Eh?

A bit of a strange video from OH8STN today.  He has turned in favour of a Microsoft Surface tablet, as opposed to a Raspberry Pi.

Well, he's entitled to his opinion, and it's his channel.  But I think anyone watching this video should be aware of a couple of, shall we say 'misconceptions' thrown around by OH8STN. 

I know Julian is fed-up of people who say 'no' because he says 'yes'.  That's fair enough, but not when it might make newcomers think they are better off with a product he is either promoting for money, or else just choosing to use from his own standpoint - and I don't know which of those two applies in this latest video.

The Pi is not difficult to configure or operate.  It is literally the same to use as a Windows UI.  Compared to a mid-range laptop, the Pi runs a lot more smoothly.  It will never hang when using data modes and browsing the internet at the same time, for example.  A basic or even mid-range Windows machine often will, or run slowly, trying to do the same.

Whilst some micro-SD cards can be unreliable, choosing a make such as Sandisk or Kingston eliminates this issue.  If SD cards were so unreliable, we wouldn't tolerate them in our billions of smartphones; when did yours last crash?  I've had one terminal SD card failure in maybe 7 years of using a Pi.  And all you have to do to be 'prepared', as OH8STN likes to be, is carry a spare OS disk in the rucksack; they only cost about £5 each, and the Pi will work the minute you switch it on again.

And the major thing for people using a Pi is that they are not using a Windows machine.  Windows is bloaty, updates endlessly and without the option to stop them (which also slows down datamode use during an update). And in the end, you are left with having to buy a new version of Windows, or a new machine altogether - simply because this makes money for MS. Raspberry Pi OS updates are free and adaptable. 

And as for cost, I don't get Julian's claim that it could end up costing the same as a Surface.  The cheapest, rather underwhelmingly-specified Surface Go 3 is £369 in the UK.  The next one up (Pro 7+) is £799!  The Surface has a single USB 'C' connection to the outside world - fine for a IC-705 rig, if you can afford or want one - not so fine if you don't; you may not be able to easily, or at all, connect other rigs to it.  Admittedly, more rigs are now becoming single-USB connection types, but they are still much in the minority.

A Pi system would cost £55 for the board, a 7" screen is now as cheap as £43, a keyboard and mouse about £10.  A USB battery is also needed - about £20 for a decent capacity unit.  Total cost: £128.  If you use a mobile phone for timekeeping (usually the case if you want the internet for spots uploading, etc), then you don't need to get a USB GNSS (GPS) unit - or £7 if you are really out in the non-networked field.  And the Pi sports no less than four full-sized USB sockets.

And the added benefit of the Pi system is that, if the board fails, you can easily reuse the screen by simply connecting it to another one, as you can the keyboard.  So the future replacement cost is then reduced to just the board itself - or £55 instead of £369 at today's prices.  Not that I've ever had a single Pi, from Model A to the latest Model 4B, fail on me, and I've had them permanently in rucksacks, cars, and dusty garages (many runnning 24/7/365 on science projects).

You don't get any of this endless, consumer-based updates nonsense with Raspberry Pi OS.

Heat?  Well, I have a passive aluminium shell for my Pi 4B.  It plods along at about 40 degrees C indoors, and cooler outdoors, even when running datamodes.  So Julian's concerns about heatsinks are certainly non-issues for normal amateur radio use - especially if, like Julian, you are often in a very cold ambient temperature!

So, I'm sorry Julian, I just don't accept your reasons for turning against Raspberry Pi, and I certainly won't be returning to MS products.  You may believe you can more trust your life to a Windows machine, but I, for one, would much rather take my chances with a Pi!