

First RasberryPi PCBs ready - easp
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/389

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ranqet
I'm really excited for these things. Growing up (5-12yrs old), I had an old
Commodore 64, hooked up to a small TV to play around with (so I wouldn't mess
up something on the fancy 486 machine my dad used). The simplicity and lack of
distractions (like flashy games) that machine had, made it easy for me to
experiment and eventually learn how to program.

RasPi seems like that same 'old c64' experience I had, only better. I could
give one of these things, with a keyboard and mouse to one of my younger
relatives to play around with. They can tinker around with it all they want,
without their parents worrying about them breaking something or loosing
important files.

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nicpottier
I love these, but I'm a bit crushed that there's no WiFi.

I notice that that's a reoccurring thing with hobby electronics. It has taken
Arduino's a long time to get boards that support WiFi and they are quite
expensive. (comparatively)

So I'm guessing there is some fundamental reason.. anybody know why? Does it
have to do with getting licensed by the FCC or somesuch? Are the chips crazy
expensive? It seems like the technology has been around long enough that it
wouldn't be more than a dollar or two by now, but apparently that's not the
case.

ECEs, spare a clue?

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jff
Wifi is such a huge pain in the ass. Eliminating wifi will remove a
significant headache--going with just Ethernet is a far easier proposition, as
long as you don't go with on-board USB ethernet.

Plus, for the stated goals, I don't think wifi is essential.

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nicpottier
Yes, I gathered it is a pain in the ass, but I was hoping for a bit of insight
as to WHY exactly.

Care to elaborate?

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jff
It's a matter of dealing with WPA and such. There's a reason why Plan 9
doesn't have support for anything past WEP, and why even on Linux, wifi
support can be kinda iffy.

If you don't offer wifi, there's no let-down when it doesn't work properly :)

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watmough
This is the part where they are going to need a bunch of money to ramp up.

Let's hope these boards work ok, and that RaspPI manage to get their hands on
some bridging.

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gps408
> This is the part where they are going to need a bunch of money to ramp up

What makes you say that? I've not seen anything about them needing money. From
the FAQ:

Are you accepting pre-orders?

No. We are adequately funded, and don’t want to take your money until we have
finished hardware.

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illumen
They also announced that the first boards are not $35, but will be sold at
auction to the highest bidder.

Unfortunately, you won't be able to buy some before xmas.

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Argorak
> They also announced that the first boards are not $35, but will be sold at
> auction to the highest bidder.

Some might be put off by this move, but I like it. I really like how straight-
forward raspberry pi is about having no problem of making a profit with people
who just want one for geeky reasons. I certainly don't need one, but I want
one and I will certainly bid at an auction and hope that this move benefits
the goals of the project in a long run.

