Technology

VMware, because they are bringing sales in house to make more money. Cutting out the middle man.

The idea is to squeeze as much revenue from the largest 600 clients while they desperately attempt to move to a different virtualization platform: https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/30/broadcom_strategy_vmware_customer_impact/

Not familiar with their anti consumer backstabbing, could you share share some links please?

Just checked for my country, and 4 out of 5 places had them in stock. Might be a local problem?

From what I've gathered from various sources:

• Orange Pi: Good documentation, but prices of newer models are not as affordable as previously
• Radxa/Rock: Poor hardware support apparently
• Pine64: Amazing hardware variety (phone, smartwatch, IP camera, soldering iron), but documentation can be hit or miss. Check the Pine64 wiki and search around for other documentation by community members
• Khadas: Good documentation, and support directly from the hardware developers, but this comes at a cost
• MilkV: Poor documentation - Ideal if you want to tinker
• Libre Le Potato: Generally hear positive things about their hardware. Hundreds of these were used on a recent YT project in lieu of a Pi with great success, so may be worth a look.

Another thing to check would be Armbian's site - if something is supported by that distro, it might be worth taking a closer look at

A lot of the companies producing these "Pi killers" made them to survive the shortage, because their Pi accessories weren't selling. This means that generally they'll work great with the accessory, but support may be hit or miss outside of that.

I would lean towards Orange Pi personally, mainly due to cost and how long they've been around. Avoid the very early models as there were some overheating issues on a minority of the Allwinner chips - iirc their recent boards are using Rockchip instead.

Edit: add Libre Le Potato

Orangepi, rockchip, Arduino.

There's nothing novice about wanting to learn.

My top recommendation is going to be an old desktop PC. Something with an Intel processor that ends with t.

X86 just opens up so many more options over ARM.

However if you want something new, the Zima Blade seems like a good alternative at a similar price point. And even includes 2x SATA ports and a PCIe slot.

It's not a perfect replacement because of increased cost, but there are plenty of sub $200 mini pc options these days. It's all included unlike the Pi which is still going to need a case, storage, and power supply. I bought one recently that blows away the Pi5 ,and it should because it cost more.

Raxma, Orange, Pine, take your pick.

The problem with alternatives are:

• RPi HATS don't work;
• RPi cases don't work;
• RPi hardware like screens don't work;
• RPi software doesn't always work;
• Existing RPi tutorials and guides are not compatible;
• User made 3D printed stuff for RPi is also not compatible.

Raspberry Pi has a huge and diverse ecosystem. We're stuck with it.

Try again next week.