Summary
Whilst the hardware does pose some real limitations, the
Raspberry Pi is the most exciting computer we have seen for many a
year. It is quite simply a dinky device at a price point which
represents a tremendous achievement. If you enjoy tinkering with
computers, you will figuratively be in heaven.
We would want to see the Raspberry Pi ensconced in a case
before the device gets rolled out into the classroom. The other top
priority is for the software distributions to mature. None of the
available distributions are anywhere near a mature release, with lots
of packages broken, software not installing, drivers not working
properly etc. It is reminiscent of the days when we were installing
the Softlanding Linux System (SLS), an early Linux distribution, taking
all afternoon to feed in the 50 floppies, only to find half of the
packages broken, and then spending lots of time trying to find
workarounds.
The Raspberry Pi cannot sit on its laurels. There are a number
of single-board alternatives to the Raspberry Pi such as the Via APC,
FXI Cotton Candy, MK802, BeagleBoard, and Mele A1000, all looking to
capture the market. Out of these, the computer-on-a-stick MK802 looks
the most interesting if you are looking for an Android device.
Back
to Introduction
Read ahead
1. Introduction
2. Distributions
3. Benchmarks
4. Software
5. Things
to Do with the Raspberry Pi
6. Summary
Last Updated Sunday, June 03 2012 @ 07:34 PM EDT
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