Hi folks I've been reading about the Raspberry Pi over the past couple of days and it seems like a very powerful and useful device, I want one but I'm not sure it's really for me. Was wondering if someone would be kind enough to take the time to answer some questions I have.
I've been a PC user all my life, I've literally never touched a linux based OS so how different is it from Windows and is it easy to pick up?
In the FAQ is says it's developed towards teaching children how to program. It mentions it can play older 3D games and High resolution video too which is amazing for such a small and cheap device. But what else can I really do with it? Keeping in mind I've never used a linux OS and have no idea how to program anything.
I really want a reason to buy a Raspberry Pi because quite frankly it looks like the coolest little thing I've seen and I want to make sure I have a reason for owning one. I am very open to the idea of learning how to work a new OS but I'm not sure I'd have any reason to want to learn a programming language.
Overall I'm just looking for a reason for owning one and to use it in a meaningful way. I appreciate you taking the time to read this and hopefully I'll have a good reason to buy one. (Other than it being really cool)
Thanks!
Re: Is the Raspberry Pi for me?
Well, that really depends on you. First of all, Linux is different than Windows in a lot of ways. To use it you would actually need not only to learn new things but also to "unlearn" some old habits. It can be both exciting and painful, depending on how you see it. You don't need RaspberryPi to check it out, however. You can use virtual machine or some live DVD on your PC or at least read something about it. If you want to use it (Linux system) you are gonna spend a lot of time reading and googling anyway. So you have to ask yourself if you are ready for that.
Also, please remember that RaspberryPi is not yet finished product. It's more of a beta right not. A lot of people are happy on how it is working right now but there are some big problems not yet solved - there is no good support for graphics acceleration, some problems with USB and audio, some programs are just not working or are just unaviailable. You can solve many problem reading this forum and asking questions. You can probably learn a lot while doing that but you may also just not like it. Again, that depends on you.
That being said, a lot of things are working pretty well (almost) out of the box. There is a lot of things you can do with his little thing without programming. If you don't want to spend hours or days figuring some problems out yourself, you will have to base on someones else work, though. In that case, you should spend some time now to look at what other people are doing with Rpi and check if there is something you would be interested to also do.
I think that the community around Rpi is it's biggest advantage so if you want to be a part of it then that's a great reason to buy one. If you don't have time for it or just don't feel it's for you, I suggest you to wait couple months and come back here then and use much more finished product.
Also, please remember that RaspberryPi is not yet finished product. It's more of a beta right not. A lot of people are happy on how it is working right now but there are some big problems not yet solved - there is no good support for graphics acceleration, some problems with USB and audio, some programs are just not working or are just unaviailable. You can solve many problem reading this forum and asking questions. You can probably learn a lot while doing that but you may also just not like it. Again, that depends on you.
That being said, a lot of things are working pretty well (almost) out of the box. There is a lot of things you can do with his little thing without programming. If you don't want to spend hours or days figuring some problems out yourself, you will have to base on someones else work, though. In that case, you should spend some time now to look at what other people are doing with Rpi and check if there is something you would be interested to also do.
I think that the community around Rpi is it's biggest advantage so if you want to be a part of it then that's a great reason to buy one. If you don't have time for it or just don't feel it's for you, I suggest you to wait couple months and come back here then and use much more finished product.
Re: Is the Raspberry Pi for me?
I hate to be a wet towel but unless you are willing to "get your hands dirty", then I don't think so. First of all, though you can buy an SD card with an OS pre-installed, to get a Pi working well enough to use for surfing the web or do much of anything, you have to be able to at least download OS images and load them onto an SD card.Xuiryus wrote:Hi folks I've been reading about the Raspberry Pi over the past couple of days and it seems like a very powerful and useful device, I want one but I'm not sure it's really for me. Was wondering if someone would be kind enough to take the time to answer some questions I have.
I've been a PC user all my life, I've literally never touched a linux based OS so how different is it from Windows and is it easy to pick up?
In the FAQ is says it's developed towards teaching children how to program. It mentions it can play older 3D games and High resolution video too which is amazing for such a small and cheap device. But what else can I really do with it? Keeping in mind I've never used a linux OS and have no idea how to program anything.
I really want a reason to buy a Raspberry Pi because quite frankly it looks like the coolest little thing I've seen and I want to make sure I have a reason for owning one. I am very open to the idea of learning how to work a new OS but I'm not sure I'd have any reason to want to learn a programming language.
Overall I'm just looking for a reason for owning one and to use it in a meaningful way. I appreciate you taking the time to read this and hopefully I'll have a good reason to buy one. (Other than it being really cool)
Thanks!
That said, if you are able to follow the instructions for getting the Pi up and running, and are willing to "tinker", and not get frustrated because things don't work "out of the box", then the Pi can be a lot of fun and do a lot more things than one should expect from a $40 investment.
Before buying, I'd advise you to download VirtualBox on your Windows PC and then try a few different LiveCD Linux distros. That will at least get you familiar with Linux in general. If you find you can deal with Linux, then you could invest in a Pi.
Re: Is the Raspberry Pi for me?
