The Pi and Arduino being cheap helped their acceptance for DIY projects I think more than anything. An alternate reality Raspberry Pi identical to our Pi save f

The Pi and Arduino being cheap helped their acceptance for DIY projects I think more than anything. An alternate reality Raspberry Pi identical to our Pi save for a MIPS CPU instead of ARM would have been just as popular. The magic of a Pi isn't the ARM CPU but the $25 price point for a Linux computer and the ability to use memory cards, power supplies, input devices, and monitors people already own. They're cheap enough to play with yet really flexible. Even if you never finish a "project" using a Pi it can still be a fun little emulation machine, Kodi player, or bang around system for kids. Even the Arduino isn't all that useful outside of "projects". Even when a Pi is vastly overpowered for some DIY project powering some LEDs it's still not much more than doing the same project with much more limited but project-specific hardware.