Part of the problem may be that the Propeller chip itself is expensive compared with an AVR or the Broadcom chip on the Pi. Then you need to add an FTDI chip that isn't needed by the other solutions and an EEPROM.
They probably don't sell a lot of them in comparison to say the RPI or Arduinos like the Due. That has a bearing on costs as well.
Don't forget Parallax has to make a decent profit on them on as well.
The RPi Zero at $5.00 IMO is at a sweet spot. Schools can buy a gross of them for pocket change. Not to mention you can set up a system for pocket change.
It's not a competitor to the Prop or Parallax outside of being marketed to schools.
If I were Parallax I'd roll out a Prop/Zero I/O board and capitalize on this instead of waiting for another microcontroller vendor to cut a deal with Element 14 the way Digilent did with their PIC32 based I/O board for the RPi.
The RPi Zero at $5.00 IMO is at a sweet spot. Schools can buy a gross of them for pocket change.
or I think, even bundle them into course costs.
That slashes the admin, as the students own them and there is no stock-control overhead.
Only a small float stock is needed.
If I were Parallax I'd roll out a Prop/Zero I/O board ...
Yes, just some simple form-factor changes are needed, and the 40 pin header can work well on a Prop.
Such a board should be able to run without the Pi-Zero too.
I still like the idea of a tiny USB MCU like the EFM8UB1- cheaper than FTDI devices and can swallow the RST parts, and even derive RST from the serial stream, as well as add ADC 'for free'.
I was primarily talking about the edu market here, and the main thrust is that parents and schools want to get more kids into 'computers'. Not exactly sure what that means as it is ambiguous, however I read it as the masses see being able to design web pages, gainful familiarity with Word, Excel, etc, programming languages, etc.
IE. skillsets that will make it easier for them to get into the 'hi-tech' workforce.
For you and many of us, $100 is not a hardship to play around with something, or tinker.
For a teacher or administrator, a class of 25 @$50-80/ea, its a different story. And thats without adding the additional $25-300 for your host/ea.
If teaching 'computers' is your mission, the RPi is a better choice than the Prop or Arduino.
If you're a well-off parent then sure, go ahead and buy all 3 for your kid. This is a First World problem.
Just be aware that even in the US not everyone can afford what you can, and in many cases its pretty clear the majority of kids are not going to be interested in that low of a level of detail.
If someone wants to expose kids to LEDs and switches, the RPi can easily do that.
TBH, I really doubt many kids at all are going to go "Wow" if they can make a crystal radio from the Prop.
A few will, and those few may go on to E.E. type degrees.
But for the vast majority of the rest, being able to make their own games or webpages or some other higher level layer is going to float their boat.
Again, as budgets are not infinite .edu should focus on the most bang for the buck, and the minority who show an interest in the low level stuff can be addressed in advanced, specialized classes that are able to be budgeted for.
Get back to me when you can take that Pi and listen to the radio on it, or make a logic analyzer, or get to understand real time, basic things with it.
I'm not missing the point at all.
What you put out there is a good value for some people, and it's not such a good value for other people. These are not the same people!
And you said it below: Electronics vs Computers.
Did it ever strike you that those are not the same thing? I'm sure it did. Know why I am here?
Demand for EE types is only going to go up. There is a whole generation aging out right now. Aero and auto along with many vertical industries all have the same problem.
I think we actually agree more than we don't on this.
My core arguments here are centered right on embedded tech and the value of good quality education related to it. You know, it is crazy to think millions and millions of 6502 devices were shipped last year...
The level at which the Propeller plays is a relevant one. Worth it for any seeking that path.
Those classes are precisely where Parallax can do very, very well. See? The Pi isn't a big threat as much as it can be a gateway.
And no matter what, we will continue to need those people. Somebody, somewhere must continue to do the work that makes the higher levels of things relevant and connected to the real world.
In the world of engineering, there are a wide range of occupations that have nothing to directly do with EE or computing - but rely on these things as being as necessary as office machines.
From what I have seen, getting a good job and a career path in Computer Sciences has just gotten more and more competitive in the past 30 years. Even with a Phd, one might just be offered free-lance contract work. Whereas a Civil Engineer might find a nice stable job working for an airport authority, a water district, or a state road maintance district.
This whole 'leading-edge' mentality is fun to dabble in, but can be brutal as a career path. It might just be easier, more pleasant, and more rewarding (to most people) to pass the FAA exams and become certified as flight mechanic for commercial airplanes. There are those other engineering occupations that are less inclined to chew one up and spit one out.
