always out of stock), dramatically slower, still wide less capable than the Pi by a wide margin. And the distro(s) available for Pi are largely complete, Debian linux, which every interested 7th grader can manage But most importantly it WORKS OUT OF THE BOX. Why? Because it is capable enough to warrant the development. It has all experimental capabilities bolted on AFTER the fact, rather than as the principal raison d'etre. So the kid can blink silly the LEDs on the auxiliary breadboard kits and build the robots etc, but the basic computer is capable all by it self of handling real world loads. And supporting the ARM processor is NOT harder than supporting the multiple versions of Intel concurrently available. Its essentially no harder than a recompile of the distro with different switches. The problem isn't with the PI, its with YOUR expectations. You expect the ThinkPad to handle modern workstation loads and Bloated desktop environments. Why? Well it LOOKS just about like the machines that DO handle that load. But the P3 was releases almost a DECADE prior to the Raspberry PI processor. The Pi? Nobody expects to put KDE on that, they expect to run at the command line (although it has a Graphical User Interface if you want). It has a better chance of running KDE than that your P3. -- _____________________________________ ---This space for rent--- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org