Raspberry Pi2 to support Win10 (free license)

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31088908

"The Raspberry Pi 2 can run a variety of Linux-based systems out-of-the-box, but its makers have also promised it will be able to support Microsoft's next operating system at a later date.

"For the last six months we've been working closely with Microsoft to bring the forthcoming Windows 10 to Raspberry Pi 2. Microsoft will have much more to share over the coming months," said a statement on the Raspberry Pi blog.

"The Raspberry Pi 2-compatible version of Windows 10 will be available free of charge to makers."

Microsoft itself has blogged on the topic.

"We see the maker community as an amazing source of innovation for smart, connected devices that represent the very foundation of the next wave of computing, and we're excited to be a part of this community," wrote Windows executive Kevin Dallas."​

 

I'll be very interested to see how well Windows 10 will be able to run on the Raspberry Pi. The new board has a nice looking spec sheet and it's great that they managed to keep it at $35 USD. Windows probably has to much overhead to be practical for some of the cool hobby projects that are out there but it could be useful as an educational tool.

 

Oh man, if it can stream 1080p without a hitch, that can replace my aging full desktop case with AMD CPU that I currently use as my main HTPC.

But 1GB RAM means the Win10 version will need to be super lean to even have a chance of running on it. 2GB is bare minimum for Win8. But I guess if it's one set of hardware they could streamline it greatly, and limit the processes in the background. I just haven't had much luck with Linux as an HTPC.

 

Sounds like a very interesting implementation of the Raspberry Pi 2 boards, but unless they create a cut down version of Windows 10 it probably won't be good for too much. However, it could be great for those personal projects that depend upon a native windows environment, and its not like the community won't find some creative uses for this. Cool development overall!

 

I'm already impressed with the RPi, so I be picking up the RPi 2 for my other personal projects.
The RPi (256/512 Version) runs 1080p30 8 bit h264 vids runs really well.

 

Maybe there is to be a Win10 RT, being as this is an ARM processor?

 

Those were my thoughts as well, or it could be a modification of the Windows Phone 10 Kernel?

In my opinion, what Microsoft should do is bring back media center to Windows 10 and let you have that on the Windows 10 RPi or have the RPi work as a media center extender. In other words, transforming the RPi into a kind of mini HTPC.

Heck, you could even think about loading Windows Phone apps (although the control scheme on a non touch screen device is an unknown).

 

I hope it isn't an Win RT since they don't allow anyone to run unsigned code which defeats the purpose of it.

I'm curious how is the ease of development for it.
To me at the moment, it seem to just shave off an extra tedious step that I have to do.

Well, the older RPi is a decent mini HTPC.

 

I very highly doubt that. Windows RT is as dead as dead can be, after Microsoft has silently pulled the Surface (non-Pro) tablets. I don't think that stillborn child will ever be revived.

 

Agreed, however, Windows Phone 10 runs on ARM and IIRC, they are removing the "Phone" from the Windows Phone 10 name. I do remember talks about that at the very least, so while I agree it will not be Windows RT, it could still end up not being an ARM flavor of x86 Windows 10.

 

Right;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_RT

 

That's my hope for it. This is the perfect setup for an HTPC. Very compact, power sipping, just want it to run off a single USB port though so I can plug it into my TV and mount it behind it without another cable running all the way to the AC.

 

In the mean time you can get one of them tiny PCs running on Atom Bay Trail. They do cost more though...