4 ms·

I've never been keen on SBCs using "Pi" in the name to ride on the Raspberry Pi's coattails. I'm surprised the Raspberry Pi foundation aren't more protective of

I've never been keen on SBCs using "Pi" in the name to ride on the Raspberry Pi's coattails. I'm surprised the Raspberry Pi foundation aren't more protective of it, if I'm honest. At least in the case of the Banana Pi etc the board is the same form factor and fits into existing RPi cases, and even runs on the same architecture. This thing has literally nothing in common with the RPi apart from being another SBC.

morganvachon 8y ago
Agreed, I saw $35 and "Pi" in the headline and immediately thought there was already a successor to the Pi 3B+. I'm not exactly disappointed to see a $35 Cherry Trail SBC, that's a phenomenal price point for such a device, but it's definitely misleading.
Zenst 8y ago
Totally agree, though reminiscent of the early days of PC's with IBM (the OS and PC name..) and again naming conventions with Intel (they wanted to trademark 386 etc and was told they could not do that with numbers - hence they started using the Pentium brand they could trademark along with a massive campaign of Intel Inside...). Lucky the more savvy consumer see's right thru this tailgating and more so in the realms of arm SBC's. But equally, Raspberry could not trademark "Pi" or indeed "Raspberry", though they could trademark "Raspberry Pi" - https://www.raspberrypi.org/trademark-rules/ https://www.raspberrypi.org/trademark-rules/ Though, as they wanted to recreate the early fun days of computing, this whole `plagiarism` angle sure does rekindle some nostalgia.
- IshKebab 8y ago
  They could absolutely register "Pi" or "Raspberry" as trademarks. Well they could have anyway - might be too late now to do it retroactively.
  - Zenst 8y ago
    http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21597-us-judge-rules-that-you-cant-copyright-pi.html http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21597-us-judge-rules-t... Along with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention Play a factor in trademarks and copyright. Then the variations in each country of what you can and can't trademark/copyright.
    - IshKebab 7y ago
      That's copyright. A totally different thing.
- gmiller123456 8y ago
  >But equally, Raspberry could not trademark "Pi" or indeed "Raspberry" One very close counter example would be "Blackberry". You absolutely can trademark common words for use in specific markets. Another infamous example is "Apple" as both a computer company and a music label. Had there been other computers already using "Raspberry" or "Pi", they likely would have run into issues using "Raspberry Pi".
  - Zenst 8y ago
    Yes, though in Apples case they fell foul of Apple records and eventually settled that they would not do anything music related. That changed, though they financially better placed to handle and settle that issue than the initial conflict. Just checked for a wiki entry and good to see my memory of that era not that bad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer
HeWhoLurksLate 8y ago
At this point, I kind of feel like the "Pi" moniker is useful for conveying a sense of size & I'm not really offended by the fact that a bunch of companies are bringing their own products to the market and doing stuff like "Orange Pi" or "Banana Pi" or "Cherry Pi" or "Atomic Pi" or "Vanilla Pi" or any other name with Pi in it, or Google's AI thing that has a different size but incorporates the Pi HAT spec. I do agree though, it would be nice to see some more cohesiveness in the system, but the Pi that started it all isn't perfect for everything either.
- tracker1 8y ago
  This thing seems to be 2x the size though (more if you include heatsink height). Of course even rpi has a smaller version... so, meh. I think it seems like a really powerful board for the price, though I do wish they full kits (+case and power) were a bit closer to the raw board price. After you add them it's often 2x the price. Not that it would actually get me closer to done any faster. I have a kit by my desk I haven't even opened for 6 months. The last one is running various emulators in the living room. This board seems to do well enough for Playstation and Sega Saturn emulation from a couple youtube videos that came up yesterday.
mhb 8y ago
And, in contrast, there is an ineluctable attraction to finding a new name for daughterboard for each one of these new SBCs.

morganvachon 8y ago

Agreed, I saw $35 and "Pi" in the headline and immediately thought there was already a successor to the Pi 3B+. I'm not exactly disappointed to see a $35 Cherry Trail SBC, that's a phenomenal price point for such a device, but it's definitely misleading.

Zenst 8y ago

Totally agree, though reminiscent of the early days of PC's with IBM (the OS and PC name..) and again naming conventions with Intel (they wanted to trademark 386 etc and was told they could not do that with numbers - hence they started using the Pentium brand they could trademark along with a massive campaign of Intel Inside...). Lucky the more savvy consumer see's right thru this tailgating and more so in the realms of arm SBC's. But equally, Raspberry could not trademark "Pi" or indeed "Raspberry", though they could trademark "Raspberry Pi" - https://www.raspberrypi.org/trademark-rules/ https://www.raspberrypi.org/trademark-rules/ Though, as they wanted to recreate the early fun days of computing, this whole `plagiarism` angle sure does rekindle some nostalgia.

IshKebab 8y ago
They could absolutely register "Pi" or "Raspberry" as trademarks. Well they could have anyway - might be too late now to do it retroactively.
- Zenst 8y ago
  http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21597-us-judge-rules-that-you-cant-copyright-pi.html http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21597-us-judge-rules-t... Along with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention Play a factor in trademarks and copyright. Then the variations in each country of what you can and can't trademark/copyright.
  - IshKebab 7y ago
    That's copyright. A totally different thing.
gmiller123456 8y ago
>But equally, Raspberry could not trademark "Pi" or indeed "Raspberry" One very close counter example would be "Blackberry". You absolutely can trademark common words for use in specific markets. Another infamous example is "Apple" as both a computer company and a music label. Had there been other computers already using "Raspberry" or "Pi", they likely would have run into issues using "Raspberry Pi".
- Zenst 8y ago
  Yes, though in Apples case they fell foul of Apple records and eventually settled that they would not do anything music related. That changed, though they financially better placed to handle and settle that issue than the initial conflict. Just checked for a wiki entry and good to see my memory of that era not that bad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer

HeWhoLurksLate 8y ago

At this point, I kind of feel like the "Pi" moniker is useful for conveying a sense of size & I'm not really offended by the fact that a bunch of companies are bringing their own products to the market and doing stuff like "Orange Pi" or "Banana Pi" or "Cherry Pi" or "Atomic Pi" or "Vanilla Pi" or any other name with Pi in it, or Google's AI thing that has a different size but incorporates the Pi HAT spec. I do agree though, it would be nice to see some more cohesiveness in the system, but the Pi that started it all isn't perfect for everything either.

tracker1 8y ago
This thing seems to be 2x the size though (more if you include heatsink height). Of course even rpi has a smaller version... so, meh. I think it seems like a really powerful board for the price, though I do wish they full kits (+case and power) were a bit closer to the raw board price. After you add them it's often 2x the price. Not that it would actually get me closer to done any faster. I have a kit by my desk I haven't even opened for 6 months. The last one is running various emulators in the living room. This board seems to do well enough for Playstation and Sega Saturn emulation from a couple youtube videos that came up yesterday.

mhb 8y ago

And, in contrast, there is an ineluctable attraction to finding a new name for daughterboard for each one of these new SBCs.