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RPi use cases explained

e14 Contributor

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

  • in reply to e14 Contributor

    And what of the educational goal of the Foundation? It is the entire reason for the project, after all...

     

    I've just had a quick skim through the last fortnight's blogposts chez Pi and the only apparent "outreach" seems to be a Beatle-esque effort to break it big in America. What has that to do with United Kingdom education policy? I know that with the exception of the BBC, the technical press were far too interested in the Pi as a cut-price media player to discuss the educational aims of the Foundation, but the whole issue seems to have slid off the map completely. A recent forum post over there on the subject died on the vine too:

     

    http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=52933

     

    The Foundation has always exhibited a rabid obsession with secrecy, but aside from the very occasional "we showed the Pi to some schoolkids and they all got excited" faff, why no effort to convince the taxpaying public that teaching proper computer engineering is a good idea? Hardly a Beeb news report goes by without a charity being asked to comment on a particular news story (often related to government policy), but I haven't heard a sniff from the Foundation. It's all very odd. And why do so few people actually seem to care? To paraphrase Howard Beale: "Please, at least leave us alone in our basements. Let me have my single board computer and my wobbly free software and my pirated digital media and I won't say anything."

     

    I suppose that charities can't easily engage in mutually advantageous deals with big corporations, or sell hardware / software solutions for x*10^n $ per seat. Even if you start a trading arm you can't very well have a charity as your marketing department. Or perhaps they've been told that whatever they're offering isn't yet up to the job. Or perhaps they're in bed with someone who insists on keeping it all a big secret.

     

    So many opportunities for speculation and so little time!

     

    Hats off to John for the eclectic G&S references btw. image

  • in reply to e14 Contributor

    With reference to my previous post I believe that the education angle is an important user case simply because it's the reason that the product was launched in the first place. Anyway, a quick look through the Pi FAQ revealed a mention of Computing At School...

     

    http://www.computingatschool.org.uk/

     

    ...with a reference to CAS writing a user guide and programming manual. Figuring that this was the only lead I had for information re. the educational release I headed over to the CAS website. Obviously as a tech related site it didn't actually have anything as user-friendly as a search box (!!!), but the last reference to RPi in the news section was in January (regarding Google's donation of 1000 Pi) and while the Autumn 2012 newsletter had a feature on the Pi there was no reference in the last newsletter at all. The only other reference chez Pi is on their "Partners" page.

     

    Whatever it is that the RPI Foundation are doing it's obviously top secret, but I'll keep looking anyway...image

  • in reply to e14 Contributor

    Jonathan Garrish wrote:

     

    And what of the educational goal of the Foundation? It is the entire reason for the project, after all...

     

    I've been too busy to follow the discussion from start, just did a brief and quick read through the posts.

     

    IMHO the problem with STEM education is not a hardware problem so the Rpi is not the solution and for what we are seeing it is not very clear what the RPF goals are and what are their efforts trying to achieve them. Have not seen any news article saying "we have put this $$$ we made by selling the Rpis into x,y,z educational programs."

     

    Unfortunately due to the secrecy mentality and lack of proper documentation being made publicly available, it is almost impossible to provide a positive recommendation for the Rpi for local school districts.

     

    -J