I’m fairly new and don’t 100% understand it yet, but instances are run on servers that require money. Are we heading towards seeing ads or subscriptions to raise funds instead of relying on donations to cover overhead?
Especially with the influx of new users. Hardware upgrades are needed.
I really wish those 6$ raspies were easily accessible though.
Your point still stands, it wasn’t easy getting a tower in the olden days either.
I just bought a few at adafruit. I didn’t realize they were in short supply now.
Orangepi was the alternative for a while. There are lots of “knockoffs” that are even cheaper these days. RPi decided they wanted to focus on business customers first and have kind of strayed from their mission in exchange for (likely) perpetuity and subsidizing the hobbyists and poor people they are supposed to care about.
LTT did a good video on alternatives 4 months ago. That’s a while in this market though, so I’d definitely shop around.