But they can't use that specific one again, it doesn't matter if they take the bill to a bank and get new ones, because the serial numbers won't be the same.
My experience with my Google home before I unplugged it is that it would randomly kick on - even in relative silence, unless the clack of a keyboard and maybe a fan whir could be misheard as "okay Google"
I would notice because it sat on my computer desk.
To be clear, I don't think it was nefarious that it would, just that I realized I wasn't using it as much as I thought I would and decided to unplug it.
wpa_supplicant just does the heavy lifting of connecting to the WiFi network.
The WiFi device itself is handled by the kernel's brcmfmac driver, and there is the usual firmware (also requires a .txt file) or you can use something like nexmon, which tweeks the firmware (and a patched driver to use it) for using monitor mode, injection and a few other misc things people have done with the firmware.
Are you sure? I've worked with a myriad of ARM devices, and I would say that despite their small size, Hardkernel are one of the most responsive companies when I have had issues.
I thought SoftBank is Japanese, not Chinese? SoftBank bought ARM, not a Chinese company, otherwise it would be a bit weird for ARM (assuming they're Chinese now) to cut ties with Huewai.
Just about every other board out there is just as plug and play as the RPI.
I'm not saying that to downplay the RPI - the community it has around it is great, but long gone are the days of trying to get Linux running on a random arm board. And I should know, I have over 100 different arm machines at my place.
Maybe they added it after you read it, but when I read the post they specifically mention it's bad and provide a link to read more on why it's bad.
Sure an alternative would be great but the point of the article is to get up and running with the pi-hole software so they went with the fastest install.