RPi use cases explained

The RPi FAQ says:

Can you test it to make sure that it is suitable for <X>?
If you want to use it for something that we haven’t tested, and that it’s not intended for (i.e. anything but the educational work we’re planning for it), then that development work is up to you.

Although they realize that inexpensive computers will be used for more than just

education, and they don't discourage that, they want to be sure that you know that

they're an educational charity and they don't want you asking them to do any work

that falls outside the scope of that mission.

But then we see a press release from Collabora that appears to indicate that

non-educational use cases such as advanced multimedia playback, complex digital signage,

and set-top boxes, are driving the RPF's recent improvements to the VideoCore firmware:

While collaborating with the Raspberry Pi foundation, improvements to the VideoCore firmware were made by the foundation to further the performance and stability of the Raspberry Pi. Despite the full-featured drivers for X11, it wasn't previously possible to meet the requirements of certain use cases such as advanced multimedia playback, complex digital signage or set-top boxes.

http://www.collabora.com/press/2013/05/collabora-brings-wayland-and-x11-graphics-performance-to-raspberry-pi.html

Parents

GreenYamo over 12 years ago

I'm now volunteering an hour a week in a local school, helping to run an After School club (Coder, you kindly supplied some suggestions when I posted about this elsewhere as to what we could do to get the children interested).

I have tried, several times, to look for educational resources that will tie both the Pi and the current syllabus here in the UK together, and unless my Google skills are seriously lacking, there seems to be nothing. Even on the Education section on the Pi forums, there is very little to build on. I can only imagine this is echoed up and down the land many times over.

There is nothing wrong with building a £25 device that is great for hacking, so why not just come out and say it, rather than badge it as a device aimed at educators, when there is very little hard evidence for this well over a year after launch.

Sorry, moan over.

Steve
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Problemchild over 12 years ago in reply to GreenYamo

Hi Steve It seems that by far the largest single "usecase" is the hacker comunity certainly as far as any one who is actually vocal.
It's possible that the XBMC comunity may actually me of very similar size or even larger but since this is an essentially "consume" use case I doubt we shall hear as much from these guys.

The education case is indeed a strong one currently driven by more zelious educators but hopefully with a curriculum slowly gelling together then we may see a formal education comunity arise from this. At the moment this seems to be coming from the hardcore educator and the Raspberry Jam organisation.

Either way when you are hacking you are learning so involve a kid(of any age really ) and spread the "learning" bug.

John
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Problemchild over 12 years ago in reply to GreenYamo

Hi Steve It seems that by far the largest single "usecase" is the hacker comunity certainly as far as any one who is actually vocal.
It's possible that the XBMC comunity may actually me of very similar size or even larger but since this is an essentially "consume" use case I doubt we shall hear as much from these guys.

The education case is indeed a strong one currently driven by more zelious educators but hopefully with a curriculum slowly gelling together then we may see a formal education comunity arise from this. At the moment this seems to be coming from the hardcore educator and the Raspberry Jam organisation.

Either way when you are hacking you are learning so involve a kid(of any age really ) and spread the "learning" bug.

John
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