BTW everyone -- please enjoy the holiday season and don't take me too seriously.
I am sure the Raspberry Pi will survive my delusions.
I'd much rather have peace and good will on the forum than push my opinions. Linux is no more a threat to the Propeller than any other OS. Managing just about any full-featured OS is more than likely going to drive people to programing microcontrollers without one.
That's an interesting set of disk i/o tests that show very significant performance differences in Micro-SD cards. Interesting! Max out your Zero with a high performance SD card.
I ran into the same thing looking at USB 3.0 flash drives. There can be a 5x to 8x or more difference in write speed from the slower to the faster devices (no testing, just going by published specs). I actually believe some USB 3.0 flash drives are just old 2.0 drives with only the connector changed.
Currently you cannot program a Propeller without dealing with a full featured operating system. How are you going to run the dev tools? (By contrast to things like a Commodore C64 and the like)
Only now you can program a Propeller from a machine with a full up operating system that is cheaper than the MCU it is programming. It's an upside down world.
OS as "appliance" or "tool"? I don't know, depends what you are doing. If you need the tools that an OS "tool box" offers then use them, if not don't.
Perhaps consider things like the Pi as "Linux coprocessors" to your Propeller MCU. Useful if you need it.
If Parallax pre-loaded EEPROM with Forth, you could load a program a Propeller withoot a computer with an OS. If would by-pass SPIN and be a primative loader of PASM. Of course that obviously would have delayed development and public acceptance -- maybe destroyed its success due to lack of demand for such an approach.
++++
I am simply choosing to accept that this has an analogy with what hand-tools versus power-tools are to a craftsman. Creativity and quality need both.
You certainly can get a lot more done with power-tools, but there are some creative tasks that are still best left to hand-tools. Hand-tools require one observe more carefully the details.
I consider the Propeller to be a very fancy microcontroller (like a fancy hand-tool), while the Rasberry Pi is a wee microcomputer (like a basic microcomputer due to being slower than the lastest generation and more limited in RAM).
Each has its own role to play in learning programing.
And there was a time when a Propeller sized type micro-computer was the only cross-compiler hardware we had. But as tools evolve in sophistication, we don't want to waste a lot of time and energy making sophisticated tools the old slow way.
++++++++++
I guess I am finally accepting that I had issues with crowd-sourcing overtaking the Parallax Forums, and other issues with the educational reform via social network.
Embarssing as it is, even the Cubieboard has some code base on Rasberry source. We live in a world where everything is more inter-related. Live and let live.
++++++++++
The actual cost of the Raspberry Pi just created curiosity and demand for Linux from a whole new audience that wasn't will to investigate it as an alternative and were unwilling to buy a 'big bucks' system for kids that might break it in a very short time. It took a big fear and risk out of offerring opportunity to kids.
Whatever the Raspberry Pi Foundation does in education is another topic and about fulfilling the promises that the launch used to get going. That may play out very well or fizzle. So far, it hasn't attempted to reach over the Chinese language barrier, and it may never. But the Cubieboard does play to a Chinese audience.
Whatever the Raspberry Pi Foundation does in education is another topic and about fulfilling the promises that the launch used to get going. That may play out very well or fizzle. So far, it hasn't attempted to reach over the Chinese language barrier, and it may never. But the Cubieboard does play to a Chinese audience.
The launch used no such promises to get going. The promise made at launch has been fulfilled many times over already. That promise was simply to make available a really cheap little computer that kids could buy, hack on, learn with, break and throw away. Together with some software they could get going with easily. That has been done. Even at lower cost than originally planned. And at a scale many orders of magnitude bigger than they ever dreamt of when they started out. Remember they expected to only make and sell a few tens of thousands of Pi, ever.
The Foundation and the serious educational mission came afterwards. Far from "fizzling" it's still progressing rapidly.
They certainly have attempted to reach China. With a great reception by the looks of it: https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/china-tour/
Remember huge numbers of Pi are made in China as well as Wales. For the Chinese market.
Of course the Cubie probably has advantages there being "native" as it were. It's all good.
Ah fudge, more debate............
Seems you assert that your point of view is the only one there is. I was just trying to bow out.
Should I have said 'crowd-funding' rather than crowd-sourcing? But even collaborative volunteer contributions to software development reach their limits when someone else is taking in a salary or benefiting from sales generated. Charity and gifts shouldn't become life long missions. Acts of Random Kindness or A.R.K. really are better for both the giver and reciepient... no expectations, no later resentments. But I know that is just my point of view.
