In terms of GPIO only, Arduino is quicker to get started. Getting an LED to blink is easier on Arduino because you don’t need to setup SSH or use the Pi’s GUI. It’s just that the Pi can do so much more than basic GPIO controlling.
Ditto. I built a starship computer for my niece that ran on Pygame.
Honestly, I’m surprised that there aren’t more alternatives by now. It’s been such a fixture for so many years I would’ve expected alternatives, but every few years I go looking and end up buying another Pi for my project.
I’ve used some alternatives that are cool tho, like Pine boards (sadly, haven’t seen them in stock for quite a while now), NanoPi’s and BeagleBone’s (except “AI” models - their kernels are buggy unfinished mess).
Sadly, today’s economy and decision of Raspberry Pi Foundation to shift away from enthusiast and education market made buying a used thin client more viable option for many things one would use RPi for.
I’ve seen used Mac Mini’s on marketplaces at price tags comparable to RPi’s - you just can’t make this shit up.
I used HP Thin Client T430 to smart my dumb TV as it has HDMI (although it just has a chip that converts DP to HDMI inside the box). Used ones are easily found and very cheap. Requires additional adapter for CEC though.
But for NextCloud instance I’d probably just go with ThinkCentre USFF rather than thin client (maybe 920q) as those are quite beefy for their size, while still being dirt cheap.
In terms of GPIO only, Arduino is quicker to get started. Getting an LED to blink is easier on Arduino because you don’t need to setup SSH or use the Pi’s GUI. It’s just that the Pi can do so much more than basic GPIO controlling.
What I’ve used RPi for:
I’ve probably forgotten something. But yes - it’s a miniature miracle worker, that I used to throw at my problems. 🗿
Ditto. I built a starship computer for my niece that ran on Pygame.
Honestly, I’m surprised that there aren’t more alternatives by now. It’s been such a fixture for so many years I would’ve expected alternatives, but every few years I go looking and end up buying another Pi for my project.
It’s kind of indispensable for so many projects.
I’ve used some alternatives that are cool tho, like Pine boards (sadly, haven’t seen them in stock for quite a while now), NanoPi’s and BeagleBone’s (except “AI” models - their kernels are buggy unfinished mess).
Sadly, today’s economy and decision of Raspberry Pi Foundation to shift away from enthusiast and education market made buying a used thin client more viable option for many things one would use RPi for.
I’ve seen used Mac Mini’s on marketplaces at price tags comparable to RPi’s - you just can’t make this shit up.
That’s interesting. What’s a thin client? I’m not familiar.
A Mac Mini seems like an interesting option. What OS do you run on it?
A thin client is typically a low-end mini PC that doesn’t run heavy applications itself, but rather connects to a virtual machine on a server.
Huh. Can you point to any good projects that demonstrate this? Because I don’t see how this is a substitute for a Pi.
Currently, I’m looking to replace an upgrade an instance of NextCloud running on a Pi, and I’m curious if this is an option.
I used HP Thin Client T430 to smart my dumb TV as it has HDMI (although it just has a chip that converts DP to HDMI inside the box). Used ones are easily found and very cheap. Requires additional adapter for CEC though.
But for NextCloud instance I’d probably just go with ThinkCentre USFF rather than thin client (maybe 920q) as those are quite beefy for their size, while still being dirt cheap.
Oh I know. I have one Pi running Home Assistant, and another running a print server for a printer that has a shitty NIC.