Raspberry Pi Gets 512MB Filling 178
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the bigger-and-better dept.
from the bigger-and-better dept.
sfcrazy writes "Good (and bad) news for Raspberry Pi lovers, the Model B has been upgraded to 512MB RAM from 256MB. Bad news is for those who already got their Model B shipments because all those who have outstanding orders with either distributors will get the *upgraded* version of the device, means with 512MB RAM instead of 256MB. The upgraded devices should be arriving to customers from today onwards. Raspberry Pi team will be pushing a firmware upgrade soon so these news devices can detect and use the additional RAM."
"Bad news" (Score:5, Insightful)
That's what happens when you adopt early, you get earlier revisions of stuff.
The alternative would be to never upgrade for fear of making the early adopters sad. Of course there has to be a balance, but most non-assholes accept that this is how things work.
On the plus side, they actually HAVE their Pi now, and have had the use of it already. If they hadn't bought it (collectively), there would be no Pi.
Mmm, Pi.
Re:"Bad news" (Score:5, Insightful)
Early adopters get a rare slice of history. Nothing wrong with that.
Re:"Bad news" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"Bad news" (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason they were able to upgrade the Pi to 512MB is exactly because the 256MB - version was so popular. If there had not been such demand there still wouldn't be 512MB - version. So basically, you're annoyed because it is popular and therefore managed to get a discount -- rather illogical from your part.
Re:"Bad news" (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not 1994 anymore, ram is dirt cheap. Putting in 512mb from the start SHOULD have been obvious at the design meeting, would not have added significant cost, and would not have fragmented the software base, as now there will be different version for stuff with differing amounts of ram.
The manufacturers weren't convinced there'd be enough demand for the Pi and therefore getting a deal for 512MB chips would indeed have increased the price of the device quite a bit. Also, your argument is like saying that they should never ever do upgraded versions of anything whatsoever because -- gee whiz! -- there will be new versions of stuff to make use of new possibilities!
Re:Some Pi Alternatives (Score:5, Insightful)
Hmm none of those systems have open pins for hardware work, only one is roughly the same size, you can't really install any linux you want on most of them, only one can be run off of AA batteries.
And while you can to a lot with the hardware you mentioned, it isn't the same as having a small, relatively powerful, piece of generic hardware.
Binary blobs don't bother everyone...