I get the feeling much of the world is running on idealism that is all similar to Tom's Saywer's fence painting exercise in wealth creation. Read the first few chapters to find out what I mean if you don't understand. As for me, I simply won't pay to paint a fence, but I might paint one for amusement or charity in an A.R.K. fashion.
It really doesn't matter if the generous and hardworking volunteers support Parallax, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Cubieboard, Pandaboard, or whatever. I have ambivalent feelings about what is going on when I see contibutors depart in a disillusioned manner. If Chip Gracy wasn't setting such an arduous example of work ethic and the Gracy family didn't have their whole enterprise at risk, Parallax wouldn't mean so much to me. I admire what they are trying to do. I have no idea what is going on with the rest of the lot.
Yes of course more debate. This is a forum is it not? The topic is the Raspberry Pi, no? As such all incorrect assertions about it are inviting correction.
I don't actually see any of my point of view in what I posted above. Only a statement of the facts as I have seen them unfold over the years. And as expressed in various presentations by Eben Upton and others. Sorry no links to those at hand just now.
In case you statement is being read out of context by anyone, there has never been any crowd-funding of the Raspberry Pi.
Don't get carried away with charity and gift business. You do have to pay for a Pi. The Foundation has to break even. The manufacturers have to make their profit. A couple of dozen jobs are created in the work force in the factory. The distributors get their cut and employ a bunch more people.
We all support Parallax here. So now for my point of view:
The Propeller and the Pi can come together in a great synergy (There, I used that word again). Each providing the the facilities the other cannot.
In case you statement is being read out of context by anyone, there has never been any crowd-funding of the Raspberry Pi.
I don't get it, the Raspberry Pi was promoted by pre-orders, including a 'buy two and have one given to a child" selection. Everyone had to wait months while changes were made and problems resolve. They added the $35 board, they had to redo the RJ45 connector as they didn't know that LAN connectors were special, the wrong ones were installed on the first run.. and so on.
And I watched a YouTube video a few days ago from a British lawyer discussing the legal impact on the whole crowd funding phenomina that the Raspberry Pi's success influenced in make more crowd funding welcome.
Pre-orders is not the same. Sure at launch we all rushed to order one. Sure they took a long while to arrive as production was ramped up to meet demand. Long lead times are normal in the electronics component world. Nobody could have predicted the huge demand and hence lengthy delays. I don't recall if my payment was taken when I placed the order or later at delivery time. Makes no difference.
There never was any "buy two and have one given to a child" deal offered with the Raspberry Pi. The only time I have ever seem such an offer is from the "One Laptop Per Child" project, a totally different thing. I believe these are being confused here. In fact I have never heard any hint of the idea that the Pi Foundation wants to give Pi away for free. Make available as cheap as possible yes.
Yes the Chinese Pi manufacture substituted the wrong RG45 connector, not the one specified by the Raspberry Pi team. Who know what they are doing obviously. Chinese manufacturers are notorious for cutting corners like that to gain a cent more profit. Happens all the time. It was spotted and corrected pretty quickly. The story is here: https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/manufacturing-hiccup/
I'm not aware of any other "changes were made and problems resolve...and so on". But no doubt production line tuning has been going on since the beginning, as is normal for such runs.
I'd love to see that British lawyer discussing crowd-funding, any links anyone?
Edit: Perhaps this one: (No mention of the Pi being crowd funded there though.)
Well, that is the right YOUtube video, but I didn't listen to all of it. I simply can' keep up with the world via YOUtube videos... read is faster.
I'll just have to take your word on everything about the Raspberry Pi, right? My preception at the time was it was a crowd-funding project. But there were so many.
That scheme was a suggestion on the forum. In 2015, years after the Pi took off. The Foundation had already dismissed the idea as you link shows:
It's something we looked into, but the cost of implementing such a program - people to run it, warehousing, distribution, sorting through grantees, deciding who gets them - was so high that it's not really feasible, and it's not an economical way for us to spend the charity's funds.
Rather than being abandoned it was never started.
Makes me think the One Laptop Per Child project, which did have that scheme, would have done a lot better if they had just offered to sell their machine to anyone who wanted one, as cheaply as possible. There were lots of nerds out there who wanted one, including this one. That would have promoted sales and got them an income to continue with the idea.
@Leon Thanks ever so much. I was beginning to feel that Heater was some cult member trying to brain wash me into joining. I will sleep better tonight knowing I am not quite senile, just a bit loopy. LIke Liz said, the whole scheme blew up as the logistics were near impossible.
