$9 Computer includes OS
MikeDYur
Posts: 2,176
We need this, ready to go right out of the pouch. Maybe in the P2.
Going to get one just for the heck of it.
Going to get one just for the heck of it.
Comments
http://forums.parallax.com/discussion/160980/9-chip-computer-the-next-raspi/p1
This guy got around to publishing a video a month ago.
That time either.
EDIT: Maybe a competitive thing.
Moderators feel free to remove thread, if it's an old subject.
No, it's prudent to remind people from time to time. Some of us are older.
Old news I'm afraid.
I have no idea of the merits of the CHIP but times have moved on.
I recently got an Omega2: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/onion/omega2-5-iot-computer-with-wi-fi-powered-by-linux/comments?cursor=15711276
Today I learn of the tiny Raspberry Pi Zero W with WIFI and Bluetooth for $10 : https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-zero-w-joins-family/
It's hard to keep up... It's all good stuff. Use what does what you want.
Now if it only ran Windows.
Oh, wait a minute ... it does!!
As far as I know no Pi runs any Windows as people know and love on their PC's.
I don't like to comment on economics much but it recent years I hear a lot of talk about how inequitable the world is. 1% of the people own 99% of the stuff. Or whatever the ratio is.
When I hear statements like "if it only ran Windows" I realize of course that inequality is inevitable. The poor people actively like to throw their money at the rich people. They go out of their way to do it.
I despair.
As far as I can gather Windows on the Pi does actually have some graphical capabilities. No idea what exactly.
Also as far as I can tell the only way to build code for that Windows on the Pi is from a Windows 10 PC.
Then the ploy is that your IoT application on the Pi will integrate with IoT services on Microsoft's Azure cloud services.
Boom. Lock in.
All of which of course is the antithesis of the motivations that created the Pi in the first place!
Happens every time I get a free pass, the show is over.
Somebody said Windows, that means money going out after the initial purchase. I'm still trying to figure out what I need one for. Is it the novelty of being able to run an OS on something that small, or some underlying real world use. I can do most of that on my phone, and I don't. It would see the drawer within a week.
Not to worry, gadgets, technology and modern life run by so fast nobody can catch all of it. If you have to ask then perhaps you don't need a Raspberry Pi or whatever like board. I mean, I don't understand why I need a vacuum cleaner in the house, but always there is one there to annoy me.
The Pi was conceived as a cheap toy that kids could play with and learn to program. Like they did back in the early 1980's with their Commodore C64 and such. It was to repair the fact that the Windows/iPhone generation coming to study Computer Science at University arrived with no experience and no idea how to program. Unlike the C64 generation.
After that it went crazy and 12 million Pi are out there being used for all kind of things.
For sure you cannot do on a phone what you can do with a Pi.
I remember reading on the official Pi website, maybe a year ago or more, that Microsoft had promised to make a free version of Windows available for the Pi, but once I read a little more about it, I decided it was not for me.
I own about ten Pi models - I have at least one of all the main models. I run Raspbian on all but one (a media server). I recently replaced one of my NAS servers with a Pi3. It works great and uses only about five watts - its predecessor was a low power fanless Intel Atom PC but still used about thirty watts so the Pi is saving me money! It runs 24/7.
Now that is impressive, and suggests the ideal form factor the the first P2 modules right there !
There are x86 emulation engines that do allow you to boot Windows, however someone has also made an 8-bit AVR boot linux, by emulating ARM ...
- ie 'can be done' is not the same as 'would you use it?'
Linux based x86 emulation seems more in the practical realm
Google ExaGear and QEMU for examples.
At least for the published price without overpriced extras.
And there is windows 10 available for the pi: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/iot
Rosco_pc hit it -- Microsoft offers Win10-IoT for Raspbeerry Pi. There's even a link to it from the Pi downloads page.
They have added WIFI and Bluetooth which is perhaps a dollars worth of parts. They have doubled the price. That means there will be hugely higher returns on each sale. And that makes it economically reasonable to churn out as many as needed to satisfy demand.
Just my idle speculation though. Plenty of people are getting hold of Zero's without buying any superfluous junk.
(Unlike just about every other small cheap pi-like-but-not-pi board, the Pi works out of the box, no effort to get it running)
They show "Out Of Stock".
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3400
I know where I would like mine made.
https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pi-zero-w-starter-kit
Leon
Then a factory in the UK stepped up to the task (All be it Japanese owned Sony) and started churning out Pi. And matched the price.
This puts the lie to the oft' heard idea that companies cannot get stuff made at a competitive cost at home. Cough, Apple. They are just not trying.
So how come nobody in the USA has stepped up to the plate to full fill the demand in America for all things "Made in the good ol' USA" ?
Me, I don't much care where my Pi comes from. I'm pretty sure the quality control in place everywhere is quite OK.
In the 60s and 70s I, like a lot of other people got tired of seeing that little gold oval sticker (Made in Japan) on the bottom of every trinket for sale. Quality isn't that much of an issue, China makes some quality products. On the other hand, they are capable (like any country) of producing some real junk.
I wonder what the Chinese microcontroller hobbyists have in their box of tricks. Do they purchase foreign designed products from overseas supplier's. Or do they skim off the production runs before shipment. Or copy a design, and make their own product for their market.
It really isn't about quality, it's about quantity.
Or so it was.
In my experience, back to the early 1970's anyway, Japanese products have worked as advertised for many years, decades. Cheap transistor radios, stereo systems, TV's, micro-processors.
More than can be said for almost anything you could buy in recent years no matter where it's made.