Pi-TERNATIVE LIFESTYLE?
The Raspberry Pi wasn’t the first SBC on the scene. Long before, there was the very similar BeagleBoard, released in 2008. When the Pi was first released, many advocates pointed out that the BeagleBoard was better specified (it was) and had better support (it did at the time), though with its BeagleBone and Black edition, it was a good deal more expensive ($89) than the $25 Pi. BeagleBoard is still going strong and is currently gearing up to release a RISC-V-based BeagleV. It might not be an SBC as such but the Arduino Uno microcontroller just about predates the Pi and at the time had (and still does have) a huge open source community behind it, while being affordable and easy to access, though lacking the full-computer aspects of the Pi. Why am I telling you this? Pi models are currently hard to come by but that doesn’t stop inventive companies offering similar products both in function and often very much in their looks. We’re happy to cover that news, but should you be rushing out to grab one? It’s something that I would avoid. I enjoy the immense amount of support the Raspberry Pi offers from its fabulous community – it makes it simple to troubleshoot and I’m not worrying about updates to crucial distros down the line. That’s not to say at least some of these alternative boards don’t have merit. BananaPi has stuck around and has gone from strength to strength, but is it helping to fund education research in the UK? I know which boards I’ll keep buying, if for no other reason than that.