My first thought was that what you want for education is a best bang for your buck computer so that a student has an affordable option. In that sense the most competitive option would be the best choice.
But I’m probably missing some extra feature or idea that makes the pi a better option even if comparatively more expensive? What’s is it?
The best option for education is going to be the system with the best educational resources. Performance per dollar isn’t really relevant, because educational uses don’t need good performance. Most of what you do in an educational environment are simple use cases.
Back in the 90s, schools were filled with either IBM or Apple computers. Not because they were cheap, but because they were predictably compatible with the types of software that educators wanted to use in those environments. They could’ve bought cheaper clones.
The Raspberry Pi foundation is not a computer company, they are an educational charity that just happens to also make a computer. Their primary work is in pedagogy resources, research, and support. A Raspberry Pi has more educational resources, because literally that is the primary work of the company that makes it. They have a full CS curriculum for ages 5-19. The entire reason it exists is as an educational tool. Their mission statement doesn't even mention making a computer -- they simply do that to support their primary education work.
It wasn't until later that hobbyists and commercial interests also started using Raspberry Pis for things outside of the classroom. But that's where they came from.
Not really true any more. You've linked to the foundation but the computers are made by Raspberry PI Holdings which is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The foundation still owns part of the quoted company and retains its educational purpose but it doesn't make the computers now.
> retains its educational purpose but it doesn't make the computers now.
It never did. The structure hasn't changed meaningfully recently, apart from the massive windfall of floating the commercial arm.
The foundation's purpose hasn't changed, its just now a fucktonne richer.
But the thing I'm not quite sure about is why that matters, virtually every other player, apart from adafruit is a corporation all about shareholder value.
> Pretty much any computer that runs windows or a Linux distro will have access to equivalent tooling, wouldn’t it?
Well it wouldn't have GPIO and really well written docs on how to use those GPIO.
You have to remember how hard (and expensive) embedded linux was until raspberry pi came along. Sure you had gumstix and BeagleBoard, but they were >$300 and needed a fuckton of work to get going. Even more so before you could deploy anything workable to it.
Lattepanda is a thing now & no one is forcing you to buy an Rpi.
How many $200 all in one machines have a fully hackable RGB keyboard with public firmware and docs to make your own firmware, plus a SBC to do basic computer thing?
if thats expensive, then perhaps just buy the 500, it half the price.
My first thought was that what you want for education is a best bang for your buck computer so that a student has an affordable option. In that sense the most competitive option would be the best choice.
But I’m probably missing some extra feature or idea that makes the pi a better option even if comparatively more expensive? What’s is it?