In 3D printing in (say) 2019, for instance: It was ridiculously common to use a Raspberry Pi with a printer -- for all kinds of reasons. They were cheap (enough), and they worked well (enough), and they were available (enough).
Few, if any, questioned whether the Raspberry Pi was the right thing to use, for it was ubiquitous and well-understood.
But when Pis became more expensive and/or less available in 2021 or so, people didn't just stop doing stuff with their printers.
They instead found alternative platforms to do things with: They bought used corpo mini-PCs, repurposed cheap-shit Android TV boxes, used old Android phones, and (of course) trudged through the weeds getting things working various other SBCs.
In 3D printing in (say) 2019, for instance: It was ridiculously common to use a Raspberry Pi with a printer -- for all kinds of reasons. They were cheap (enough), and they worked well (enough), and they were available (enough).
Few, if any, questioned whether the Raspberry Pi was the right thing to use, for it was ubiquitous and well-understood.
But when Pis became more expensive and/or less available in 2021 or so, people didn't just stop doing stuff with their printers.
They instead found alternative platforms to do things with: They bought used corpo mini-PCs, repurposed cheap-shit Android TV boxes, used old Android phones, and (of course) trudged through the weeds getting things working various other SBCs.