Selfhosted

RPi's and RPi compatibles got co-opted by a huge number of commercial and industrial control systems companies being used for cheap full-fat embedded systems that needed more than a simple microcontroller, but where industrial PLC's were overkill or not sourcable. Everything they produce, which is not a lot given covid supply chain whiplash, has now been going towards those customer's contracts and fuck the little guy consumer they were meant for.

If you want to get into the SBC ecosystem leave rpi in the dust, they're dead to the enthusiasts and won't be coming back. There are much better options. See Linus tech tips video on them.

Supply and demand, pandemic, chip shortage, scalpers. That pretty much covers it.

These days you can find some kinda NUCS which are way more powerful and customisable for not a lot more than a fully fledged RPI4 with SD card and PSU

I don't get why people want these for self-hosting. They're meant for GPIO and automation control. They're massively underpowered.

Just use an actual SBC and leave these for electronics.

Not to steal your post but I have had the same issue and my concern is always on OS support since some of the alternative boards I have tried in the past were stuck on custom kernels or old OS versions, has anyone had better luck these days? It has been a few years since I have tried any though.

Also, if you aren’t familiar with it this website has a bunch of real time inventory listings for the various Pi models.

Raspberry Pi is based on smart phone chips, very specific chips from one manufacturer. Raspberry Pi Foundation is not the main customer for this manufacturer and chips used for Raspberry Pi are not their only product – and now, during the big 'chip shortages' and supply chain problems other customers and other chips are given priority. There are no (or not enough) new chips for Raspberry Pis so there are no new Raspberries, so availability is dropping and prices are soaring.

I guess the same is true for most other SBCs.

For my hobby projects I switched to Raspberry Pi Pico. It is not a SBC, you won't run Linux on that, but it is a very capable microcontroller board which is enough for my needs. It is way cheaper much more available. And I won't look back – it occurred to me that things are much simpler when there is no whole OS on my devices and everything the device does is in my own code.

There are no problems with Pico availability, as it is based on a simpler, custom chip, designed by Raspberry Pi Foundation and manufactured for Raspberry Pi Foundation – they are no longer dependent on a single supplier.

Still the same situation, high demand, low production capacity, part shortages. Try finding an alternative SBC.

Personally I really like the BeagleBone black (https://beagleboard.org/black), because it has integrated flash (no more rummaging for a micro SD card), and lets you ssh over USB. (no more debugging network connectivity, or searching for a unused monitor). It still can boot from a micro SD or USB drive, so if the flash breaks (or gets bricked) it's easy fixable. The best part is no USB Mini-B connectors that break after ten uses. (Those things are cancer, they are absolutely awful and everywhere)

One thing to be aware of with them is the lack of on board WiFi, so if you need that make sure to get a USB WiFi radio.

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Take a look at Pine64 Quartz64 boards as a decent alternative

Take a look at LibreComputing's RPi clones on Amazon.

I was under the impression that it's mostly Raspberry Pi stuff out of stock nowadays, and similar boards from Odroid and Orange Pi are easier to find? I see both of those in stock at Amazon right now, though I don't know the exact models you want.

For a while there Adafruit was stocking pi4bs every business day at around 11am est, was able to get one by camping it at that time. Make an account first and add your address and payment

But that was a few months back I don't know the situation now

redacted

rpilocator

~~Assuming you are in the US link~~

Edit: at the time of posting, the above store was in stock. They go fast

Last month it was hard to find these in India, but since few days RPIs are back in stock, got a couple of Pi4s (75$ each) and Zero 2 Ws (20$ each) for myself. Checked now, they are still in stock.

Le Potato aka Libre Computer is still on Amazon in the US for $35.

I have 2 pi4 4GB boards and was waiting forever to get a third to run RAFT based services across.

I gave up last year and bought 3 chinese boards at $60/ea with 2x 2.5Gb Ethernet each, emmc, and a m.2 slot - and they run at half the temp of the pi4 boards.

I never needed the wifi/bt and form-factor the pi boards offered anyway - really no reason to stay as long as you can find software that boots on other boards.

According to the Raspberry Pi tracker, they are becoming available again. You may have to get them as soon as they arrive, but at least it shows they are stocked again