this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
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I remember when the Raspberry Pi was the amazing $15 computer. Times have changed.
Amazing for what exactly? I remember them being unreliable, slow af and not really good for much other than collecting dust.
I mean sure the idea was cool, in principle, but they needed a serious upgrade in specs. Now they got it and everyone bitches bc it comes at a price?
The first models were rough on reliability, but they got a lot better around Model 2B and onward. SD cards with A1 or A2 rating help a lot.
I don't need any of those things tho. Mostly what I need is decent IO throughput which was unnecessarily constrained on earlier pis by poor design choices. The pi4 is the first to really shine in that regard.
I have a pi2 and I used it as a libreelec media center, and it was Ok in that capacity, but it's far too slow to transfer larger files regardless of how you do it (all relies on a slow usb interface).
Idk about everyone else but I was fine with the specs. A basic Linux machine that can hook up to the network and run simple python scripts was plenty for a ton of use cases. They didn't need to be desktop competitors. The market didn't need to be small form factor high performance machines, and I'd argue it wasn't.
I mean they've found enough use cases that the power increase was a much-requested upgrade.
For the simple python script uses you just mentioned, you can still pick up older pi boards for cheap or just get a pi zero/zero w.
It's still not a desktop competitor in general, but if someone wants a really cheap computer that's widely supported, at least it's a viable option now.
They still sell the old slow ones don't they? from the website: "Raspberry Pi 1 Model A+ will remain in production until at least January 2026" "Raspberry Pi 3 Model B will remain in production until at least January 2028" etc etc.
If you like pain, go get yourself a rpi1 lol. As for me, idk... I'm drawn more to VMs and containers which can run very well even on a 2011 tower pc (with few upgrades over the years).