Raspberry Pi interview: Eben Upton reveals all (Linux User) [LWN.net]

Raspberry Pi interview: Eben Upton reveals all (Linux User)

Posted Mar 6, 2012 11:37 UTC (Tue) by pboddie (guest, #50784)
In reply to: Raspberry Pi interview: Eben Upton reveals all (Linux User) by dlang
Parent article: Raspberry Pi interview: Eben Upton reveals all (Linux User)

I'm not particularly impressed by some of Canonical's decision-making, but you can't really blame them for not wanting to support a sub-architecture that is effectively going away, at least in the space in which they operate.

As for whether there will be faster Raspberry Pi boards, that remains to be seen. There's a surge of cheap solutions based on newer ARM designs coming out of China (it's worth keeping up with this page on this topic), already being put into relatively cheap mass-market products. That phenomenon isn't exactly going away.

For once, I sympathise with Jono Bacon wearing his Canonical hat, though. From what I've read from members of the Raspberry Pi initiative and its more enthusiastic followers, there's a tendency to "trash-talk" other initiatives and organisations - the guy answers his own question about why you have to pay $150 for a "competing" (not complementary) board - and there seems to be a need to be seen as the solution to a problem it isn't clear that the initiative is currently adequately addressing, anyway.

Already, it would appear that people are feeling let down by being sent off to Farnell - I imagine that most people's experience of that company is about being made all too aware that Farnell doesn't want their business - and although many people are probably just interested for the cheap kit, I fear that enough discontent will have been encouraged in the whole exercise, particularly by the culture around the initiative, that it may all come back down to Earth in an unpleasant fashion.

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Raspberry Pi interview: Eben Upton reveals all (Linux User)

Posted Mar 6, 2012 12:31 UTC (Tue) by misc (subscriber, #73730) [Link] (2 responses)

People should also start to remember that production take time, especially when done in the open. Of course, when a regular company do a product, it is ready and already shipped worldwide and ready. But that's not how it work when you have a more transparent process.

People complain to distribution that the latest version of their favorite software is not in their os mainly because they know it exists and because they know that complaining could make it appear. If distribution did like Microsoft or Apple and announce it once everything is ready ( ie, skip the transparency bit of free software, and just speak once it is usable by end users of distribution ), users would surely be less demanding.

That's the same for the boards. Since the fundation have been communicating around it, giving more information than what people could expect from any company, they are mad because "OMG, I have to wait or I need to face real life problem". Mad because someone did the efforts to discuss with them, and because in the end, they forgot that production take time, that sometimes, people have to wait.

Raspberry Pi interview: Eben Upton reveals all (Linux User)

Posted Mar 6, 2012 13:35 UTC (Tue) by pboddie (guest, #50784) [Link] (1 responses)

People should also start to remember that production take time, especially when done in the open.

Has it really been that open? I haven't been following all the discussions - every blog post is followed by hundreds of responses ranging from "blue sky" brainstorming to "Can you sign me up to the mailing list?" - but I've seen a degree of backtracking and various decisions being reversed, plus people offering advice being told to keep it to themselves (in quite an aggressive fashion in some cases; anyone complaining about the use and abuse of the Ubuntu Code of Conduct for stifling discussion should spend an hour or so on the Raspberry Pi forums, just to "recalibrate").

I follow various open hardware lists where production issues are openly discussed, not just announcements about whether the deadlines will be met. No-one is under any illusions about the readiness or availability of the products on those lists, nor are people mad or impatient at those leading those initiatives. In fact, everyone seems willing to learn from everyone else.

If the disciplines of communications and marketing ever needed a case study to demonstrate their relevance, they might have found one here, however.

Raspberry Pi interview: Eben Upton reveals all (Linux User)

Posted Mar 6, 2012 16:55 UTC (Tue) by misc (subscriber, #73730) [Link]

Well, by open, I mean with enough communication, I was likely not clear. There was regular communication about the progress on the blog, from what I had seen, contrary to the traditional process of some company ( my point being the openness create the need, but the need cannot be fulfilled as soon as a product developed without any communication, like Apple stuff )

And I agree that indeed, the same problem that plague Android bug tracker, cyanogen blog and others stuff targeted to some population, plague the blog of the fundation, IE there is too much feedback ( and not that useful :/ ).