raspberry pi thoughts
- Thread starter Moren0
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I have one and it is an amazing little computer for $35 but you can't expect it to be much of a powerhouse for that little money. I have one of the earlier models that came with 256M of RAM, I believe the newer models ship with 500M of RAM.
It runs a modified version of Debian Linux but there are other OSes that are available (most are in experimental or Beta phase).
It's a cheap but great little computer to learn and experiment with but don't expect it to use it as your main computer.
It runs a modified version of Debian Linux but there are other OSes that are available (most are in experimental or Beta phase).
It's a cheap but great little computer to learn and experiment with but don't expect it to use it as your main computer.
It depends what you want to use it for as to whether it's any good. To be honest, for the price these days it's already looking a bit outdated - heck I can pick up a tablet with a processor a few times more powerful than this one for around £10 more when you take shipping into account, and that includes a touchscreen and wireless (which the Pi doesn't have natively.) Because of the slow processor, getting applications running on it is a mighty faff - I've been involved in trying to get Greenfoot running on it at any reasonable speed, and the long shot is after many heavy optimisations it still doesn't really. That's not just restricted to Greenfoot either - try running any application in X and it takes *ages* to load and respond. Even the default web browser borderlines on unusable.
So if you're planning to use it for a normal desktop machine, I'd say forget it. But for many things it could be great to play around with - if you want to experiment or test something, it's a nice way of doing that, if you want to learn how to use a Linux shell then it's a great way of playing around on something you can't really break (because it entirely runs from an SD card.) If you want to use it as a home media client running XBMC, that's been heavily optimised for the Pi to the extent that it now runs and plays HD video pretty flawlessly, so it could be a very cheap setup in that regard too.
However, where I envisage using mine most is in robotics - it's a very cheap platform that, while is a slouch as far as running a desktop is concerned, is orders of magnitude more powerful than a traditional 8 bit PIC or ATMega chip. That opens up all sorts in the realm of things that just couldn't be done before - things like analysing images to look for obstacles in real time. It's also pretty good on the power front which further makes it a plausible choice in this regard, and with the GPIO you don't need to take up a USB connection to connect to an external chip if you want to plug in extra circuitry.
So yes, it is a nice little thing if you use it for something appropriate - but you can't just purchase one and expect it to be an all-useful box.
So if you're planning to use it for a normal desktop machine, I'd say forget it. But for many things it could be great to play around with - if you want to experiment or test something, it's a nice way of doing that, if you want to learn how to use a Linux shell then it's a great way of playing around on something you can't really break (because it entirely runs from an SD card.) If you want to use it as a home media client running XBMC, that's been heavily optimised for the Pi to the extent that it now runs and plays HD video pretty flawlessly, so it could be a very cheap setup in that regard too.
However, where I envisage using mine most is in robotics - it's a very cheap platform that, while is a slouch as far as running a desktop is concerned, is orders of magnitude more powerful than a traditional 8 bit PIC or ATMega chip. That opens up all sorts in the realm of things that just couldn't be done before - things like analysing images to look for obstacles in real time. It's also pretty good on the power front which further makes it a plausible choice in this regard, and with the GPIO you don't need to take up a USB connection to connect to an external chip if you want to plug in extra circuitry.
So yes, it is a nice little thing if you use it for something appropriate - but you can't just purchase one and expect it to be an all-useful box.
particleman
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I run xbian on one pi and raspbian headless running smokeping on another they both work flawlessly.
I have one and think it is pretty cool. I would say that its best use is a testing machine or to learn about and using Linux or to learn certain programming languages. I am actually using mine to learn python (which raisbian comes with) though I had installed geany.
Anyway as berry said as well it does a reasonable job as a home entertainment system as well.
If you do get one for experimenting I would recommend the default OS at first. Then maybe get a second card for another OS.
Mossiac
Anyway as berry said as well it does a reasonable job as a home entertainment system as well.
If you do get one for experimenting I would recommend the default OS at first. Then maybe get a second card for another OS.
Mossiac
Jesusfrk611
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I just looked up some things people are doing with it. It's amazing the things people come up with.
As far as using it to test Linux, you can pick up a full 10 year old computer that has more power than that for the same price, or find someone that's giving one away for that matter. You can multiboot as many Linux distros as you want for testing purposes.
But I can see practical use for robotics, small projects where a computer is needed, but even an ITX motherboard is too big, or an XBMC HTPC.
As far as using it to test Linux, you can pick up a full 10 year old computer that has more power than that for the same price, or find someone that's giving one away for that matter. You can multiboot as many Linux distros as you want for testing purposes.
But I can see practical use for robotics, small projects where a computer is needed, but even an ITX motherboard is too big, or an XBMC HTPC.
I have not purchased one, but from what I read, think about it like this...
It has the processing power of a smart phone.
It can make a cheap gamer, games you would play on your andriod smart phone.
particleman
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You dont have one but you know what they are capable of? They can do a lot more than what you are suggesting.
