[Tech] Partimus & Raspberry Pi 3 Model Bs

[jesse at boldandbusted.com]

Hey Christian & Partimus folks,

Sorry I haven't been getting you and Partimus much progress. I've been
thinking about a few things, however, in relation to what I think are
the goals here. I'm thinking about how to mass-deploy things better, or
at least in a more flexible and less labor-intensive manner.

You have a lot of giant old computers stored at various spots. These
machines are of varying states of health, and need a lot of space to be
stored, in mainly extremely dusty environments. Hazardous for the
machines, and for people.

I propose that we put a bit of money on the table, and replace all the
computers, and their power-hungry motherboards, with Raspberry Pi 3s,
and have a steady reserve of 3 or 4 to replace the Pis taken out for
maintenance, or stolen, or otherwise destroyed. There are some issues to
consider, however.

* How do we secure computers that are as small as two decks of cards?
* How do we keep them up-to-date?
* Do these offer more or less flexibility for future projects than the
'traditional' desktop PCs we've used?
* Are these as resilient as the old monster-sized PCs? (Do keep in mind
that the Pis are fanless!)

There is a monetary cost involved (unless we score a donation of
equipment). While the Pis are about $35, the case is another $12-25. An
outlet-sized usb-equipped surge suppressor is another $8-$12. Any
monitor will have to support HDMI inputs, or be compatible with an HDMI
converter of some sort.

I think that the drastically reduced space used, the lack of fans, and
easy swap-in replacement (without carting giant PCs across some of the
most dangerous intersections and streets of the City), seems like a good
idea.

Also, Lubuntu is apparently available specifically for the R Pi 3,
should we want to stick with that for the "guest" lockdown features:

https://ubuntu-pi-flavour-maker.org/blog/ubuntu-pi-flavours-for-raspberry-pi-3/

I believe it will be easier to roll out upgrades via the microSD cards
the Pi 3 uses, rather than having to custom partition random drives in
random branded computers. Standardization can help us knock out problems
across the fleet more quickly and with greater assurance of the
'stickyness' of the fixes. Since I would need to do a new rollout of a
"base image" with the logging, alerting, and configuration management
setup, I figured this would be a good time to make this sort of move.

I'm travelling to Mexico City for two weeks starting Monday. I'd like to
know what you-all think! :) Is this feasible? Are there dealbreakers? Is
this appropriate for the environments we're in?

Cheers,

Jesse Adelman
(415) 794-5718 (cell/text)
San Francisco, CA