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> Okay, yeah, they just permanently lost me. The idea that they had to make this decision to save the jobs of all those people is ridiculous. A potential mitig

> Okay, yeah, they just permanently lost me. The idea that they had to make this decision to save the jobs of all those people is ridiculous. A potential mitigation that the Raspberry Pi Foundation could have done: commercial users can get prioritized RPi boards, but they have to pay an insane mark-up for this priotization (say 200 € instead of 50 € for a board). This way, corporations for which otherwise the production chains would stand still (i.e. much larger financial losses) can get a solution, but a solution that is not cheap. This solution should appease many hobbyists, since this way they don't feel that commercial users "buy away the RPis, which were originally developed for hobbyists and schools", but rather that such commercial users rather subsidize the RPis for the hobbysist and schools via the "priotization mark-ups". EDIT: Under https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35999824 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35999824 cinntaile posted a related consideration.

Timon3 3y ago
That's a lovely idea and would have definitely kept me as a happy hobbyist.
sheepybloke 3y ago
This makes a lot of sense to me, and I think the biggest thing is this changes the conversation at a company level about which boards to buy. Generally, companies have a lot more resources to put towards supporting more niche commercial boards, like generating their own BSPs and Linux builds. They went with Pis because they are a) cheap and b) easier. If they are a) more expensive and b) easier, that would change the calculation potentially for a lot of companies.
- aleph_minus_one 3y ago
  > They went with Pis because they are a) cheap and b) easier. If they are a) more expensive and b) easier, that would change the calculation potentially for a lot of companies. I do believe there exist further points that make the Raspberry Pi boards attractive to companies (in opposite to SBC offers by many other companies): c) There exist a lot of people (potential empoloyees) who have already worked with a RPi (even if for private projects) and thus know RPi's insides rather well. d) The RPi boards (even very old ones) are supported by the manufacturer for a very long time with GNU/Linux support that (mostly) "simply works". e) The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a British company (in opposite to boards by Chinese producers) Potentially: f) The esteemed Raspberry Pi brand might also give some martketing prestige to an offering of a company that uses a RPi board as a central part ("Our product uses a Raspberry Pi").

Timon3 3y ago

That's a lovely idea and would have definitely kept me as a happy hobbyist.

sheepybloke 3y ago

This makes a lot of sense to me, and I think the biggest thing is this changes the conversation at a company level about which boards to buy. Generally, companies have a lot more resources to put towards supporting more niche commercial boards, like generating their own BSPs and Linux builds. They went with Pis because they are a) cheap and b) easier. If they are a) more expensive and b) easier, that would change the calculation potentially for a lot of companies.

aleph_minus_one 3y ago
> They went with Pis because they are a) cheap and b) easier. If they are a) more expensive and b) easier, that would change the calculation potentially for a lot of companies. I do believe there exist further points that make the Raspberry Pi boards attractive to companies (in opposite to SBC offers by many other companies): c) There exist a lot of people (potential empoloyees) who have already worked with a RPi (even if for private projects) and thus know RPi's insides rather well. d) The RPi boards (even very old ones) are supported by the manufacturer for a very long time with GNU/Linux support that (mostly) "simply works". e) The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a British company (in opposite to boards by Chinese producers) Potentially: f) The esteemed Raspberry Pi brand might also give some martketing prestige to an offering of a company that uses a RPi board as a central part ("Our product uses a Raspberry Pi").