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What is benefit of buying a Pi rather than Linux Partition.

KeithSloan

I would like to read people thoughts on the benefits of buying a Rasberry Pi rather than just installing Linux in a partition on the family PC and dual booting.

  • in reply to morgaine

    I think the situation is a bit like the parable of the 10 blind men

    describing an elephant based on the part they happen to touch,

    where each has a completely different description.

     

    Some people see the gpu as the most important feature, and

    want to do home theater, but wonder why there isn't better

    digital audio output and mpeg2 decode.

     

    Some people see the low power as the most important feature,

    and want to run headless web servers, but wonder why the gpu

    exists at all, and would like to eliminate the hdmi and rca connectors,

    but would like to add a SATA connector.

     

    Some people see the small size and GPIO as the most important

    features, and want to do robotics, but wonder why the motor control

    is so limited, and wonder why there isn't any A/D or D/A conversion.

     

    Some people want to teach software development, and see low

    cost at the most important feature, and see the GPIO as just a

    hazard, and wonder why there isn't more SDRAM, and don't

    care at all how small it is.

     

    Some people see the RCA video as a life saver, and want to

    support in-dash displays, but have no use for HDMI.  Some people

    want to use HDMI displays, but have no use for RCA output.

     

    Some people see the 32-but cpu as overpowered compared to

    the Arduino and want to underclock to save power.   Some see it

    as underpowered compared to 64-bit multi-core alternatives and

    want to overclock.

     

    perhaps with sufficient volumes it will make economic sense to

    differentiate the product at some point.

  • in reply to Former Member

    Very nicely put, coder27. image

     

    And the true engineer will of course see the Pi as a bundle of capabilities for a very nice price, and harness as many of those capabilities as possible with a view to creating the most effective target application.

     

    This is true even in educational projects, and hopefully the Pi will spark enthusiasm also among those youngsters who are intrigued by hardware.  Some of those will then become all-rounded engineers, understanding both hardware and software, and  great things can come from that.

     

    Morgaine.