I think if you focus too much on "$35" you will be very disappointed with the rpi. You need a power supply, that's $10. You need an SD card, that's $10. You need a case, that's $10. You need a micro HDMI to HDMI cable or two, that's $10. You need a fan, that's $10.
If you mentally decide "the Raspberry Pi is a $100 computer all-in" you will be much happier. You won't buy one to sit in a drawer (as many on HN have complained about), and you won't try to use a USB charger from your phone from 1992 and that SD card you got with your sandwich at IKEA and be disappointed that it's not very reliable.
If you mentally decide "the Raspberry Pi is a $100 computer all-in" you will be much happier. You won't buy one to sit in a drawer (as many on HN have complained about), and you won't try to use a USB charger from your phone from 1992 and that SD card you got with your sandwich at IKEA and be disappointed that it's not very reliable.
It's a bit of a shame that what started out as an educational computer is about $100 to get started properly. Nowadays I recommend Micro:Bit for tinkering (our daughter has one, she likes it very much). It's about 20 Euro and you have everything needed (including a battery pack if you want to use it portably).
If you want a machine that fore serious work (NAS, media center, low-end desktop), before spending $100 one should at least consider spending a bit more and get a NUC. You can buy a NUC for around 120 Euro, then you have to add memory and storage. But at least, you get a machine with fast I/O, faster CPU, and is more expandable. It also does supports 4K and h.265 decoding like the Pi 4.
I have one in a drawr, like many. At my a few relatives I have PiHole running and they love it just had to walk my grandma through occasionally turning the pi off and on (pull the power, reconnect).
But I have the current Raspbian distro in a VM for messing around with as I don't need the hardware up. Once I have a use for the pi in my drawer it's going to be useful
Despite the fact that doesn't add up, it depends what you are doing whether you need all that. I've had great value from my £34 Pi 4 since I don't need HDMI cables, cases or fans. I did also already have the other stuff too but I take your point there's no avoiding an SD card (yet).
If you mentally decide "the Raspberry Pi is a $100 computer all-in" you will be much happier. You won't buy one to sit in a drawer (as many on HN have complained about), and you won't try to use a USB charger from your phone from 1992 and that SD card you got with your sandwich at IKEA and be disappointed that it's not very reliable.