Registered, got the invite, but can't order

I registered a while back, and a couple days ago I got an email:

Thank you for registering your interest in Raspberry Pi. We are very pleased to tell you that you can now place your Pi order.

So I clicked the "Buy Now" link in the mail, and here's what I get:

Thank you for your interest in Raspberry Pi.

We know you have already registered for this great new technology, unfortunately we are currently experiencing a huge number of requests and are temporarily unable to take your order.

Please try the link in your email again later, we still have your place in line.

I've tried numerous times over the last several days and this is all I get. Supposedly things are opening up for a mad rush today, so I'd like to actually get my order in before it does.

Is this happening to everyone or just me? Is there an ETA for it to be fixed?

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morgaine over 13 years ago

This is undoubtedly a "Gee, thanks" reply, but I feel it has to be made anyway.

A month ago I got fed up with the Pi delivery situation and so I ordered a BeagleBone from Farnell to fill in the gap -- http://uk.farnell.com/circuitco/bb-bone-000/kit-dev-beaglebone-cortex-a8/dp/2063627 . The order was visible and trackable from my Farnell account like all normal Farnell purchases, and as usual, it arrived the very next day. Standard quality Farnell service, zero hassles.

The BeagleBone proved to be much more than a stop-gap: a high quality design, proper power management, native Ethernet interface on the SoC, both host and gadget USB interfaces, integrated 2-port hub on the gadget side, superb physical construction and far more useful dual 46-pin female headers for hardware interfacing within its Pi-size form factor. It has a different target audience than the Pi, not featuring on-board graphics, but it's a far more capable board in all other respects. Oh, and it lacks one other thing: Pi hype.

Why do I mention it? Because depending on your goals with Pi, you don't necessarily have to suffer the Pi ordering issues. As Eben has said repeatedly, "Raspberry Pi is just a standard ARM Linux box". Heed those words. There are alternatives to Pi, not only BeagleBone but also the new i.MX233-OLinuXino product line from Olimex. Although Pi has a specific niche on the media/graphics side where it is currently unmatched, for all other ARM applications you don't need to endure this suffering.

Morgaine.
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Former Member over 13 years ago in reply to morgaine

Is there any alternative to the pi that is the same price? You are absoulutly right, the pi is quite over hyped.
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Former Member over 13 years ago in reply to morgaine

Is there any alternative to the pi that is the same price? You are absoulutly right, the pi is quite over hyped.
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morgaine over 13 years ago in reply to Former Member

Daniel, it's apples and oranges, you can't really compare product lines directly.

BeagleBone is way beyond the Pi spec for anything except graphics, and if one is looking for an efficient server or hardware interface then it fits the bill perfectly and will do a far better job than Pi. For graphics, Pi has no competition, as I said earlier, so I'm afraid that suffering the Pi ordering process is the only option. A halfway house, cheap as Pi but like a non-graphical Model A, is Olimex's i.MX233-OLinuXino-Micro, at 24 Euros -- http://olimex.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/imx233-olinuxino-micro-doube-side-design-works-at-full-speed/ , price list https://www.olimex.com/dev/pricelist.html .

They all have sweet spots and they all have disadvantages. There is no such thing as the perfect ARM board. But if your application doesn't need graphics, then you have more options than just one. Pi fanbois of course have no options.

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