Why Pi .. ?

[josh89]

Hey guys,

Im not here to flame or give a bad name to Pi, i read today on an online news site about this and was very excited and i totally agree about the goal and purpose but one thing i am curious about:

all the programming code (presumably, I'm not a programmer .... yet ) is available on most or all current OS's to date , so why do i choose to use this ?

The one thing which i can think of is the community that will be built up using Pi and all the cool homebrew , dev stuff that is thought up , apart from that is there any other reasons , trust me guys I'm sold and i will be buying one (once the shop is out of maintenance) but couldn't i do all the same programming code on say my macbook ?

cheers

one very excited programming newbie

[Alchemy]

Programming will take time to learn. And a lot of uninterrupted computer time.

Many people share a family computer. So RasPi allows the individual time required.

Also some people might be scared of breaking stuff. And trashing a cheap computer with no ones homework or accounts on isn't too bad.

[grumpyoldgit]

Raspberry Pi = $35

MackBook = lots more

Need I say more?

[jamesh]

You could indeed do programming on a Macbook, or a PC, or netbook or whatever.

If you have one.

The point of the Raspi is that people who wouldn't normally have programming access to a device can have a cheap device for programming.

[Many home PC's and certainly a almost all school PC's are pretty locked down and prevent programming usage.]

[josh89]

hmm yeh, your not wrong, i suppose this will entice more youngsters to start without fear of retribution from parents / siblings plus its cheap , a lot cheaper then any second hand laptop / desktop

[ArborealSeer]

The other huge advantage is the fixed platform aspect.

things will progress better because the boundaries are fixed, and cross machine, os, whatever compatibility wont' be such an issue. plus there is a community interested in what people do.

[josh89]

ArborealSeer said:


The other huge advantage is the fixed platform aspect.

things will progress better because the boundaries are fixed, and cross machine, os, whatever compatibility wont' be such an issue. plus there is a community interested in what people do.


i spend too much time on Facebook i was trying to find the like button for this post

[ArborealSeer]

[Kernel]

josh89 said:


ArborealSeer said:


The other huge advantage is the fixed platform aspect.

things will progress better because the boundaries are fixed, and cross machine, os, whatever compatibility wont' be such an issue. plus there is a community interested in what people do.


i spend too much time on Facebook i was trying to find the like button for this post



I don't spend much time on facebook but often forums have a thanks button or reputation feature which would be nice when we get phpbb if it was included.

As for macbooks - apple is evil!! that is a reason not to program on them

[josh89]

Kernel said:


As for macbooks – apple is evil!! that is a reason not to program on them


but I"m learning some basic stuff right now on one, its all i got !!

[Kernel]

josh89 said:


Kernel said:


As for macbooks – apple is evil!! that is a reason not to program on them


but I"m learning some basic stuff right now on one, its all i got !!



Install windows!

actually a funny story I was on a train once and a guy had a macbook - which surely cost him a significant amount - however he was running Windows XP inside VMWare Fusion and playing Solitaire on it - strange especially considering some version of solitaire presumably also runs on OS X

[josh89]

Kernel said:

josh89 said:


Kernel said:


As for macbooks – apple is evil!! that is a reason not to program on them


but I"m learning some basic stuff right now on one, its all i got !!


Install windows!

actually a funny story I was on a train once and a guy had a macbook – which surely cost him a significant amount – however he was running Windows XP inside VMWare Fusion and playing Solitaire on it – strange especially considering some version of solitaire presumably also runs on OS X


This is also true for me except i use it to play age of empires 2 when i get bored.

anyway a little off topic but worth that irony

maybe RasPi will be able to handle this little gem of a game ????

[Kernel]

well it is a microsoft game - and runs under wine - but wine doesn't work on the pi iirc

[josh89]

its time to make a new classic !!!! open source empires

[Kernel]

josh89 said:


its time to make a new classic !!!! open source empires



well there is this: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/201.....ad-review/ maybe it can be compiled for ARM

[RaTTuS]

OpenDune

OpenTTD ?

[josh89]

Kernel said:


josh89 said:


its time to make a new classic !!!! open source empires


well there is this: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/201.....ad-review/ maybe it can be compiled for ARM


OH cool I'm gonna take this for a spin, and hopefully Pi can do all this one day, as for OpenTTD yes thats also another good option too