Now I think I'm losing my mind. Loopy is wrong, Leon is wrong, Loopy is thanking Leon for supporting the wrongness. Then I'm supposed to be some freaky cult member.
All evidence as to my assertions is on line if you like.
Yes, how can an idea that was probably discussed for ten minutes and discarded as unworkable be seen as abandoned or some kind of failed effort?
How can someone say "LIke Liz said, the whole scheme blew up" when Liz has never said or implied such a thing? There was no such scheme in the first place.
OLPC could have sold a lot of their machines to us nerdy types. The resulting economies of scale would have reduced production cost, generated income and encouraged manufacturers to be more serious about it. All those nerdy types would have done all kind of weird and wonderful things with them building a community and contributing to the software pool. Thus getting them closer to their desired goal. It was sad to watch. Amazingly OLPC is still operating.
Comments
That and there's that time rift they keep talking about all the time on Doctor Who.
They probably don't sell a lot of them in comparison to say the RPI or Arduinos like the Due. That has a bearing on costs as well.
Don't forget Parallax has to make a decent profit on them on as well.
The RPi Zero at $5.00 IMO is at a sweet spot. Schools can buy a gross of them for pocket change. Not to mention you can set up a system for pocket change.
It's not a competitor to the Prop or Parallax outside of being marketed to schools.
If I were Parallax I'd roll out a Prop/Zero I/O board and capitalize on this instead of waiting for another microcontroller vendor to cut a deal with Element 14 the way Digilent did with their PIC32 based I/O board for the RPi.
or I think, even bundle them into course costs.
That slashes the admin, as the students own them and there is no stock-control overhead.
Only a small float stock is needed.
Yes, just some simple form-factor changes are needed, and the 40 pin header can work well on a Prop.
Such a board should be able to run without the Pi-Zero too.
I still like the idea of a tiny USB MCU like the EFM8UB1- cheaper than FTDI devices and can swallow the RST parts, and even derive RST from the serial stream, as well as add ADC 'for free'.
This discussion seems to be headed to a dead end.
I was primarily talking about the edu market here, and the main thrust is that parents and schools want to get more kids into 'computers'. Not exactly sure what that means as it is ambiguous, however I read it as the masses see being able to design web pages, gainful familiarity with Word, Excel, etc, programming languages, etc.
IE. skillsets that will make it easier for them to get into the 'hi-tech' workforce.
For you and many of us, $100 is not a hardship to play around with something, or tinker.
For a teacher or administrator, a class of 25 @$50-80/ea, its a different story. And thats without adding the additional $25-300 for your host/ea.
If teaching 'computers' is your mission, the RPi is a better choice than the Prop or Arduino.
If you're a well-off parent then sure, go ahead and buy all 3 for your kid. This is a First World problem.
Just be aware that even in the US not everyone can afford what you can, and in many cases its pretty clear the majority of kids are not going to be interested in that low of a level of detail.
If someone wants to expose kids to LEDs and switches, the RPi can easily do that.
TBH, I really doubt many kids at all are going to go "Wow" if they can make a crystal radio from the Prop.
A few will, and those few may go on to E.E. type degrees.
But for the vast majority of the rest, being able to make their own games or webpages or some other higher level layer is going to float their boat.
Again, as budgets are not infinite .edu should focus on the most bang for the buck, and the minority who show an interest in the low level stuff can be addressed in advanced, specialized classes that are able to be budgeted for.
I think we actually agree more than we don't on this.
My core arguments here are centered right on embedded tech and the value of good quality education related to it. You know, it is crazy to think millions and millions of 6502 devices were shipped last year...
The level at which the Propeller plays is a relevant one. Worth it for any seeking that path.
Those classes are precisely where Parallax can do very, very well. See? The Pi isn't a big threat as much as it can be a gateway.
And no matter what, we will continue to need those people. Somebody, somewhere must continue to do the work that makes the higher levels of things relevant and connected to the real world.
From what I have seen, getting a good job and a career path in Computer Sciences has just gotten more and more competitive in the past 30 years. Even with a Phd, one might just be offered free-lance contract work. Whereas a Civil Engineer might find a nice stable job working for an airport authority, a water district, or a state road maintance district.
This whole 'leading-edge' mentality is fun to dabble in, but can be brutal as a career path. It might just be easier, more pleasant, and more rewarding (to most people) to pass the FAA exams and become certified as flight mechanic for commercial airplanes. There are those other engineering occupations that are less inclined to chew one up and spit one out.
