contagion

[kbailey]

The Raspberry Pi is not yet contagious.

To make a Pi, I have to download the opsys image in a windows box, burn the image into a SD card, then place the card into a minty fresh new pi. Pi cannot as of yet make another pi. THIS is the sense of contagion; to reproduce itself.

For this to become a true success, it must self replicate. That is, pi's must make more pi's without assistance from other machines with other operating systems. Until then, it is vulnerable to the benign neglect of the Lords of Redmond.

BTW, my pi is sitting here with this site on it, along with CNN and weather-bug. I finally just messed and messed around with it until I got the WiFi dingle to work with the machine, and now it is a (almost) wireless pi. I still have the keyboard and mouse that came with the bundle plugged into the hub. A cheap hub in that bundle would have been very well received.

This hp screen does not play well with others, including wheezy and it's display management routines; there has GOT to be a better way to control vertical and horizontal sizes so everything is on the screen at the same time.

Now chew on this: Kids are poor. RPF is working to get lots of computers into the hands of kids to meed the future needs of society for computer savvy people. OK, so that's a rational idea. Now what about getting computers into the hands of poor people- and there's a LOT of poor people. Old folks too tend to be poor, or at least financially cautious. I added the numbers, and we can definitely get a computer into the hands of the poor with a used VGA monitor for under $120. In the UK there is the RPF; we need something here in the states to persue this sort of work.

[tonyhughes]

What do you think you have to do with any computing device? The software has to come from somewhere.

Once you have a working Pi, you can download anything you want, and manipulate further storage devices, so in fact, yes, the Pi can self replicate software just like any other computer. But it doesn't have a working OS built in, just like the average desktop computer doesn't.

[kbailey]

What do you think you have to do with any computing device? The software has to come from somewhere.

Correct. At first. Then it starts to stand on it's own two feet.

Once you have a working Pi, you can download anything you want, and manipulate further storage devices, so in fact, yes, the Pi can self replicate software just like any other computer. But it doesn't have a working OS built in, just like the average desktop computer doesn't.

I have one on my desk with a working os. But to duplicate itself, it needs to get an external SD card interface to WRITE to them, without sacrificing the existing one which is in effect it's 'hard drive'. When this is normal rather than exceptional, then it can be said to become self propagating.

[tonyhughes]

So you are saying because it needs another drive to be able to write to another drive its no good?

I'm not getting what you are trying to say.

Any other computing device needs another storage device to write something that you want to take away to a different machine...

[mikerr]

For this to become a true success, it must self replicate. That is, pi's must make more pi's without assistance from other machines with other operating systems. Until then, it is vulnerable to the benign neglect of the Lords of Redmond.

The Pi can self-replicate:

buy a usb card reader, put the target SD card in that and make as many Pi babies as you like

[pluggy]

The Pi isn't really suitable as a primary computer anyway, so there's no problem.

That should get 'em going....

I have the best of both worlds, a computer with the flexibility of Linux and with enough grunt so that the internet doesn't behave like something from the dial up era. No lords of Redmond here.

The Pi is fabulous for some things, but as a main computer, its seriously lacking.

[rurwin]

it is vulnerable to the benign neglect of the Lords of Redmond.

That's a good thing. If Microsoft was not ignoring it, they'd be trying to kill it and replace it with their own cuckoo*.

No Windows worth using will never run on the RaspPi; it's too far behind the performance curve. Even Windows Phone 8 runs on hardware four times more powerful with twice as much RAM. Any Windows OS would add licensing costs, which would add directly to the cost of the device. No Microsoft OS has ever cost less than around $50.


----
* It would be a device costing around $100, but marketed very aggressively into schools with licensing deals, free training, consultancy and such. If at all possible, it would not run any Open Source software.

[Spid]

Well someone on this Forum was trying to install Windows CE ROFL

The only M$ product I would use is ?????????????? no can not think of any except MS-DOS 6.22

[rpdom]

I'm guessing (I may be wrong) that the OP is saying the Pi needs to have some sort of OS built-in, or at least stored on an on-board flash chip. That way the SD card could be removed and a new one built - although this defeats the object of having a removable "main disk" - the unbrickable via software thing.

I really can't see the point.

[ghans]

AFAIK berryboot loads itself into RAM completely ...
and can write images while downloading.

ghans

[Spid]

I'm guessing (I may be wrong) that the OP is saying the Pi needs to have some sort of OS built-in, or at least stored on an on-board flash chip. That way the SD card could be removed and a new one built - although this defeats the object of having a removable "main disk" - the unbrickable via software thing.

I really can't see the point.

Then he needs an Android Device http://www.cloudsto.com/rikomagic-mk802ii.html

[lewmur]

What do you think you have to do with any computing device? The software has to come from somewhere.

Correct. At first. Then it starts to stand on it's own two feet.

Once you have a working Pi, you can download anything you want, and manipulate further storage devices, so in fact, yes, the Pi can self replicate software just like any other computer. But it doesn't have a working OS built in, just like the average desktop computer doesn't.

I have one on my desk with a working os. But to duplicate itself, it needs to get an external SD card interface to WRITE to them, without sacrificing the existing one which is in effect it's 'hard drive'. When this is normal rather than exceptional, then it can be said to become self propagating.

Actually, all it needs is any old USB flash drive. You can easily place an OS image on the flash drive and modify the command.txt file on the SD to switch the flash drive at boot. That leaves the SD slot available to put in another SD card.

It isn't a question of what the Pi is capable. It is a question of what the OP has learned to do. Learned? "The primary objective of the Raspberry Pi is education." The OP just needs a little more.