Is it time to end our love affair with R-PI?

I think that doing things with your smartphone is a good choice, if you want to learn software modding.

If your path is electronics, smartphone may be a component, but not a platform.

Half yes, half no

a SBC will only replace a microcontroller if neither budget nor power consumption are at play. 

I think we sometimes suffer from Maker Blindness. Consumer industry thinks differently.

cstanton said:

"Why bother doing that when you can just use a smartphone?

I’ve thought that. Part of finding the right solution is to be open to possibilities. I feel that’s also a maker way of thinking: using things in forms that aren’t their main purpose.

Depending on the purpose, a smart phone or tablet might be the right option. I’m using a smart phone right now, for example, and not a Raspberry Pi  

For many of my projects they are definitely not the right option. I’m not sure how you’d run a server on an old phone, for example… that might be cool though 

RPi has saturated the hobby market - everyone who can afford one and wants one, has one or more. They can keep working that market by launching upgraded RPi versions but if they want to grow their market segment, they need something different. They do have some industrial models to go after that market and now with the Pico they are tackling the micro controller segment. If they want to tackle the consumer or non-programmer markets, they need much better software. In that market they need to compete with smart phones and PCs. This is not as hard as it sounds, but they have a ways to go...

"Layer upon layer of unkown code wasting billions of processor cycles while stealing your private information"

This sounds like you are describing almost every smart phone and connected computer already in existence...

For some reason one or two people still want  their smart phones...

I prefer to be standing on the shoulders of giants

I remember having to do a ton of work to get a mouse cursor to appear on my screen... I for one am very thankful for the libraries and OSs (aka layers) that take care of those details for me - now I can almost just drag n drop UI elements to build a nice interface, I can communicate via WiFi and MQTT with just a few lines of code, I can store and organize data with just a few lines of code too - I did at one point have to build that all out manually! well, not all - I was using a file system for the files at least. I couldn't imagine going back to doing it all myself.

The danger does lie in "what else is it doing", both in terms of privacy as well as efficiency, but with proper Open Source Software, there should be enough scrutiny to keep that in check.

I just purchased a couple of Rpi 3b from Newark.

They said they had plenty in stock, but I have not seen that they have shipped yet.

The other two items I ordered have already been delivered, so I hope this is not a case of Newark offering items they do not have.

The US site seems to say they are only for backorder delivered in 2024

Take heart, my friends.  My Raspberry Pi Picos has a ridiculous delivery date also and I got them within a month or so.  I think that the Newark system has a default delivery of +1 year (+/-) if the supplier has no delivery date.  Of course, I could be way off, but my experience has been better than expected.  I can say with confidence that they ship what they get when they get it.  My 6 Pico's came in three shipments over the span of about 10 days.

Just adding in yet another veggie reference: https://onion.io/