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Re: "There are at least four Raspberry Pis in the house here......"
While you are talking about big MCUs, I really found interesting small RP2040 and RP2350 in Pico 1/2 boards, especially the PIO approach for custom interfaces
Sep 13 · 3 months ago
The goal of the Raspberry Pi Foundation has never changed, and remains "to further the advancement of education of adults and children, particularly in the field of Computers, Computer Science and related subjects". This has always been a matter of public record.
Under UK charity and company law, the goal can only be changed with the consent of the Charity Commission.
It has never been about "affordable and simple low-power computing" and it would be illegal for the Foundation to prioritise this above being an educational charity.
🕹️ skyjake [OP...] · Sep 14 at 12:02:
@mk270 That is correct, the Foundation is and remains a charity focused on education. My original comment was about the for-profit subsidiary responsible for designing the Raspberry Pi computers. That is the entity that was listed on the stock market recently. This can be very useful for raising funds, however in the longer term, the stock market can act as a negative incentive (see also: enshittification).
@skyjake Sorry, I do beg your pardon. I should have been clearer: I was intending only to respond to @jsreed5's point, which I quoted directly without it being explicit whom I was replying to.
"Goal" might have been the incorrect word on my part. You are correct that the stated goal of the Raspberry Pi Foundation has never changed. I meant to convey that ever since the early days, the foundation intended to implement their goals by creating simple, affordable, low-power computers--and that in my opinion, their current implementation doesn't quite resemble their original ideas. Their ideas on implementation are apparent in their early "About Us" page: https://web.archive.org/web/20120323154038/http://www.raspberrypi.org/about
Again, I don't really agree that "low-power" or "simple" came into it. It was only about "affordable", specifically, limiting the cost to $35, so that if the child somehow broke the device, it wasn't wrecking the parent's work machine, but wrecking something that many families could afford to replace.
I'd look at the business plan documents / prospectus circulated around the time of the IPO for where the trading company is going next - very informative.
There are at least four Raspberry Pis in the house here... I've been a fan since the first generation. I hope they don't lose sight of their core values, though, with the recent IPO. I recall also hearing about some PR/community blunders recently, but such things can always occur as the business grows.
💬 skyjake [...] · 13 comments · 3 likes · Sep 09 · 3 months ago