[mugsie]

They would, but the Pi Zero is a much better UX for people who don't deal with microprocessors on a regular basis. It has SSH, I can get in and look at logs from my desktop, wifi is standard. It all adds up - and for something like this, the power draw is not an issue, and the cost is minimal.

[Avamander]

This is the hardware equivalent of bloated webpages HN tends to dislike :P

[mugsie]

It is - but the same applies to a lot of webpages - would people create them if they had to lovingly handcraft every html tag on a page? :)

[Avamander]

They would probably create them less, but suggesting people to sometimes hand-craft HTML tags for less resource usage and more speed isn't bad, is it?

[davchana]

I still do all/most of my html css js by hand in Notepad++, @davchana at Gitlab. Yes, just a hobby, but still.

[vinceguidry]

I think the relevant distinction that should be made is that a bloated hardware project is only going to be seen and experienced by one person, whereas a bloated website is slow for all.

[walrus01]

It costs six bucks and runs something very close to stock Debian, which greatly eases software development.

[Avamander]

Yes, and Electron allows people to use JavaScript and CSS which simplifies cross-platform software development.

[tombert]

I hate Electron apps as much as the next person, but it's indisputable that to get a simple desktop app deployed, Electron is easier, and to me that signifies that it serves a purpose, at least in the prototyping space.

I have like 10 ESP32's lying around my house, they're fun to tinker with, but my Raspberry Pis get a lot more attention from me because there is a substantially lower cognitive overhead with them than the ESPs. If I had a plan on selling my stuff, then yeah, the Raspberry Pi might be overkill and I'd consider going for an MCU module. However, for a fun little DIY project, I don't see how an RPi is a problem.

EDIT: Realized I forgot to mention another point; not everyone really wants to muck with pointer arithmetic for simple things; this app was written in Python, and as far as I know, the ESP32 chips are mostly C/Arduino; I realize that there exists NodeMCU and such variants, but due to the Raspberry Pi being "Just a computer", you have access to virtually every language under the sun.

[tda]

Actually esp32's are quite fun and easy to program with micropython. Something like this project should be pretty straightforward and would arguably much easier than a pi. For micropython there is only the python code, no docker containers, Linux maintenance etc. And remote development can be done over a an http repl or even using jupyter notebooks (still have to try but just read about it). Doesn't get much better than that I think

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

> I hate Electron apps as much as the next person, but it's indisputable that to get a simple desktop app deployed, Electron is easier

Easier than what? Considering you have to use the already ill-suited for UI HTML/CSS/JS cesspit, I'd say Electron is a lot worse for the "simple desktop app" than something like Lazarus.

[tombert]

I've never used Lazarus. I was comparing it to "traditional" GUI toolkits like Qt and GTK+.

[gmanley]

Using the PI Zero over an ESP doesn't negatively impact the experience using it. Whereas a very bloated website is going to be slow to load and use. I think there is a significant difference.

[jmuguy]

And constantly compiling and flashing the ESP gets old after a while.

[knd775]

Yeah, this is a pain. I'm glad we have the OTA library, though. Saves so much time.