The Raspberry Pi
The Raspberrypi is the revolutionary computer that is turning heads all over the world. In the day it was realised, its website crashed from traffic and indeed there was no Rasberrypi’s available for them because of avid pre-ordering. It was even featured on the BBC news as a 21st century version of the BBC Micro. So what is all of the fuss about?
Well for a start, the Raspberrypi is only $25 to buy for the current model, and is the size of the average credit card. But that’s only its party trick. The Raspberrypi is said to be the next big thing in the computing world; a rival of the BBC Micro and an inspiration to young children to learn the art of programing and web
design.
The designers of the pi said ‘Something had changed the way kids were interacting with computers. A number of problems were identified: the colonisation of the ICT curriculum with lessons on using Word and Excel, or writing webpages; the end of the dot-com boom …. programming experimentation on them had to be forbidden by parents’. This lead the primary design of the pi to be to for ease of learning programing. But how can it do this?
Simple. The Raspberrypi runs what called a linux operating system. You will probably be running Windows on your computer, or even Mac os.
However the advantage of linux is three fold:
- Linux will run much faster than an operating system like windows, and is the reason why Macs run faster. This makes the Pi’s tiny size and processing power go much further, and makes it work speedily. This is why webservers to super-computers use Linux.
- Linux is unlocked: you can do much more with linux, including running web servers or changing your computers workings. You can also use the shell or terminal to work from. The possibilities are truly endless, allowing you to simply mess around with your PC in the ways that Windows won’t let you!
- Linux is freebase, which means that all of its free to use. This also means that anyone can contribute and develop it; even you can join in!
So, the Raspberrypi is fast, cheap and despite its size; fast. It allows you to learn programming easily in an environment which you decide what to make of it. So, what are you waiting for? For more information visit the webpage at http://www.raspberrypi.org/
Want linux, but don’t want to get a pi? Simple, linux is freebase as we covered. You can get the operating system for free on your PC and there is many versions available. My favourite is Ubuntu, so visit their webpage at http://www.ubuntu.com/
The Raspberrypi is a truly exciting innovation for the computing world, which anyone can take a bite.
Date Posted: Monday 14 May 12
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