I am sure the Raspberry Pi will survive my delusions.
I'd much rather have peace and good will on the forum than push my opinions. Linux is no more a threat to the Propeller than any other OS. Managing just about any full-featured OS is more than likely going to drive people to programing microcontrollers without one.
That's an interesting set of disk i/o tests that show very significant performance differences in Micro-SD cards. Interesting! Max out your Zero with a high performance SD card.
+1
It's the difference between an appliance and a tool, imho.
A full-featured OS is a wonderful slave but a terrible master.
I still am cheering for the underdog, the Parallax Propeller.
Only now you can program a Propeller from a machine with a full up operating system that is cheaper than the MCU it is programming. It's an upside down world.
OS as "appliance" or "tool"? I don't know, depends what you are doing. If you need the tools that an OS "tool box" offers then use them, if not don't.
Perhaps consider things like the Pi as "Linux coprocessors" to your Propeller MCU. Useful if you need it.
Seems to me, that makes choices more fluid. I'm in. Happy camper.
And who knows? Maybe when the P2 gets it's on chip PASM tools, that dynamic might have some relevance many of us aren't sure of today.
It will resemble that C64, Spectrum, Apple, etc... and perhaps that matters more than people think.
++++
I am simply choosing to accept that this has an analogy with what hand-tools versus power-tools are to a craftsman. Creativity and quality need both.
You certainly can get a lot more done with power-tools, but there are some creative tasks that are still best left to hand-tools. Hand-tools require one observe more carefully the details.
I consider the Propeller to be a very fancy microcontroller (like a fancy hand-tool), while the Rasberry Pi is a wee microcomputer (like a basic microcomputer due to being slower than the lastest generation and more limited in RAM).
Each has its own role to play in learning programing.
And there was a time when a Propeller sized type micro-computer was the only cross-compiler hardware we had. But as tools evolve in sophistication, we don't want to waste a lot of time and energy making sophisticated tools the old slow way.
++++++++++
I guess I am finally accepting that I had issues with crowd-sourcing overtaking the Parallax Forums, and other issues with the educational reform via social network.
Embarssing as it is, even the Cubieboard has some code base on Rasberry source. We live in a world where everything is more inter-related. Live and let live.
++++++++++
The actual cost of the Raspberry Pi just created curiosity and demand for Linux from a whole new audience that wasn't will to investigate it as an alternative and were unwilling to buy a 'big bucks' system for kids that might break it in a very short time. It took a big fear and risk out of offerring opportunity to kids.
Whatever the Raspberry Pi Foundation does in education is another topic and about fulfilling the promises that the launch used to get going. That may play out very well or fizzle. So far, it hasn't attempted to reach over the Chinese language barrier, and it may never. But the Cubieboard does play to a Chinese audience.
It's been going on for a long time. Let me see...
Cliff Biffle's PASM assembler in Java.
M. Park's HomeSpun Spin compiler in C#
BradC's BST IDE
The Catalina C compiler then all the contributions to opensource Spin and prop-gcc and the IDEs
Tons of people producing compilers and interpreters for the Prop including BASICs, Forths, etc etc
Not to mention all the contributions to OBEX, here in the forum or elsewhere.
The Foundation and the serious educational mission came afterwards. Far from "fizzling" it's still progressing rapidly.
They certainly have attempted to reach China. With a great reception by the looks of it: https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/china-tour/
Remember huge numbers of Pi are made in China as well as Wales. For the Chinese market.
Of course the Cubie probably has advantages there being "native" as it were. It's all good.
Seems you assert that your point of view is the only one there is. I was just trying to bow out.
Should I have said 'crowd-funding' rather than crowd-sourcing? But even collaborative volunteer contributions to software development reach their limits when someone else is taking in a salary or benefiting from sales generated. Charity and gifts shouldn't become life long missions. Acts of Random Kindness or A.R.K. really are better for both the giver and reciepient... no expectations, no later resentments. But I know that is just my point of view.
I get the feeling much of the world is running on idealism that is all similar to Tom's Saywer's fence painting exercise in wealth creation. Read the first few chapters to find out what I mean if you don't understand. As for me, I simply won't pay to paint a fence, but I might paint one for amusement or charity in an A.R.K. fashion.
