Despite Media Confusion, Raspberry Pi Boards Still On Schedule

Last Friday, an article in Eurogamer about the Raspberry Pi's upcoming release threw a wrench in the mental gears of anyone hoping to soon order one of the long-awaited (and much anticipated) boards, which had been expected to be ready for orders sometime this month. The piece was based on an interview with David Braben — since picked up, and subsequently corrected, by others as well — and it gave the impression both that a sudden delay had cropped up in the schedule (so that the boards wouldn't be available for consumers until September), and that the price might rise as well. The Raspberry Pi site says that both of these were mistaken, and clarifies (with some bold print, even): "You will be able to buy a Raspberry Pi from the end of February, from this website. The 'consumer release' that Eurogamer is talking about is actually the educational release, which, as you’ll be aware if you’ve been hanging out on our forums, will come with a kid-targetted software stack, a heap of written support materials, and a standard case." That educational version sounds like it's got enough value added to justify a higher price and a longer wait, but you can unwrench those gears if you're just interested in the plain (unboxed) board instead.

Comments

I hope they ordered a lot of them

[Lord_Byron]

I have a feeling these things are going to sell out fast - hopefully the Foundation was able to accurately predict the demand, or can ramp up production quickly.

Translation: I'm really excited about this, and suspect a lot of other people will be too.

Re:I hope they ordered a lot of them

[SJHillman]

This is just the first batch, it's expected to sell out very fast. They've done what they can to get as many people one (IE: limit one per customer until supply catches up with demand) but Slashdot alone likely has 10,000 readers that plan to buy one, never mind the rest of the world.

On the bright side, if there's any glaring flaws, they'll likely be caught in the first batch and corrected in time for the next batch.

Re:Do they

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry buddy, but this is Raspberry Pi. You're looking for Apple Pi.

Re:buy from the website?

[ZeroSumHappiness]

If you hold a principled opposition to PayPal why don't you send a nice email to the R-Pi foundation stating your objections and reasons. I'm sure they'll take it under advisement -- they seem very well collected on other matters so far. I would not be surprised if they actually changed merchant bank based on responses from users. In fact, I'll email them right now!

Re:too many r-pi 'status' posts

[Narishma]

Why don't you just stop reading these updates if you're not interested in them?

Re:too many r-pi 'status' posts

[Anonymous Coward]

such as 'they just soldered R234 in place!'

They did? SCHWEET!. That's a huge milestone.

(making that one up).

WTF? Dammit. You had me going. I was completely looking forward to the completion of the soldering of the entire R200 series.

Meanie.

these micro-updates don't really belong here. there is such a thing is too much pushing of a product.
the thing will sell well, but please stop blatantly trying to get the name in the news every other week, ok?

You're just mad because it's not a bitcoin story.

Congrats, you are still confused.

[Qzukk]

"Anyone will be able to buy model A and model B units, uncased, at the $25 and $35 price points from launch, with a Debian or Fedora software stack," he told Tom's. "Later in the year, we intend to add a case and a polished educational software stack; we hope to squeeze the cased version into the same price point, and we expect that educational users and people who wish to use the board as a home media center will choose this package in the long term."

For values of "anyone" meaning the first 10000 people to get in before the server implodes.

Re:Big news is that it costs more

[Anonymous Coward]

Liz from Raspberry Pi here. Afraid you're misreading; that's totally wrong. It's worth reading the clarification post on our website that this article is about, which was written because a couple of media outlets had come to exactly the conclusion you just have.

We've filled the first batch with Model Bs because demand is so high, but we'll be producing Model A devices immediately after that. And the educational version will cost $25 or $35 - yes, with a bundled case - depending on whether it's a Model A or B.

Re:Slashvertishment

[Hatta]

Name one.

Re:Big news is that it costs more

[epp_b]

So? Do you really want one without Ethernet?

Re:too many r-pi 'status' posts

[drinkypoo]

do we have to know about each new milestone, such as 'they just soldered R234 in place!' (making that one up).

Yes.

these micro-updates don't really belong here. there is such a thing is too much pushing of a product.

This is one of the hottest new computers in years, which is hilarious to boot because it is so poorly-featured compared to all the other hottest new computers. I want all the micro-updates.

Re:too many r-pi 'status' posts

[Vairon]

Yes. Open Linux boards have been around for quite some time. None of them have ever been this cheap before. If you disagree, please tell me where I can buy a 700Mhz SOC that runs Linux with similar peripherals (Ethernet, HDMI, Composite, 256MB RAM, USB, 16 GPIO lines) and about the size of a credit card for $35 or less?

Routerboard 400Mhz $59
Gumstix Overo Sand COM 600Mhz $115
Beagleboard 720Mhz $125
Beaglebone 700Mhz $89
...
Raspberry Pi 700Mhz $35

Re:Isn't It Already Late?

[spongman]

Hallelujah, Jesus has returned!

lame AC: meh, isn't he late?

Re:too many r-pi 'status' posts

[Alioth]

Raspberry Pi news is *very much* news for nerds, it is very much the very core of what Slashdot is about. If you don't like it, then perhaps Slashdot isn't the site for you.

You can always just not read the stories.

Re:too many r-pi 'status' posts

[advocate_one]

Slashdot is "News for Nerds"... Raspberry Pi is relevant content... don't like it? Then go somewhere else...