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Raspberry Pi Has Gone To Manufacturing

Posted by Soulskill on from the bake-until-golden-brown dept.

alecclews writes "After weeks of waiting, the Raspberry Pi foundation, who are creating a $25 computer to bootstrap computing education, has flipped the switch on manufacturing. They had wanted to build the board in the UK but it turns out to be uneconomic."

12 of 374 comments (clear)

  1. Not vapourware! by isCreeper($('Ssss')) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    After all of the accusations of vapourware, it's nice that they're actually making these.

    1. Re:Not vapourware! by hawguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Even if you did create a $25 x86 computer that could run Windows, you'd have to add $100 for the Windows License.

    2. Re:Not vapourware! by PRMan · · Score: 5, Funny

      1. Install DOSBox on your Raspberry Pi.

      2. Install Windows 95/98 in DOSBox. Windows 95 on DosBox guide.

      --
      Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
    3. Re:Not vapourware! by weirdo557 · · Score: 5, Informative

      about $54 dollars http://www.bifferos.co.uk/ but proof that x86 can be done. i for one still root for the raspberry pi though, can't wait to order one.

    4. Re:Not vapourware! by sunderland56 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Whether it is "vapor" or not, if they are still going to ship with only Lin-sux and no proper OS (Windows or OS X) support, then the project is going to nose dive anyway.

      Of all the computers that handled your message between your own computer and the slashdot servers, how many were running what you call a "proper OS"?

      I bet that even the router in your own house doesn't run Windows.

    5. Re:Not vapourware! by Edmund+Blackadder · · Score: 5, Funny

      I know, seriously. We need Windows on this. What will I do without 5 minute start-up times and without having to restart the thing twice per day??? My crochet work will seriously suffer. Also I am going to be pissed if I get one of these and I do not have 25 pieces of crap-ware I have to remove before the computer becomes usable. Those crap-ware cleanings are an integral part of my budhist training.

      And wait. What happens after I own it for a while? Will it slowly slow down and degrade until I have to buy a new one after a year? Or will it run just fine like I hear those "Lin-sux" computers do. Are you telling me I might be using the same computer for many years? What are we, savages?

  2. Worrying state of affairs by Nemyst · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Reading the post (I really suggest everyone does so, it's an enlightening read), I have to say this sounds particularly worrying. The government and local manufacturers almost seemed intent on stopping them from doing the work locally. Does that even make sense?

    I can understand higher costs; the West won't accept salaries below a certain threshold, there's unions, and I entirely respect that. However, the schedule problem is ridiculous. A plant thousands of kilometers away from your main sales point can be faster to ramp up production than the shop down the street? We're not speaking about a small-scale project, either! I find this utterly unbelieveable. No wonder so much of the manufacturing goes overseas.

    And then the taxing part is plain and simply dumb. You can't control corporations, but that the government actively deters local production? That's like shooting yourself in the foot and wondering why it hurts.

    The UK and the West as a whole (I'm entirely sure that the UK is not a special case here) should be ashamed.

    1. Re:Worrying state of affairs by c0lo · · Score: 5, Informative

      And then the taxing part is plain and simply dumb. You can't control corporations, but that the government actively deters local production? That's like shooting yourself in the foot and wondering why it hurts.

      The UK and the West as a whole (I'm entirely sure that the UK is not a special case here) should be ashamed.

      For those too lazy to RTFA, UK is shooting in the foot using a big cannon then crying big of unemployment:

      I’d like to draw attention to one cost in particular that really created problems for us in Britain. Simply put, if we build the Raspberry Pi in Britain, we have to pay a lot more tax. If a British company imports components, it has to pay tax on those (and most components are not made in the UK). If, however, a completed device is made abroad and imported into the UK – with all of those components soldered onto it – it does not attract any import duty at all.

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
    2. Re:Worrying state of affairs by Animats · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I can understand higher costs; the West won't accept salaries below a certain threshold, there's unions, and I entirely respect that. However, the schedule problem is ridiculous.

      Yet not unusual. Last year I had some specialized paper rolls made for an obsolete printer. I talked to about 10 US firms. Some didn't want to make up 500 rolls, several didn't return phone calls and emails, one produced a low-quality sample, and one produced a good sample but quoted $10 a roll. That's in an industry, paper converting, which is in a severe recession.

      Then I tried looking on Alibaba, the search engine for offshort manufacturing. I found a company in Fujian, China, which asked for a $100 deposit to make two sample rolls. The samples were promptly delivered and worked. Then I ordered 500 rolls, at $1 each, which were again delivered promptly, although the shipping cost more than the paper.

      The firm in Fujian answered E-mails consistently and with useful answers within 24 hours, something few US companies seem to be able to do any more.

  3. Sounds like a great learning opportunity by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I usually recommend a USB flash drive for my students in my Unix course (taught on Macs at the school), and leave it up to them which Linux distro to run at home from the Flash drive. With prices this low, I could almost make it a requirement for the course. I'll hold off to see how they fare though.

    --
    Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
  4. Re:Is this really a big deal? by fotbr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For quick hack-it-together devices, I'd rather have a cheap linux computer with some gpio pins that I can access via something like /dev/port0 than an arduino. I'm not sure that this Raspberry Pi is the perfect solution to that, but it's closer to what I want than a arduino is, and it's a hell of a lot cheaper and easier to deal with than hacking something together out of an old laptop or mini-itx board.

    If I'm going to go back to playing with microcontrollers, I'm going to be working from a bare chip, custom boards, and assembly language, because to me, that was fun.

    Arduinos have their place. This thing has its place. There might be some overlap, but there's a lot of situations where you'd pick one over the other. Choice is good, right?

  5. Re:Is this really a big deal? by sjames · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you have kids, I'll bet you'd be more willing to let them take a soldering iron to a $25 machine than a $250 machine.