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Big, we (littlebirdelectronics.com) found in Australia that people are now way more interested in embedded Linux. Embedded Linux projects now accounts for rough

Big, we (littlebirdelectronics.com) found in Australia that people are now way more interested in embedded Linux. Embedded Linux projects now accounts for roughly 50% of our sales .

bigiain 12y ago
Hey Marcus, I'm sure you're right, but I'm guessing those are not identical sets of people. I know a bunch of people who are buying RaspberryPis and BeagleBoards and Galileos - some of them have never picked up a soldering iron or hot glue gun in their lives - some of the people I'm thinking of here are front end devs who love the idea of a server they own/control, or people who have a specific "computer task" they'd like a dedicated inexpensive machine for (media server, file server, firewall, internet radio box, that sort of stuff). For them, Arduino is all a bit alien and unapproachable, and also quite useless for the ideas in their heads. I also see many people who want to drive servos/steppers/motors/solenoids/etc, who've either fried a RaspberryPi's 3.3v gpio already, or who've got a project idea for which there's a great Arduino library already existing but for which they'd have to write their own in the embedded linux world. Many of these people (and I'm mostly in this camp) often start projects out with an Arduino (or similar) to interact with "the real world" - sensors, servos, motors, relays, gps, leds, lasers, whatever - and only add in a linux board when neccessary (that "RaspberryPi + Arduino" combination is spectacuarly common, bot for projects and as the prototype stage of products with custom built electronics. I know that's where our Moorescloud hardware started - didn't your NinjaBlocks start out that way too?) It'd be interesting to see from your sales data how many of your embedded linux sales are to customers who've never bought any "Arduino-type" microcontroller stuff, and how many of your Arduino customers are also RasPi/embedded-linux purchasers.

Big, we (littlebirdelectronics.com) found in Australia that people are now way more interested in embedded Linux. Embedded Linux projects now accounts for roughly 50% of our sales .

bigiain 12y ago

Hey Marcus, I'm sure you're right, but I'm guessing those are not identical sets of people. I know a bunch of people who are buying RaspberryPis and BeagleBoards and Galileos - some of them have never picked up a soldering iron or hot glue gun in their lives - some of the people I'm thinking of here are front end devs who love the idea of a server they own/control, or people who have a specific "computer task" they'd like a dedicated inexpensive machine for (media server, file server, firewall, internet radio box, that sort of stuff). For them, Arduino is all a bit alien and unapproachable, and also quite useless for the ideas in their heads. I also see many people who want to drive servos/steppers/motors/solenoids/etc, who've either fried a RaspberryPi's 3.3v gpio already, or who've got a project idea for which there's a great Arduino library already existing but for which they'd have to write their own in the embedded linux world. Many of these people (and I'm mostly in this camp) often start projects out with an Arduino (or similar) to interact with "the real world" - sensors, servos, motors, relays, gps, leds, lasers, whatever - and only add in a linux board when neccessary (that "RaspberryPi + Arduino" combination is spectacuarly common, bot for projects and as the prototype stage of products with custom built electronics. I know that's where our Moorescloud hardware started - didn't your NinjaBlocks start out that way too?) It'd be interesting to see from your sales data how many of your embedded linux sales are to customers who've never bought any "Arduino-type" microcontroller stuff, and how many of your Arduino customers are also RasPi/embedded-linux purchasers.