This Raspberry Pi sure tastes good!
Can a $25 computer teach kids to write computer software instead of just learning how to use Microsoft Office? That's what the Raspberry Pi Foundation is hoping.
Read the rest on rabble.ca here
In any case, I'm going to try to score one of these. Looks like fun!
Comments
I like what poster DavidGoodEnough says about using C and Java. Those are transferrable skills.
Gentoo might be something worth experimenting with.
Gentoo is the ultimate GNU/Linux distribution for geeks...although I don't think it's been ported over to ARM based processors...as used in the Raspberry PI yet.
So there's a project for you if you want.
Interestingly the Cuban GNU/Linux distro "Nova" is based on Gentoo. My understanding about Gentoo is that you can tweak and optimize it for whatever hardware you happen to be using. My guess is that the Cubans probably optimized it for older low spec hardware.
There's also been a distro developed in Italy called Sabayon based on Gentoo but with the geekiness removed.
Thanks radiorahim. I'd love to start something like this. I wish I was a kid again starting out. I could have ruled the world.
Looks like the Broadcom 2835 uses the ARM1176JZF-S processor. Reference manual here. That will be a bible for anyone immersing themselves in R-pi. I'm envious. 
Well you can try to nab one of the first 10,000 production run! $25 or $35 (plus shipping costs from the UK).
The first 10,000 Raspberry Pi computers went on sale this week and were sold out ... in seconds!
I didn't manage to get one 
The backlog of orders I understand is around 100,000 world-wide and with all of the press coverage around the world, I'm sure there will be an even larger demand for these little devices.
The media in the Toronto area paid particular attention to the launch because students at Seneca College were heavily involved in porting the "Fedora" distribution of GNU/Linux over to the Raspberry Pi. Some Canadian media talked about the "made in Canada" software. That's not quite true, because several other distributions of GNU/Linux (i.e. Debian and Arch) have been ported over to the Raspberry Pi.
A few stories:
BBC News: Raspberry Pi computer in action (with video)
It was nice to see world-wide mainstream news coverage of a computing device designed to run free software. Most of what passes for "tech" news these days is crap about the latest i-Thingie or about what mega corporation is suing another mega corporation for patent infringement.
Thanks for that link Fidel. The later versions designed for the educational market will be built into a small plastic case.
I've got mine on order through a U.S. distributor (there isn't one in Canada yet). It was supposed to be shipped in early April, but there was a problem at the factory with the ethernet ports on this second batch of 10,000. So, I guess I'll have my little $35 computer a month or so later.
And if you wanted to I think you could make a simple plastic case that would cost less than that fancy one printed from CAD files. I've made electronic gadgets before and needed enclosures for them, so I bought black plastic hobby boxes at Radio Shack for a few bucks. I put a bag of desiccant inside to absorb any moisture, and drilled or cut some holes in the sides or bottoms where necessary. It didn't look great but it was functional. I'm guessing the Pi case will be clear or transparent for effect. That's cool, too.
Yeah there are a few electronics parts dealers in this part of the world and plastic project boxes are pretty easy to find.
Some of this stuff is coming back because of the growing "maker" community...alot of them are quite interested in the Raspberry Pi because they can use it to build all kinds of neat projects.
Very cool, radiorahim.
This is true. Some of the highschools in and around my hometown offer little more than graphic arts using some sort of drawing program as the tech ed component for computers. It amounts to fun time on computers for kids. Most of them are just looking for an easy credit anyway, and so there isn't a lot of demand. Not all highschools offer the full computer technology curriculum apparently. I've talked to a couple of teachers who are teaching interfacing and robotics at the HS level, and this sounds like something they might like to integrate into some of the TEJ level course work and especially with the capability for interfacing with Arduino.
Thanks for the article.
Yes it's a very cool little device and only $35 for the "deluxe" model...$25 for the "basic".
From what I've seen online that first batch of 10,000 will probably disappear in less than a day.
Anyway, they plan to build them in batches of 10,000. That particular sized batch apparently allows them the economies of scale, without having to get into any really high end complicated financing.
If there are some teachers working with kids on robotics, the Raspberry Pi would definitely be something that interests them.
Prototyping and all kinds of goodies here and here. And this looks cool for Toronto hackers: HackLab Toronto
If you're looking for software that will encourage kids to think, rather than just clicking on a GUI, and that runs on a variety of platforms, there's a lot to be said for J, Ken Iverson's second language, available at:
http://www.jsoftware.com/
Haven't tried Version 7.01 as yet. It's a vectorized interpreted language. Warning: learning curve is a bit steep. If you read the Primer straight through and smoke isn't coming out of your ears by page 80, you're doing it wrong.
On second thought after looking at this, I realize it will require mostly low level programming to really take advantage of the video oriented features of the Broadcom chip. Low level and machine code is fun to learn, for sure, but I'm not sure it would have inspired me to learn programming at first try. Byte code looks not so far removed from machine code, registers and stacks and the like. Low level languages like assembly tend to scare kiddies away from programming imo. I might think about using Python, BASIC, or C as suggested by r-Pi'ers themselves. Anything OOP/++ is definitely not a beginners language. I think that scared a lot of kids away, too, although there are some HS teachers using Java and OOP to teach programming. I don't agree with them that it's a good first language. I suppose not all kids are going to go on to do programming later in life, but good first experiences are important imo. if they can learn to think algorithmically and logically, then that's a worthwhile achievement in itself imo.
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Wind River General Purpose Platform 6.9 Live DVD Evaluation Smokin real time OS for creating embedded apps. It's not Windoze and not Linux.
Wind River General Purpose Platform 6.9 Live DVD Evaluation Smokin real time OS for creating embedded apps. It's not Windoze and not Linux.
Yes but like Windows and MacOSX it's proprietary...reason enough to reject it.
Ya but you're not talking about desktop OS anymore. Lots of embedded programmers reject Windoze and Mac not because they are proprietary but because they are not RTOS. Same with Linux. The best way to code, test and debug real time embedded apps will be on the target device in-circuit. Some(not many and too few actually) of the highschools are using Labview for robotics competitions. Those things are expensive and typically require sponsors to pay for the robot kits that come with all kinds of parts, motors, compressors, hydraulics and the software needed. Labview, for example, is graphical programming but requires an embedded toolchain like Wind River vxworks. It's used in industry. They don't have to code in C or even java, but that's a possibility with vxworks if they do eventually go into auto, telecom or manufacturing in general. This is the kind of exposure and tech skills the kids will need at some point.
What are raspberry pi coders proposing to use?
ETA: I like the idea of free software. And after the revolution occurs it will all belong to us anyhoo. ;-
There's a long discussion going on here if you're interested.
I no more trust governments to free (as in freedom) software than I trust corporations. Governments are perfectly capable of producing evil locked-up non-free software.
There's a long discussion going on here if you're interested.
I no more trust governments to provide free (as in freedom) software than I trust corporations. Governments are perfectly capable of producing evil locked-up non-free software.