Short answer: YES!
Long answer: Raspberry Pi is a tiny, featherweight, cool-running, quiet-running and power sipping (everything static, no moving parts) device!
Some time ago, I worked on a company project that utilized the Raspberry Pi / Raspbian running Google Chromium for a solar power project for Malaysian schools (Green School Campaign Phase 3, 2014).
The PenjanaBebas-KeTTHA Green Schools Campaign (GSC) is a public-private partnership CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) program that brings renewable energy into Malaysian schools, supported by Kementerian Pendidikan, JKR, TNB, SEDA, Suruhanjaya Tenaga, etc. You may also view PenjanaBebas-KeTTHA Green Schools Campaign portal for live information.
The Hardware and Software choices were by others and free issued for my work.
The Green School Campaign Phase 2, 2012 to 2014 had slightly different configuration or hardware choices - 1) standard / full tower desktops or 2) small form factor desktops (Dell Optiplex). Both were based on PC / Windows (Windows Vista) running Google Chrome. The cost of purchase was similar. However, the Total Cost of Ownership or supply was exorbitant!
Whether the 1) standard / full tower desktops or 2) small form factor desktops (Dell Optiplex) both required big metal cabinets which were able to carry the weight, withstand the heat and provide the cooling or ventilation (without any air-conditioning) while mounted on the wall outside of the classroom, school office, school hall or school canteen. In fact, the metal cabinets which housed the standard / full tower desktops had a ventilation fan to aid cooling.
Needless to say, big metal cabinets need big mounting spaces. In a few schools, we actually placed the PC in the school office and ran extended length (up to 40m) VGA cables.
Transportation and storage issues not-with-standing, mounting these cabinets on the wall required great strength of 2 able-bodied workmen, each balancing on a 2.5m ladder, wall anchor bolts and double the installation time.
Look at the table above. The tale of tape as they say - it's a STARK contrast!
Of course, the PC desktop architecture came with HDD (Hard Disk Drive), whereas the Raspberry Pi used micro-SD for storage. SSD (Solid State Drive) for PCs are still expensive (~RM250 / 120GB), at least compared to a 16GB Class 4, micro-SD card (~RM25 / pcs).
Additionally, the PC's HDD replacement is rather more complicated than the Raspberry Pi's micro-SD card replacement. If it was required, it is far easier and quicker to make a micro-SD card image than a HDD image. The micro-SD card could be carried in your shirt pocket, as could be a Raspberry Pi - very important when you have to climb a 2.5m ladder to reach the metal cabinet that houses it all. Also the micro-SD card could be swapped by a technician so easily unlike swapping the HDD.
Therefore, our choice was correct for our application - display Kiosk (non-interactive).
The above setup is working seamlessly and without trouble at our sites.
Happy try-out! Hope you enjoy your Raspberry Pi experience!
CAUTION: Your circumstances, connections, interfaces, options and versions may differ and needs to be re-evaluated for your specific application.
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