Budget is not a problem here. They liked my project for its versatility, ease of use (even for non trained personnel), environnemental considerations and obviously adequation to their needs (and even more)One thing is easy to predict: At some point things have to be replaced and the replacement budget will be less than the original budget.
I have already thought about this.I don't know what your library use case involves, but if people will be routinely plugging in thumb drives, I recommend getting extension cables or hubs to avoid wear on the Pi.
The fact that RPIs use Debian is a major asset regarding reliability and stability.As for stability of the operating system, I am in the choir. In my opinion the stability of Redhat Linux or similar is necessary for use of Pi's in education, the enterprise and any non-hobby field.
You might notice I'm not complaining or afraid about the 95% Debian in this project
I'm too old to know this is cannot be a rule of thumb or not for long...Even if things don't work perfectly--and anyway nothing ever does--I think the people at the library will appreciate your hard work and the current crashes will be resolved soon.
I also know nothing ever works perfectly
What bothers me here is this feeling that updates are not fully tested before being released. This isn't an extremely rare or circumstantial situation... We're talking about a file manager that crashes when you delete a file! I'm taken aback this is possible ! Not the problem itself but the release !
No my project principle is about creating several images optimized for several use cases the library wants to support (one for general use, one for children, one for gaming, one for fablab...) and using USB drivesAre you network booting the Pi computers? That will make keeping them up-to-date easier.
System drives are reflashed after use (so no personal data can survive) and based on the library events, the Pis can be adapted/converted very easily.
Members can also ask for a long term personal storage device when they come to attend a MOOC or other training lessons and they need to keep their own data.
This use principle is the versatility argument they loved. As well as the fact that any staff member is able to flash a drive (I imagined a color code stickers : green = general use, red = gaming, etc...) so it's all very easy to watch and maintain.
Statistics: Posted by dwam — Tue Nov 25, 2025 9:00 am