It really doesn't matter if the generous and hardworking volunteers support Parallax, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Cubieboard, Pandaboard, or whatever. I have ambivalent feelings about what is going on when I see contibutors depart in a disillusioned manner. If Chip Gracy wasn't setting such an arduous example of work ethic and the Gracy family didn't have their whole enterprise at risk, Parallax wouldn't mean so much to me. I admire what they are trying to do. I have no idea what is going on with the rest of the lot.
I don't actually see any of my point of view in what I posted above. Only a statement of the facts as I have seen them unfold over the years. And as expressed in various presentations by Eben Upton and others. Sorry no links to those at hand just now.
In case you statement is being read out of context by anyone, there has never been any crowd-funding of the Raspberry Pi.
Don't get carried away with charity and gift business. You do have to pay for a Pi. The Foundation has to break even. The manufacturers have to make their profit. A couple of dozen jobs are created in the work force in the factory. The distributors get their cut and employ a bunch more people.
We all support Parallax here. So now for my point of view:
The Propeller and the Pi can come together in a great synergy (There, I used that word again). Each providing the the facilities the other cannot.
I don't get it, the Raspberry Pi was promoted by pre-orders, including a 'buy two and have one given to a child" selection. Everyone had to wait months while changes were made and problems resolve. They added the $35 board, they had to redo the RJ45 connector as they didn't know that LAN connectors were special, the wrong ones were installed on the first run.. and so on.
And I watched a YouTube video a few days ago from a British lawyer discussing the legal impact on the whole crowd funding phenomina that the Raspberry Pi's success influenced in make more crowd funding welcome.
I think you missed that I was trying to express the same idea in the hand-tool versus power-tool analogy. You are reading all I write, aren't you?
+++++++++++
Enough of this. I want to study something rather than go back and forth with you.
Do not read this reply, it's not for you
For others please note:
There was no crowd-funding of the Raspberry Pi.
Pre-orders is not the same. Sure at launch we all rushed to order one. Sure they took a long while to arrive as production was ramped up to meet demand. Long lead times are normal in the electronics component world. Nobody could have predicted the huge demand and hence lengthy delays. I don't recall if my payment was taken when I placed the order or later at delivery time. Makes no difference.
There never was any "buy two and have one given to a child" deal offered with the Raspberry Pi. The only time I have ever seem such an offer is from the "One Laptop Per Child" project, a totally different thing. I believe these are being confused here. In fact I have never heard any hint of the idea that the Pi Foundation wants to give Pi away for free. Make available as cheap as possible yes.
Yes the Chinese Pi manufacture substituted the wrong RG45 connector, not the one specified by the Raspberry Pi team. Who know what they are doing obviously. Chinese manufacturers are notorious for cutting corners like that to gain a cent more profit. Happens all the time. It was spotted and corrected pretty quickly. The story is here: https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/manufacturing-hiccup/
I'm not aware of any other "changes were made and problems resolve...and so on". But no doubt production line tuning has been going on since the beginning, as is normal for such runs.
I'd love to see that British lawyer discussing crowd-funding, any links anyone?
Edit: Perhaps this one: (No mention of the Pi being crowd funded there though.)
I'll just have to take your word on everything about the Raspberry Pi, right? My preception at the time was it was a crowd-funding project. But there were so many.
On the other hand it's wise to refrain from repeating things as facts when one is not sure and even after being corrected multiple times.
I definitely remember that scheme for people to buy two Pis, with one being given away. It seems that it was abandoned, however:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=100592
Makes me think the One Laptop Per Child project, which did have that scheme, would have done a lot better if they had just offered to sell their machine to anyone who wanted one, as cheaply as possible. There were lots of nerds out there who wanted one, including this one. That would have promoted sales and got them an income to continue with the idea.
@Leon
Thanks ever so much. I was beginning to feel that Heater was some cult member trying to brain wash me into joining. I will sleep better tonight knowing I am not quite senile, just a bit loopy. LIke Liz said, the whole scheme blew up as the logistics were near impossible.
@Heater, thanks for repeated clarification. I value that.
All evidence as to my assertions is on line if you like.
Yes, how can an idea that was probably discussed for ten minutes and discarded as unworkable be seen as abandoned or some kind of failed effort?
How can someone say "LIke Liz said, the whole scheme blew up" when Liz has never said or implied such a thing? There was no such scheme in the first place.
OLPC could have sold a lot of their machines to us nerdy types. The resulting economies of scale would have reduced production cost, generated income and encouraged manufacturers to be more serious about it. All those nerdy types would have done all kind of weird and wonderful things with them building a community and contributing to the software pool. Thus getting them closer to their desired goal. It was sad to watch. Amazingly OLPC is still operating.