Jeff GeerlingLots of family stuff this morning, just saw the news @Raspberry_Pi@raspberrypi.social is planning on an IPO.
Disappointed, but not unexpected.
ahoyboyhoy@geerlingguy @Raspberry_Pi the for profit conclusion
Rob Jess@geerlingguy @Raspberry_Pi@raspberrypi.social ah this is so frustrating
Rachel Rawlings@geerlingguy @Raspberry_Pi@raspberrypi.social The final stage in "not cool anymore."
C.B.Leslie
Daniel Brotherston@geerlingguy @Raspberry_Pi@raspberrypi.social
Disappointing indeed, and yet also very strange. I feel like the RPi's corporate mission must have changed significantly from what I remember it to be at the beginning if they are doing this.
Xerz 💗@geerlingguy @Raspberry_Pi can’t wait for the Sony Pi 6
freund@geerlingguy @Raspberry_Pi My prediction: They won't have the best software support in the future. And sadly not because others just got so much better...
Rob@geerlingguy Can't wait till you need a monthly subscription to use your Raspberry Pi.
Calum DayWonder how their support of education and research will be going forward, since that can’t be the best for the bottom line. It was predictable it was going this way when they started heavily prioritising industry over the community during the shortages.
Alex BissessurI wonder if competitors like Pine64 might manage to catch up. At least Pine's SBCs and other tech are very community centered, which might be nice moving forward.
alex
@geerlingguy @Raspberry_Pi@raspberrypi.social
They really lost their way.
They really lost their way.
MackajOh that's a shame. At some point down the road the "money" will take over and the original vision will be lost. It always happens.
Adlangx@geerlingguy @Raspberry_Pi@raspberrypi.social Dang
Ivan Tsenov 🇧🇬 🇺🇦@geerlingguy @Raspberry_Pi Broadcom will buy them in a year and turn everything to dust.
Coffee Wolf🐺@geerlingguy @Raspberry_Pi@raspberrypi.social
What is the problem about a company begins to IPO, genuinely curious about the implications about this.
@Under_E1 @geerlingguy From Wikipedia: "An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors."
This is the first step on the "company" side of Raspberry Pi (aka, the part that makes the SBCs) to become a public traded company, ruled purely by shareholders' wishes.
When the IPO completes, it will mean anyone with sufficient money can directly influence the company's direction, on one hand, and on the other hand, that the company side of Raspberry Pi cannot legally do things that might put the shareholders's money in jeopardy.
Usually, this means market decisions will be purely profit-driven, and not towards the advancement of IT education, which was the original goal of the charity (same name, different end goals), and by proxy the company too.
This means the shareholders have the power to steer the product strategy to maximize profits. Right?
Seris 
@Under_E1 @geerlingguy @Raspberry_Pi an IPO or Initial Public Offering is what happens when a company goes from a privately-held business (owners/employees or private investors have ownership in the business) to publicly held where shares are traded on the open market.
When this happens (usually), a company is beholden to its shareholders rather than its consumers, community, or even business partners. The goal shifts from providing a good product to maximizing stock price.
Niclas HedhmanThe MBAs will take over the "leadership" from the engineers, to extract maximum value (required by SEC regulation, i.e. law) for the shareholders.
In current day, that means "shittification", which you can get endless examples of from Louis Rossmann's YouTube channel.
Subscriptions for enabling features that are already present in the product is a typical example.
The community might vanish as a result, and RPi will become RIP.
@niclas @geerlingguy @Raspberry_Pi@raspberrypi.social
Forcing features locked in a subscription is very infuriating if they use that tactic to gain revenue and maximize profits. Please don't go to that route
Steffen Uhlig