Before you ask, it is already sold out as of this writing.

Ah, the Pi. Practically the ultimate hobbyist machine, extensible in nearly every way and open source to boot. For a fiver, you can't go wrong, and I personally have been looking at the Pi fondly, curiously, and with a tilted head.

Personally, I'd be using mine for an emulation station. Are you interested in the Zero Calorie Pi?

Well, the combination of a magazine and cheap board is very attractive to me, even though I'm not really interested in the Pi. But the MagPi is sold out, so I can't give in to my hoarding nature.

Interesting experiment and I am semi-intererested in one, but I have absolutely no idea what I'd use it for, other than marvel on its small size and all.

I might be more interesting if I already didn't have a small device I keep with me that can do computing. A smartphone, that is.

EDIT: I wonder if there was be a way to connect an external USB hard drive to it, and use it to download my GOG games with a python script (gogrepo.py)? I'd have a need for a very low-power computer for that purpose, currently I am using a very old Dell laptop running Linux Mint. I tend to run the script for even several days at time (depending if I want to run md5 verification for all my GOG games as well), so it would make sense for it to be as lower power as possible.

I've been thinking if some even lower-power solution would exist, like using some kind of tablet for it, but then I don't know if they'd work with gogrepo.py, and can you really connect 2TB USB-powered hard drive to them? I know USB flash sticks work with my old Android tablet, but that's too small and with a wrong filesystem (FAT32).

That would make a great stocking filler.

Timppu, you'd need a micro usb to full size converter as included in the bundle here

http://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-zero

But A usb power drive might not work, you might need to rig a power pass through to give the drive enough juice.

Though I've still not dusted of my old pi for an experiment I wanted to do.


Also, no network interface, so you'd need a USB hub for a USB NIC.

I'm pretty tempted to see if I can pick up a copy of the magazine later - even if I never use the damned thing. O____o

I have a Model B.

Note that this does not have an x86 processor, so it can only run x86 software via emulation, which is slow enough to only be viable for old dos games.

In particular, note that the gog.com installers will probably not work, but some DOS games might work if you install them (along with DOSBox or similar) somehow.

Another issue is that, if you are looking for a free (as in freedom) device, the Raspberry Pi is not a suitable choice; it requires binary firmware to boot.

One other thing: It looks like this is ARMv6, not ARMv7, so Linux distributions not made for the Raspberry Pi 1 will not run.

gogrepo.py should work provided you can get a network connection (you will need a hub if you want both that and a USB hard drive, unless you are knowledgeable to solder on an ESP8266 and write a driver).

Thanks for the info. I was also thinking that maybe it can't supply enough power through the USB, so a bigger USB hard drive with its own power might work better. Also I didn't realize it doesn't have network connectivity by default. i guess I was expecting a bit too much for mere $5... ;) EDIT: Ok I see on the store you can get a wifi adapter for it for like £6, and lots of other accessories like small displays for a couple dozen bucks etc. Quite interesting...

Maybe I should rephrase my original question: have any of you Pi owners found real uses for the device? Or is it simply a hobbyist machine, to marvel about its low price and small size?

Interesting concept and all I admit, but I fear I've accumulated so much electronics that I don't really use anymore at my home already... I'm still open to low-power systems that I could dedicate to certain use, so that I don't necessarily have to use a big power hungry gaming PC for simplest task, like the aforementioned automated checking and downloading of my GOG games. Old low-power laptops have so far been pretty good for such use, just install some Linux Mint XFCE on them. My target was not to install/run GOG games on Pi, but to use it a downloader. I currently use a 10 years old cheapo laptop for that purpose (connected a 2TB USB 2.5" hard drive to it) , it is running Linux Mint and I am not installing nor running GOG games on it either. I just download the installers to the external NTFS HDD with it, and use those installers elsewhere.

Looking forward to other usages too, e.g. is that device good for a media player, connected to the HDTV with its HDMI port? Can it possibly even use Netflix?

I have an old laptop with around the same specs (1Ghz processor with 512Mo RAM) and it already struggles at playing movies in 720p (or even casually watching youtube) so don't count on that.

Only uses I could see is for word processing, pure coding and such.

My understanding is that:
1. It is good as a media player.
2. It can not run Netflix or other DRM content.

The Pi has a relatively powerful graphics processor. It has no problems playing 1080P content.

I have two B's that I use as media centres, and a B+ that I hack with.

I've got a couple Pi's myself and this looks very very interesting as a whole :)

However the specs specify the CPU but no GPU. That means it probably doesn't have a GPU as it's core, which is totally fine, based on it's small size you wouldn't be doing heavy media processing and instead could put this into stuff more suited for say robotics. For $5 i'd happily get a few of these if i had the skills and equipment for making robots :) Give it a fully synthesized voice and have it claim to be Steven Hawking :P And if you disagree with it, it would start prattling on about the size of your intelligence comparable to an atom or you wouldn't understand the dynamics of a black hole...

It can do 1080p video, depending on codec. Its all down to specialist video hardware that most mobile chips have now, but your old laptop doesn't.

Are there any alternatives to it because due to some possible conflicts of interest and their behavior during the GG controversy I would rather avoid them.

There are alternatives, but I am not going to mention them because GG discussion doesn't belong in this thread. (Not to mention that you did not mention what GG stands for or what the controversy is.)

Not to mention, it has been several months and I think the idiotic drama is getting to the normal point, rather than an inflamed boil on the rump.