I know, but it’s a foundation, not a commercial institution. I still don’t think it’s neat.
A foundation does not immediately mean that no money is made (on all levels), I have no idea how that is with the RPi Foundation, but foundation is not immediately ‘good’ where a commercial company is viewed as ‘bad’. It is an organisation/company form which can be filled in completely in terms of objectives, depending on how they are defined in the articles of association. It can be a single person to a group of people who run the board and if the statutes allow it, the objectives can easily change.
Let’s face it, these types of integrators have nothing to do with the purpose of the foundation.
Then of course you know what the objectives/statutes of the RPi Foundation are… Of course you have a source for that… What, you haven’t checked? And shouting what here? You don’t normally do that…
But you know that the Raspberry Pi Foundation also has a subsidiary called “Raspberry Pi (Trading) Ltd”, which is a Ltd. is, in the Netherlands that is a BV. A commercial company. Kind of the same construction as OpenAI has, but much older…
…Raspberry Pi Ltd, a commercial subsidiary that develops Raspberry Pi computers and other hardware.
The commercial company develops and thus makes the actual computers, not the foundation. Subsequently, the profits of the commercial company are donated to the foundation or to realize its ‘charities’ goals. This construction has been around for 10 years…
The foundation’s charitable activities are funded through a combination of Gift Aid from the profits of Raspberry Pi Ltd, contracts for the delivery of educational services eg professional development for teachers, and donations from individuals, foundations, and other organisations.
I also see in the hobby and educational sector that the pi has long since disappeared. Someone I knew who made small robot projects for children has switched to another brand of sign, for example.
That is of course not strange. RPi stands or falls with its customers, you already indicate that hobby and education can easily switch to something else, little is lost. All companies that used an RPi could not do so, with the risk that all companies that use RPis in their products would collapse and cease to exist. That is a not insignificant share of the customer base.
After the scarcity, a significant part of those RPi companies will still exist, just like all those hobbyists and educational projects. Those who have apparently stepped on their virtual ‘pikkie’ will not return as a customer, the question is whether you want them as a customer in the first place. The rest will return fine when prices are ‘normal’ again (with all the inflation) and new projects are started.
The result is that RPi still exists after a world crisis, so the foundation can continue to do their work.
And I hear everyone here talking about the ‘much better performance’ of brand XYZ, but brand XYZ was also not cheap during the crisis and not of the same ‘quality’ as the RPi’s. Sure, some were more powerful and they were usually available, but in terms of consumption / performance, the RPi is still lord and master (according to what I found in terms of reviews / tests during the crisis).
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi_Foundation