[dobbsbob]

Why does anybody use Rasberry Pi. It is a black box tightly sealed with patents and protected by corporations. It isn't even remotely an open platform unless you think a few pages of documentation for the enormous amounts of blobs is 'open'. It's one big mess of Broadcom firmware.

Go buy a beagleboard instead, or any taiwanese hardware almost all of them release full docs

[ww520]

I actually like those thumbdrive-size computer like MK808 or UG802. They are smaller than Rasberry Pi, with an enclosure, more powerful hardware, and built-in Wifi.

The only thing is it comes with Android and porting other Linux to it is still in early stage.

[NegativeK]

Hardware documentation isn't relevant to someone who needs a tutorial in setting up a Linux fileserver.

I'd definitely prefer that the entire stack is open source, but there's a lower limit to practicality.

[chimeracoder]

Could you point to anything within a comparable price range to the Raspberry Pi? I have some decent use cases for a ~$40 computer, and I'd gladly purchase an open version if one is available, but the Beagleboards seem to be three or four times as expensive.

[dobbsbob]

True but at least you can actually buy a beagleboard :P There's an 8mos waiting list for Pi's where I live, only to get a broadcom firmware ridden toy.

With completely open hardware you could hack a beagleboard forever. Or buy a Cubieboard for $49, or Uputer Pi for $69,

[chimeracoder]

I understand - that wasn't meant as a challenge; rather, a request for a recommendation! I was on the verge of placing an order for a Raspberry Pi today.

I took a look at the Arch Linux ARM devices (http://archlinuxarm.org/), but if you (or anybody else) has any experience with a particular one, let me know.