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> I expect most will feel the same. I buy Pis because of their support, stability and out of the box experience is far superior to other cheaper clones. I have

> I expect most will feel the same. I buy Pis because of their support, stability and out of the box experience is far superior to other cheaper clones. I have tons of cards which are paperweights without Armbian or self-rolled distributions, and even them some are feature-capped because of kernel-dependent closed source modules or out-of-tree drivers. I can still download and install a recent version of RaspberryPi OS to my Raspi 1, customize the image even before it touches the SD card, and remove the card and install to a more recent Pi, and continue working. More importantly, I can upgrade OS from version to version (Armbian doesn't support this, and they say it explicitly for example). OrangePi, Radxa and Asus failed on all these fronts. I still peek and poke OrangePi 5B's Debian image since I can't trust them blindly, but can't use its AI and video (rendering/encoding) accelerators without its official image. Oh, and my OrangePi Zero always crashes within a day or two if I don't practically disable its frequency scaling capability via governor. Even a good cable and adapter which can run a Raspi 3/4 without any hiccups can't make this postage stamp sized thing happy and stable. P.S.: For everyone who thinks RaspberryPi brand and hardware will be enshittified: I'm not saying that it won't happen. What I'm saying is, let's watch how this moat evaporates, and who passes (said moat) and replaces them on their hill.

Hizonner 2y ago
Well, you can expect all of those superior things to start going to hell in about a year or two. The enshittification will begin.
- bayindirh 2y ago
  If that happens, I won't buy them anymore. The boards don't have an expiration date, and I can roll my own distribution "if it comes to that". Have done that in a professional capacity back then, can do it again.
  - account42 2y ago
    With a publicly traded company that's not an if but a when.
    - bayindirh 2y ago
      You're right, but I refuse to keep my mind busy with it. I'll look around when I need a new SBC for the task at hand, and if RaspberryPi has enshittified, I'll just pass. So it's an if from my perspective, since I don't constantly watch them and ask "aretheyenshittifiedyet?".
ActionHank 2y ago
Support and stability will go down, they will cut support roles to drive profitability and they will release multiple variants of the same board to saturate the market so hardware support will get dicier. They may even roll their own distro as a way to capture the market. When a company lists they switch from being customer focused to being share-holder focused. They will do anything and everything to make number go up.
- bayindirh 2y ago
  Let's watch as it happens, shall we? I'm not saying it won't happen, yet I don't feel gloomy and dark about it. If they fall, another will rise and fill the void. The market is healthy from that standpoint, but let's watch as it happens and see what happens.
ThatPlayer 2y ago
Similarly my Orange Pi 4 (not the 4B or 4 LTS) no longer gets new images from Orange Pi themselves. Armbian's images had an issue with display out on the board for at least a year. I haven't checked if it's been fixed. And that's with a RK3399 which is basically mainlined in the Linux kernel.

Hizonner 2y ago

Well, you can expect all of those superior things to start going to hell in about a year or two. The enshittification will begin.

bayindirh 2y ago
If that happens, I won't buy them anymore. The boards don't have an expiration date, and I can roll my own distribution "if it comes to that". Have done that in a professional capacity back then, can do it again.
- account42 2y ago
  With a publicly traded company that's not an if but a when.
  - bayindirh 2y ago
    You're right, but I refuse to keep my mind busy with it. I'll look around when I need a new SBC for the task at hand, and if RaspberryPi has enshittified, I'll just pass. So it's an if from my perspective, since I don't constantly watch them and ask "aretheyenshittifiedyet?".

ActionHank 2y ago

Support and stability will go down, they will cut support roles to drive profitability and they will release multiple variants of the same board to saturate the market so hardware support will get dicier. They may even roll their own distro as a way to capture the market. When a company lists they switch from being customer focused to being share-holder focused. They will do anything and everything to make number go up.

bayindirh 2y ago
Let's watch as it happens, shall we? I'm not saying it won't happen, yet I don't feel gloomy and dark about it. If they fall, another will rise and fill the void. The market is healthy from that standpoint, but let's watch as it happens and see what happens.

ThatPlayer 2y ago

Similarly my Orange Pi 4 (not the 4B or 4 LTS) no longer gets new images from Orange Pi themselves. Armbian's images had an issue with display out on the board for at least a year. I haven't checked if it's been fixed. And that's with a RK3399 which is basically mainlined in the Linux kernel.