Raspberry Pi Has Microsoft Secrets Inside, Now DRM
Geerling is also dissatisfied; they start to act more like Apple and Microsoft
I still have a Raspberry Pi. It is not in use. Any Raspberry Pi from 2020 may have gained in value, but it was a gift.
Meanwhile the Raspberry Pi "company" (or "foundation") has been compromised somewhat. Some years ago we broke a major story about it (Microsoft scandal) and a friend of Raspberry Pi (Geerling) now bemoans/complains that "Raspberry Pi locks down Pi 5 RAM upgrades in firmware". To quote: "Apparently there were people buying cheap 1 or 2 gig Pi 5s, soldering in some cheap and sometimes unreliable 8 gig RAM chips, and selling them as new 8 gig Pi 5s. Now I totally understand where Raspberry Pi's coming from. They don't wanna support Pis being sold like this, because flaky RAM and dodgy resellers are a huge problem. Especially with how profitable can be in the current AI bubble. But I also totally disagree with the way they're handling the situation."
As an associate has put it: "Is the DRM which is creeping into the Raspberry Pi firmware due to the company's infiltration by Microsofters?"
The Raspberry Pi Foundation has HR issue and "money-from-Microsoft" (e.g. advertising of proprietary spyware, VSCode) problem. Moreover, Microsoft bought the company that has control over the chips (ThreadX), then slapped the brand "Azure" on it in order to pretend there is a market share gain, but the technical details are seldom discussed in public, we can only assume due to NDAs, the proprietary nature of secrets, and security or conversely back doors (or bug doors).
"I also presume NDAs," the associate has said, "both kinds non-disclosure and non-disparagement but especially the latter..."
"Even technical criticism of Microsoft or its product and services results in a swift, permanent ban on the "forum" run by Raspberry Pi..."
"Microsoft appears to be doing a more subtle, advanced variation of what they did to the OLPC project. The shoehorning of VSCode into every corner they can find is part of that. It allows them to keep an eye on all programmers."
Worse yet, now we deal with SBCs that have DRM in them, put there for commercial reasons. █