Why I like the Raspberry Pi

[TheOldPresbyope]

It seems like every day I see an announcement of yet another "Raspberry Pi killer", e.g., an SBC which is going to be superior to Pi products because it has a better, faster CPU, has superior interfaces, has ... well, you name it.

As a hobby, I've worked with a variety of SBCs from various vendors over the last 15 years, some you've undoubtedly heard of, others maybe not so much (remember the C.H.I.P. from Next Thing Co.)? It's always fun to play with new things and I've built some pretty cool things with them. 

The thing is, almost all of them have been discontinued and are no longer supported in software and/or have died and have no replacement without a redesign of the system they were part of. Their online support forums, if there ever was one to begin with, have gone dormant (some can now be found only on the Wayback Machine.

My latest disappointment is Hard Kernel's Odroi- HC1 which was specially designed to be the basis of a NAS. Its frame is shaped specifically to hold a 2.5in HD. Pretty cool, huh? I've had one reliably running OpenMediaVault over a special Armbian build with an SSD for many years...until yesterday when it went belly up. I looked in my box of a dozen or so forgotten toys to see what i could jury-rig as a replacement but wasn't encouraged when I looked to see what I'd be able to boot on any of them.

Surprise, I've now rebuilt my NAS using OMV/RPiOS on a Raspberry Pi 5B with SSD for about the same price as I paid for the HC1 system. 

I'm confident that the RPF will be around for many years as well as its past, present, and future Pi models, along with OSes that continue to run on them and the vast RPi Forum to support us users. I can buy or make enclosures, HATs, etc., without fear they're soon doomed to the box of forgotten toys.

YMMV, of course, but I'm done chasing after the next great SBC.

Regards,
Kent

[GioF_71]

Hello! I didn't try many different sbc other than the PIs, but I still have 3 Asus tinkerboard. Still working thanks to dietpi, and last time I tried, they also worked with libreelec/coreelec. But there are not a lot of other options in terms of o.s. for those boards.
The most infuriating thing is that the board is 32 bit only, even if it was launched when the PI3 was the latest. The latter is still current with arm64 support if you can live with 1gb, which for a lot of applications is ok.
I also came to the same conclusions as yours!

[the_bertrum]

Even through the pandemic shortages, it was always clear that Raspberry Pi would eventually start up supply again. Their policy of providing to OEMs first was a sensible way to ensure they kept those financial lifelines open for the company and hey presto - they launched a new product range shortly afterwards when they could have easily folded. A well run company all round I think.

[muddiver]

I have 3 Odroids, 2 C2 and one C4.
I am not pleased with the images provided by hardkernel, but both are supported by Dietpi.
Dietpi is a armbian on diet, less RAM usage, less space on SD.
I run the C2 since 4 years 24/7, and it runs very cool ( 27°C ), it runs pihole in docker and provides an M.2 SATA in an USB-Adapter in my network with music, pictures and so on. The C2 does an extremely good job.

But i know what you mean, i have an Odroid M1 too, and the usability is pretty low, you can install Debia or Ubuntu, but if you like to run Armbia, you have to kill the original bootloader..

If the Odroid C2 would die, I would go for a Raspberry Pi 4 too. The Raspberry Pi 5 is a good Mediaplayer , but i think it uses too much power if used as a small Homeserver ( if you do not need the additinal performance ).

My 2 Cents, Tom

[TheOldPresbyope]

I have 3 Odroids, 2 C2 and one C4.
I am not pleased with the images provided by hardkernel, but both are supported by Dietpi.
Dietpi is a armbian on diet, less RAM usage, less space on SD.
I run the C2 since 4 years 24/7, and it runs very cool ( 27°C ), it runs pihole in docker and provides an M.2 SATA in an USB-Adapter in my network with music, pictures and so on. The C2 does an extremely good job.

But i know what you mean, i have an Odroid M1 too, and the usability is pretty low, you can install Debia or Ubuntu, but if you like to run Armbia, you have to kill the original bootloader..

If the Odroid C2 would die, I would go for a Raspberry Pi 4 too. The Raspberry Pi 5 is a good Mediaplayer , but i think it uses too much power if used as a small Homeserver ( if you do not need the additinal performance ).

My 2 Cents, Tom

Yeah, the Pi 5B is overkill but I figure I'll end up adding some other functions besides NAS. The onboard PCIe interface makes it a no-brainer for me.

Been a longtime DietPi user too. Way back in the early days of moOde, We spent some time exploring if moOde could be packaged as yet-another media system in the DietPi collection but after some back and forth with its creator Daniel Knight it was concluded there was too much conflict between the underlying design philosophies.

There is a DietPi flavor which will boot on an Odroid HC1 but that's a moot point because my HC1 is dead, dead, dead.

Regards,
Kent

[Prince]

I have to stop myself from buying one of these devices. There are always 5 steps...

Step 1. I discover a new board (often on a news site)
Step 2. I'm excited
Step 3. I tell myself there's no support for it
Step 4. I click it away
Step 5. I update my Pi1B to the newest kernel

[roderickvd]

Pretty much agree with the OP. During the COVID shortages I got a Radxa Zero. Pretty good but definitely takes a lot more tinkering to get it up, searching the web for clues. RPi has the advantage of being the biggest fish in the pond. May not be the coolest, but sure does get the most attention.