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Comment by greggman | Hacker News Reader

I'm not at all an expert in electronics but I'm still curious what makes a Raspberry PI better than the $40 android USB sticks? Linux? Inputs? Is it just a matter of positioning? Just curious.

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I've seen very mixed reviews of the Android USB sticks, especially at the low end (~$40 as you say, many are more like $70)... they seem unreliable. They also don't have quite the large community hacking on them that the RPi has.

Not an expert opinion, just the reason I went with the Pi personally.

Also, they run Linux by default, so you don't have to worry about installing it and whether it's going to work.

Primarily, hype and community (which is gained from hype). GPIO is also significant for many, and it may align better with some users requirements (eg, LAN, 2xUSB, RCA video). It is also the 0 thought solution; you can go out and start researching what USB stick you need, or just get a rPi.

So much misinformation in these replies; the USB sticks will tend to have hdmi, usb, microSd, much faster cpu, more memory, wifi, run full linux. IMO they make a better 'mini PC' but the Pi is better for hacking with other hardware.

The Pi does have to jump through more hoops (eg CE certification) to go on sale in the EU/US, so it's not 100% fair comparison from that angle.

Yes, I have a Raspberry Pi and agree. Also Raspberry Pi ends up costing significantly more than the USB sticks once you purchase a case and the necessary cables(usb/hdmi) and power adapter. Some guy on youtube has good set of videos comparing Pi to mk802 and explaining why he prefers mk802: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKNPnBE-ouI

The mk802 has been superseded with faster cpu's in the USB sticks so argument probably holds even stronger new. You can still get mk802, though, e.g., $33.48 with free shipping and HDMI cable, USB, power adapter: http://www.amazon.com/MK802-Android-Google-Player-Allwinner/...

It has ethernet, hdmi, usb, micro-usb for power, rca video out, a 3.5mm audio jack, GPIO pins, and a regular SD card slot. And it runs debian not just a special android distro, so it's perfect for hacking. You can use it as a router, or a server, or a media controller, or a really beefy micro-controller.

It's comparable to an arduino in a way, it lets you use a full power computer in a prototype embedded system or simple project easily.

For me, it's the availability of GPIO pinouts on the raspberry pi which make it so compelling for hacking.

Put me down for GPIO as well.

Sparkfun today announced the pcDuino http://www.pcduino.com which seems to take the GPIO side of things even a bit further (and promises some Arduino compatibility). It remains to be seen whether the additional functionality is seen as being worth the higher price.

For a lot of people I think the GPIO pins, the killer little GPU and ability to expand from the USB ports that differentiates it from the other low-cost ARM boards. The closest competitor I can think of is the BeagleBone which is great but costs more than twice for a comparable package.

It runs a complete Linux distribution (Debian), and it has a GPIO port, which you can connect to various other hardware. Android sticks are a slightly different market.

I also want an answer to this question... Especially since most android USB stick also have 1GB RAM, where as this only has 512MB.

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