Why are raspberry pi's so popular?

[Meagree]

If you consider being able to do something then it isn't a good argument, since there are things you can do on both via different methods, one likely to be more difficult or requiring additional hardware.
You can use a screen on the Pi, you can make it portable through additional hardware.
Same with a tablet which can be connected to a variety of sensors, though the use of adaptors either wireless via bluetooth or via USB.

Fair enough, thanks for the explanation.

[Ciddy]

I'm not particularly excited about them myself, but I know a few people who are really into them. Seems like it's more just a "for shits and giggles" hobby than anything else. One dude I know used it for emulation (running it in combination with some Linux build that gives him like a main menu for all his emulators, where he can pick which emulator he wants to play then see a list of games for it, etc).

[Arbiter]

Something I don't think I saw mentioned here is that the Pi has full CEC support (Pi3 at least) which is pretty damn nice for HTPC uses where a Tablet doesn't have that luxury. Pi's are all around DIY devices and mostly used by hobbyist for projects, but the ability to use a TV remote to control your HTPC without having to buy a second remote or anything is pretty damn nice. It's also $35 + a charger and I don't know where I'm going to find a tablet that's worth a damn for that price range. I've also seen a few people use them as lighting control boxes for their PC set ups and even Lightpack style control units for their TVs and such. Even saw one guy who programmed his with a mic and speakers as a voice command unit to perform certain tasks much like Siri would. If you really needed a screen attached to you then you could even do that as well.

I own one, and I used it as a HTPC before grabbing a SHIELD for better H265 encoding among other things. Still have it and don't regret the purchase at all. Waiting on something to come up to put it to better use.

They are also very slow. I've tried to play YouTube full screen on a 1080p monitor and it just won't play smoothly.

Have you tried it on a Pi3? Even at stock they handle H264 1080p video pretty easily and can even be overclocked further pretty easily. Mine is overclocked just a tad and it was never an issue until 1080p H265 playback. Had stuttering at busy moments.

[Vash The Stampede]

Have you tried it on a Pi3? Even at stock they handle H264 1080p video pretty easily and can even be overclocked further pretty easily. Mine is overclocked just a tad and it was never an issue until 1080p H265 playback. Had stuttering at busy moments.

I have the RPI3 and I haven't tried regular videos full screen, but I know the RPI's have built in working h264 decoding capabilities. The original RPI which I have would need MPEG-2 and VC-1 licenses, which I also have. But YouTube through a web browser is not using that stuff. It's all done through software. Especially since there's no working opengl driver yet, though you can try it out.

[Dethric]

https://vimeo.com/60491636
Can you do that with a windows tablet :P?

[Arbiter]

I have the RPI3 and I haven't tried regular videos full screen, but I know the RPI's have built in working h264 decoding capabilities. The original RPI which I have would need MPEG-2 and VC-1 licenses, which I also have. But YouTube through a web browser is not using that stuff. It's all done through software. Especially since there's no working opengl driver yet, though you can try it out.

Ah. I only watched Youtube videos using the Kodi app as I had mine set up to run OSMC. Worked fine using that. Worked fine for Twitch as well. Once again didn't become an issue until I had to encode 1080p H265. Overclocking it helped a bit with that but still stuttered at busy times.

[Vash The Stampede]

Ah. I only watched Youtube videos using the Kodi app as I had mine set up to run OSMC. Worked fine using that. Worked fine for Twitch as well. Once again didn't become an issue until I had to encode 1080p H265. Overclocking it helped a bit with that but still stuttered at busy times.

With Kodi and VLC I'm sure YouTube will play back just fine, but this was kinda going to be a mini computer for a family member and it didn't quiet have the punch needed. I can't teach people to get on YouTube through Kodi. But the Ubuntu version for RPI3 shows a lot of promise, and once opengl and OpenMax IL are properly supported in FireFox or Chromium then I can see web browser video playback at 1080p. Going 64-bit might help as well.

BTW if you're interested.
https://ubuntu-mate.org/raspberry-pi/