> when available here in the USA is coming very close to being double the magic $25 I was hoping for(1).
You were expecting a free-shipping model A, and instead have to pay for shipment (the horror!) and only have the model B available (exactly as they say). If there's any problem here, it lies with your expectations.
You can wait till the Model A becomes available. You can also arrange for people at your hackerspace to order 100 together to make the shipping cost negligible. Other than Apple, RP seems to be as good or better at delivering on their promises as any other vendor. And apple mostly deliver on their promises because they hardly ever make any.
> You can also arrange for people at your hackerspace to order 100 together to make the shipping cost negligible
Out of interest, is this currently possible with their one-per-person restriction? If not, would be nice if there was a way for people to group together and get one-each, all in a single shipment.
I do not know, but I suspect their one-per-person restriction is "one per person, unless you can convince us that you are not a scalper, and plan to order > 100 to make our time checking out your explanation worth its while".
I suspect if a well known hackerspace (SF Noisebridge, NYC Resistor, PumpStation One, Nottinghack) made such a request, they could get it.
From Newark, the B is $40 before shipping. Even if I could get one, I can only get one. But I can't get one. Their hook was "Raspberry Pi | An ARM GNU/Linux box for $25. Take a byte!" They set up that expectation. I can't do that yet. Its a bit disappointing. That's all I'm saying.
What I really wanted was a handful of A's where the price of each one, even after shipping (thanks to the multiple unit order), is damn close to the $25. I'm still hoping they'll get there. Its just disappointing that this hasn't happened yet.
Someone is going to provide a so-cheap-its-disposable linux computer. I really do want it to be the Foundation.
They publicly stated on their own website (and it was re-reported around the web) that the $25 model will be produced later this year, and the $35 unit would be shipping first.
You were expecting a free-shipping model A, and instead have to pay for shipment (the horror!) and only have the model B available (exactly as they say). If there's any problem here, it lies with your expectations.
You can wait till the Model A becomes available. You can also arrange for people at your hackerspace to order 100 together to make the shipping cost negligible. Other than Apple, RP seems to be as good or better at delivering on their promises as any other vendor. And apple mostly deliver on their promises because they hardly ever make any.