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Posted by edandersen 1 day ago

Raspberry Pi blocks changing RAM chips(forums.raspberrypi.com)
247 points | 206 commentspage 4
zb3 1 day ago|
We can't normalize this cash-grab user-hostile late stage capitalism bullshit.

Their argument assumes users are idiots - we had swappable components for years, and while there were cheating actors, market has invented things like brands and trust, you know? You don't have to buy models from the sellers you don't trust, nobody forces you to.

jamesh98 59 minutes ago|
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jocelyner 13 hours ago||
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oxcartctl 1 day ago||
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mschuster91 1 day ago||
> raspberrypi locked and limited conversation to collaborators

Way to read the room, jfc. Hardbricking hardware is not the answer, see FTDI.

I get why they are doing that... but I think there should be a way for users to flash a separate firmware, maybe tied to the hardware key similar to the old h264/mpeg license, that allows the usage of a modified board.

PS: Arrest Sam Altman who caused all of this mess in the first place with his market manipulation stunt.

snvzz 23 hours ago|
Raspberry Pi been scummy for a while e.g. locking codecs behind extra payments. It seems they've gone full mask off at last.

Got here via Jeff Geerling coverage[0].

0. https://youtu.be/ltofM26akZQ

winkelmann 23 hours ago||
The codec unlock is a thing of the past pretty much, they dropped the affected hardware decoders entirely in the Pi4/5 [1]. In any case, if the legends of Pis being genuinely affordable options back then are true, I'm fine with it. A lot of (probably most) use-cases don't require these codecs, so paying $1.20 and $2.40 respectively seems reasonable for those who do need it.

[1] https://codecs.raspberrypi.com/mpeg-2-license-key/

AnnikaL 12 hours ago||
The legends are true. I remember begging my parents to get me a Raspberry Pi sometime in the mid 2010s, and the cheap model was US$25 (and the less-cheap model was $35).

Admittedly, this may be closer to $40-50 in today's money (and didn't include an SD card, but those were more common back then in the era of digital cameras)...

philpem 23 hours ago||
The codecs at least had a reasonable explanation - it took a few dollars off the price of the unit (licensing fees to Microsoft and the like). There was also nothing stopping you from decoding MPEG2 with ffmpeg on the CPU. Those specific codecs aren't even present on newer Pi units.