Should there be further models of the Raspberry Pi?

The only screen here with HDMI/DVI-D is the monitor I bought specifically for the Pi. I just don't replace stuff when it still works. My TV is all analogue (with digital PVR attached).

All the others (TFT) only have VGA. I keep monitors for ages since they last longer than other peripherals.

All the monitors I looked at recently had VGA inputs. And I don't think that the designers of the RPi really wanted to force everybody to buy new stuff. Low cost was an important part of its selling point.

No everyone can get monitors for free -- except ancient CRTs.

Because I wanted to make it easy for my son to use. There is rarely a spare PC (they're nearly always in use). I have installed an X-Server but no-one has ever used it (except me).

Now there's an idea!

the SPI probably has enough bandwidth, but porting the drivers for the cards to use ISA over SPI could be tricky, especially for thaings that do DMA like sound cards, the joystick and MIDI ports could probably be made to work though,

OTOH VGA cards would be possible as they use on-board RAM.

but USB to VGA is probably easier to use.

And probably you buy them from makes like "Packard Bell"?

At work we have been buying TFT screens since 2002, mostly from Dell, starting at 15" 1024x768 models, and all of them have VGA and DVI.

At home I have a Dell 24" and it has VGA, DVI, S-Video, Component and Composite.

In which case it probably has a composite video input. In which case Off you go then.

-Paul

It looks like the situation is the same in Germany and here in the Netherlands (where even OLD LCD screens have DVI), and different from the UK where they all have LCD with only VGA...

The only LCD screen I have ever seen with only VGA is a Packard Bell, but that is the stuff that grandma buys when she wants a camputter and goes to the local Dixons to get one.

I've never bought anything with that brand.

I don't buy from Dell either.

Give him a banana.

We didn't want to use the RPi in the TV. Strangely our TV is used for watching TV programmes.

Newark.com, 56W4050 Raspberry Pi Model A 256MB, $25.00, 4856 in stock

Other operating systems are available (other than Linux) - you may just be equivalently unfamiliar with them!

Theo

My Samsung here only has VGA.

only 3 years old. Mind you it was going cheap *because* it only had VGA.

Right, in which case what's missing in your mind is a use case other than the use case the pi was designed for. I was designed to use a TV as its primary display because almost[1] every house has one, even in low income families who don't otherwise have a computer at home.

That's why it has DVI and composite video.

What you're saying is that you're outside of that use case, and are in the happy position of having a surplus of VGA monitors - which is grand!

But that's a bit like saying "I wish my pushbike had an engine, I've got a surplus of petrol round here doing nothing"

That's why there's no VGA, it's not some sinister plot to make VGA monitors useless, it's that pretty much every home has a display in the front room which the pi will connect to.

-Paul [1] I don't. Can't stand the damn things, even more so when they're used as an electronic babysitter but that's another rant for another time and place.

Loads of cheap Acer screens - VGA only. They were definitely on the market 3 years ago, and schools keep them a LOT longer than that.

Actually it was because the SoC has hdmi out built-in as default and composite was trivial to implement. It doesn't support VGA at all.

You can get VGA converters for around £12 now, so not that much extra if you really need it. Certainly better than lumping that cost into the base unit when many people won't need it.

RiscOS is available free for R-Pi if you think you might want an alternative to the various Linux-based offerings.

A bit pointles more than 99% of the kids and over 90% of the staff have next to no idea about command line, let alone telnet, SSH or X serving.

Mention anything command line or telnet to most kids and their eyes glaze over :)

But if VGA had been seen as desirable or necessary for the success of the project the designers would have included it, or maybe made it available as an expansion module. If you have a VGA monitor you probably have an old PC too, which is a handy place to hang an R-Pi. I just remembered that I have a PCI analogue TV card with composite-in, so I can hang an R-Pi off that instead of using a remote session for the display. There must be a load of those cards doing nothing since TV went digital - that plus a PCI VGA card and how much tweaking software until you can use R-Pi independently while the PC is used for something else?