Bare bones Raspberry Pi PC gets ready to launch

EDIT : For Sale from Today

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...orking-PC-just-add-screen-keyboard-mouse.html

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BBC News - Bare bones Raspberry Pi PC gets ready to launch

Video Link

 

i have been waiting for this thing for a bit now, cant wait till i can get my hands on it!

 

I was expecting more interest in this thread, maybe i should have posted in the programming section.

 

sneeky has a video talking about it here

 

Yes, this thread is a little quiet.

Thanks for the link there. Nice little introduction if someone hasn't heard about this. (At least it's been featured on BBC News for those in the UK.)

I'm definitely going to pick up a few (one for me and a couple of belated Christmas gifts for some friends). For £16, why not?

What do people think about the prospects for this helping to jump-start computer-science education in the UK?

 

It comes with an ARMv6 and 256MB of RAM. So the 99% of users at NBR that don't use Linux aren't interested in the first place. 99% of the rest only run Ubuntu and derivatives which requires at least an ARMv7 CPU. The few people that are still left realize that every 3 year old smartphone will easily outperform the Raspberry PI.
And you expected more interest?

I'll get one asap nevertheless (but the slightly more expensive model B).

I'd expect nothing at all when it comes to "computer-science education". It doesn't run MS Office, there won't be an app store and you can't even use it to spy on students under the shower. So I think you won't ever encounter one of these devices in a western world's lecture room or computer cabinet.

 

Are you just being cynical here?

Or do you think there are limitations to the device will prevent it from fulfilling its stated goal to be 'used by kids all over the world to learn programming'. [Source: FAQ on the official site.]

Clearly not running MS Office is a feature of the design rather than a mistake. So what is it? Insufficiently many teachers with the right skills to make it work in the classroom? Misrepresentation of the true cost of one (reliance on external display/peripherals)? Or something else?

 

Guilty as charged!

You nailed it!
When I was a student in high school our IT courses were nothing more than MS Office training courses. Our teachers wouldn't even have known where to begin using a device that doesn't run Windows.
That's well over a decade ago but I know from reliable sources that the situation in my school hasn't changed and that many others made the same experiences in their schools.

 

At one of my high schools ya they would never had that (the history teacher was teaching web dev and was learning from me while i was in his class )

but at another they have courses for Computer science, programing, database engineering, etc, end endless list of courses i would have taken all of them if i had been there for the full 4 years and not just 2.

But you never know schools may not add it as a class but after school activity would not be that hard to reach.

 

Sounds cool for a simple node on a network for very basic stuff, but Id rather just get a zino/mini type desktop thats slightly larger and alot more functional.

 

Ya i agree with this but it is still fun to mess around with embedded applications.

Things i want to try out with it would be XBMC, MPD, Terminal Client, etc

 

The uses are unlimited...it really is a shame that people aren't into hardware as they used to be. Now everyone who wants to get into computers builds apps.

What happened to parallel ports and 8088s?

 

Looked at getting one of these, but between a pandaboard, beaglebone, spare palm pixis (arm cpu, ram, plus kb and screen for around 40 nowadays, plus the os is based on openembedded), and soon maybe an allwinner card, I have enough little arm things to play with.

 

You know what work surprisingly well?...media streamers like Roku, etc.. I set up a Western Digital for my folks over Christmas and a Roku for my neighbor and I was shocked to find that the picture quality was better than my dual-core atom htpc.

 

For Sale from Today

Revolutionary £22 Raspberry Pi that is a working PC (just add screen, keyboard and mouse) | Mail Online

 

Already pre-ordered after getting DOS for a couple of hours