What proportion of new RP uses need to initially ask Qs...

[jamesh]

Addicts: I won't be surprised if I buy another one or two Pi's. But we'll see how this first one goes - won't know till the end of July.

I'm afraid to count... Only counting Pi4Bs, there are five of them running within arms reach. Three Pi4B4 and two Pi4B2. There are probably a dozen more of various models on my desk. (I'm cheating a bit...one of the things on my desk is a tea tin with spare Pi0, Pi0W and Pi0WH boards in it. I'm afraid to open it to count them, as they may be breeding in there.)

In a more serious vein... In the early days of the Pi, some surprise was expressed at the number of Pis people were buying. The RPF had expected the typical Pi user to get in the range of one to three of them. Then some of us started realizing that we had 10, 20, 30 or more... And that doesn't count the industrial users, where purchases can run in the hundreds to thousands at a time. (About half of all Pis, we are told, get sold to commercial/industrial users.)

The Zero is a surprisingly big seller in industry - we sometimes get orders in the 20k area. We don't supply all those at once right now, to prevent other parts of the market becoming starved. Its important that one customer doesn't;t stop everyone else getting devices.

[alphanumeric]

Addicted.
Pi 4B 8 gig, on the way.
Pi 4B 4gig, three 3B+'s, three 3B's, three 3A+'s, a couple of A+'s and a dozen + Zero w's.

[alphanumeric]

The Zero is a surprisingly big seller in industry - we sometimes get orders in the 20k area. We don't supply all those at once right now, to prevent other parts of the market becoming starved. Its important that one customer doesn't;t stop everyone else getting devices.

I'm not surprised. I use them almost exclusively in headless setups. Great bang for the buck when all you need is a power supply. Don't get me wrong, I think they are still of a great value even after buying cables adapters etc. I just don't have to buy adapters etc, for every one I own if I run them headless. Nice small footprint and thin too. Just make sure to have reasonable expectations performance wise.

[W. H. Heydt]

The Zero is a surprisingly big seller in industry - we sometimes get orders in the 20k area. We don't supply all those at once right now, to prevent other parts of the market becoming starved. Its important that one customer doesn't;t stop everyone else getting devices.

Trying to avoid a repeat of the time the commercial display companies cleaned out the supply of A+ boards?

[alphanumeric]

I personally really like the A form factor. I have a couple of the original A+'s with Sense Hats attached. Perfect match outline wise IMHO. And 3A+'s setup with Pan Tilt Hats and Motion Eye.
Keep up the exceptional product offerings Pi Foundation.
"If" it happens I will happily buy a couple of 4A or 4A+'s and trickle down my Pi's.

Getting back on topic, I think all the different ports on different models may be what catches some new users out. Not a complaint, just an observation. They will just have to read the fine print and do their research when buying their first Pi.

[bensimmo]

If you're ever on Facebook and the Pi groups, many people initially ask questions before they get a Pi or are waiting for it. It's just a shame many buy it and then ask questions waiting for it to turn up were their aim is clearly a) not possible b) far harder to achieve than just installing an app and c) beyond them and they don't wish to learn to 'code'.

You also then get the barrage of must get an M2 SSD adaptor and drive and use USB as any usage of the SD card will fail every 4th time you it.
and you must use a 100" fan and 7 foot heatsink to cool them otherwise they burn up into smoke when you turn it on... (I may exaggerate)

and a fault-finding post is 20 posts of pie in the sky guesses and misinformation, hiding the one or two accurate posts.


So, you've done well coming here.

As for this

My question: What proportion of new RP uses do you believe have initial success at the whole set up and initial operational procedures of their first RP experience who DO NOT have an issue that requires them to ask help compared to the proportion of new users who DO post here for help?

and that's another proportion of new RPi users that ask questions, the many that never think of looking at the official pages for how to do something, straight to a random sight or youtube video or social media (see above). Even though they are there and quite clear.
and my job in facebook to the many 'it doesn't work' 'doesn't boot' etc questions is. cut & paste https://www.raspberrypi.org/help/ or direct to the getting started one.

It's almost as bad as when you could buy a CD-ROM drive and the drivers for it are on a CD-ROM.
or Wi-Fi cards and dongles with drivers that need to be downloaded and you need the Wi-Fi to be working to get them.

[rpdom]

It's almost as bad as when you could buy a CD-ROM drive and the drivers for it are on a CD-ROM.

Gosh, yes. I've had that one. I bought a new CD Writer many years ago. Removed my old CD-ROM drive and fitted the new one. Only then did I realise that the new drive wasn't recognised without the drivers on the supplied CD-ROM and the instructions said "Install the drivers using your old CD-ROM drive before fitting the new drive"