7 ms·

If Pi was chosen for its price, there are quite a few laptops on Ebay, that would have been much cheaper.

lvturner 5y ago
Likely, as it was the library that bought them they had to buy via a pre-vetted supplier. Also, if you bought from eBay I'd be quite surprised if your overall time costs didn't multiply. There's something to be said for the Pi's ability to work right out the box without having to do any additional OS configuration.
codetrotter 5y ago
The Pi also has the advantage of having a huge huge community, so any of the people learning from this person and deciding to get a Pi of their own will be able to find a lot of help online while they are experimenting with the Pi at home
Cthulhu_ 5y ago
You get what you pay for though, you don't need to spend hours cleaning up someone else's grubby old laptop, and it's a consistent and open source system.
- wwe4323434 5y ago
  Chances are you don't have to spend hours cleaning up an used laptop. 15 minutes should be sufficient to get rid of dust and upgrade memory of an old Thinkpad for example. I agree about the open source part though, Raspberry Pi is a good fit for teaching purposes.
  - p410n3 5y ago
    > chances are There you have it
  - _joel 5y ago
    Not in my experience. In fact one in particular would have been more suitable for the furnace.
_ph_ 5y ago
The value of the Pi is, that it is affordable brand-new. You can buy one or as many as you want and be sure that they are in a perfect working state, no repairs or special set up required. Just having identically machines is of extreme high value, if you are looking not only for a personal item, but something you can rely on for some kind of professional work. Another nice thing is, that the Pi can boot and work solely on a single micro-SD card. That makes it easy to have any number of install "disks" ready at hand, you don't have to set up the systems hard disk first. Finally, the Pi gives you a nice set of IO-ports, you can immediately start with any hardware tinkering project.
- ChrisRR 5y ago
  Affordable is relative. Once you factor in a power supply, mouse, mini-hdmi cable and SD card, you're looking at the best part of £100. And that's if you already have a monitor or can use the TV There's a hell of a lot of ex office PCs that can run python for much cheaper, if not for free
  - rijoja 5y ago
    Yeah but then you have to do the research that you have all the correct drivers and so forth. Also with time things such as harddrives deteriorate. And also by your same logic. If you are able to get computers for free then you would also be able to get the keyboards, mouses and displays for free right?
    - ChrisRR 5y ago
      I'm not talking ancient computers. A Core 2 is still a very capable machine nowadays. That age of hard drive is hardly breaking left right and centre
      - AndresNavarro 5y ago
        I think you are missing the point. Doing that for one machine for yourself: easy, cheap, maybe even fun. Doing that for 5-10 unknown machines for other people to use in a class... Each may be different, you have to setup each one, they may fail or misbehave at any moment, even during class... Not my idea of easy, cheap or fun. Talking from experience in exactly that kind of situations, working with donated hardware in a school setting.
abdullahkhalids 5y ago
The advantage of giving a "toy computer" to a kid is that parents will not freak out if the kid tinkers with it. If a 10 year old opens their laptop, even a cheap one, a lot of parents will freak out.

Likely, as it was the library that bought them they had to buy via a pre-vetted supplier. Also, if you bought from eBay I'd be quite surprised if your overall time costs didn't multiply. There's something to be said for the Pi's ability to work right out the box without having to do any additional OS configuration.

codetrotter 5y ago

The Pi also has the advantage of having a huge huge community, so any of the people learning from this person and deciding to get a Pi of their own will be able to find a lot of help online while they are experimenting with the Pi at home

Cthulhu_ 5y ago

You get what you pay for though, you don't need to spend hours cleaning up someone else's grubby old laptop, and it's a consistent and open source system.

wwe4323434 5y ago
Chances are you don't have to spend hours cleaning up an used laptop. 15 minutes should be sufficient to get rid of dust and upgrade memory of an old Thinkpad for example. I agree about the open source part though, Raspberry Pi is a good fit for teaching purposes.
- p410n3 5y ago
  > chances are There you have it
- _joel 5y ago
  Not in my experience. In fact one in particular would have been more suitable for the furnace.

_ph_ 5y ago

The value of the Pi is, that it is affordable brand-new. You can buy one or as many as you want and be sure that they are in a perfect working state, no repairs or special set up required. Just having identically machines is of extreme high value, if you are looking not only for a personal item, but something you can rely on for some kind of professional work. Another nice thing is, that the Pi can boot and work solely on a single micro-SD card. That makes it easy to have any number of install "disks" ready at hand, you don't have to set up the systems hard disk first. Finally, the Pi gives you a nice set of IO-ports, you can immediately start with any hardware tinkering project.

ChrisRR 5y ago
Affordable is relative. Once you factor in a power supply, mouse, mini-hdmi cable and SD card, you're looking at the best part of £100. And that's if you already have a monitor or can use the TV There's a hell of a lot of ex office PCs that can run python for much cheaper, if not for free
- rijoja 5y ago
  Yeah but then you have to do the research that you have all the correct drivers and so forth. Also with time things such as harddrives deteriorate. And also by your same logic. If you are able to get computers for free then you would also be able to get the keyboards, mouses and displays for free right?
  - ChrisRR 5y ago
    I'm not talking ancient computers. A Core 2 is still a very capable machine nowadays. That age of hard drive is hardly breaking left right and centre
    - AndresNavarro 5y ago
      I think you are missing the point. Doing that for one machine for yourself: easy, cheap, maybe even fun. Doing that for 5-10 unknown machines for other people to use in a class... Each may be different, you have to setup each one, they may fail or misbehave at any moment, even during class... Not my idea of easy, cheap or fun. Talking from experience in exactly that kind of situations, working with donated hardware in a school setting.

abdullahkhalids 5y ago

The advantage of giving a "toy computer" to a kid is that parents will not freak out if the kid tinkers with it. If a 10 year old opens their laptop, even a cheap one, a lot of parents will freak out.