If you want to get familar with Linux I would recommend you start with installing VirtualBox first or try Damn Small Linux with Qemu - http://www.pendrivelinux.com/all-in-one-usb-dsl/
VirtualBox (like Qemu) lets you run operating systems on your existing machine without damaging it because the software acts like another computer.
There are too many distro of Linux so I would recommend you try Linux Mint + KDE or Knoppix to start with.
They come in ISO format which is the standard for CD-ROM images, all you have to do is setup a machine, load the ISO and boot from CD-ROM.
Now to answer your question "Is the Raspberry Pi for me" it really depends what you want out of your PI.
The whole notion of the PI being a tool for education just doesn't wash with me because there is no good reason why schools can't run education software on their Windows machines or provide comptuer languages like C++.
If they wanted to be really backwards about it they could use BBC or Commodore 64 emulators and teach kids about 6502 / 6510 machine code.
Having said that the PI computer isn't a bad idea but I think it's more suited for computer geeks, robotics and die hard Linux / Unix fans not school kids.
The PI is not a very powerful computer it's only ARMv6 clocked at 700MHz however it can be used as a cheap media video player with internet connectivity or could turn your internet connection into a web server / proxy / IRCBot.
If you really want to just learn Linux stick with VirtualBox for the time being otherwise splash out and take a slice of PI.
Richard S.
VirtualBox (like Qemu) lets you run operating systems on your existing machine without damaging it because the software acts like another computer.
There are too many distro of Linux so I would recommend you try Linux Mint + KDE or Knoppix to start with.
They come in ISO format which is the standard for CD-ROM images, all you have to do is setup a machine, load the ISO and boot from CD-ROM.
Now to answer your question "Is the Raspberry Pi for me" it really depends what you want out of your PI.
The whole notion of the PI being a tool for education just doesn't wash with me because there is no good reason why schools can't run education software on their Windows machines or provide comptuer languages like C++.
If they wanted to be really backwards about it they could use BBC or Commodore 64 emulators and teach kids about 6502 / 6510 machine code.
Having said that the PI computer isn't a bad idea but I think it's more suited for computer geeks, robotics and die hard Linux / Unix fans not school kids.
The PI is not a very powerful computer it's only ARMv6 clocked at 700MHz however it can be used as a cheap media video player with internet connectivity or could turn your internet connection into a web server / proxy / IRCBot.
If you really want to just learn Linux stick with VirtualBox for the time being otherwise splash out and take a slice of PI.
Richard S.
Re: Is the Raspberry Pi for me?
Thank you for all the replies,
The general consensus seems to be "get a VM and try Linux" so that'e exactly what I'll do when I have some time. Other than using it for media purposes to watch shows and stuff on my TV through it nothing really comes to mind on why I would use it at the moment. In addition I can already stick a USB drive right into my PS3 and watch video files on it. As for web surfing and writing up documentation I already have a laptop too (not to mention a desktop) so again I would be attempting to fill a purpose that is already full.
For the moment I think I'll just fiddle around with Linux and see how I like the OS, I'm really not interested in developing anything and I really don't have the time so that concept is completely lost on me.
Thanks again everyone.
The general consensus seems to be "get a VM and try Linux" so that'e exactly what I'll do when I have some time. Other than using it for media purposes to watch shows and stuff on my TV through it nothing really comes to mind on why I would use it at the moment. In addition I can already stick a USB drive right into my PS3 and watch video files on it. As for web surfing and writing up documentation I already have a laptop too (not to mention a desktop) so again I would be attempting to fill a purpose that is already full.
For the moment I think I'll just fiddle around with Linux and see how I like the OS, I'm really not interested in developing anything and I really don't have the time so that concept is completely lost on me.
Thanks again everyone.
Re: Is the Raspberry Pi for me?
If you are not afraid to use the command line interface and are willing to learn Linux, the Raspberry Pi is the ideal tool to learn it 
You will have your own "server" to play with, no experimentation with your normal PC.
The tips and FAQs here help a lot to get started.
You will have your own "server" to play with, no experimentation with your normal PC.
The tips and FAQs here help a lot to get started.
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W. H. Heydt
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Re: Is the Raspberry Pi for me?
I'm going to take a slightly different tack on the advice....
In the first place, whether or not you should get a Pi (aside from answering the question: Do you WANT to get a Pi?) is: Will getting a Pi adversely affect your household budget? Can you afford to spend $50 and not worry about having to eat beans for every meal next week or not being able to pay your rent on time? If buying a Pi would have that sort of effect on you...don't do it.
Now on to the substantive matters... How much Linux is like Windows rather depends on just how long you've been using Windows. If you go back to Windows 3.x and had a computer that didn't automatically boot into the Windows desktop, Linux on the Pi is quite similar. You can make the Pi go directly to a graphical desktop, but you don't have to. Like those times, to use the power and capabilities of Linux, you are likely to make a lot more use of the command line interface (which is easily accessible in the graphical desktop) than you would in any Windows system since about Win95.
The commands are different than DOS, as is some of the syntax, though the underlying principles are pretty much the same from a user perspective. One of the most useful things that Linux has inherited from unix (conceptually, not from derivative code) is having the programming manual that tells you what every command in the system does, in detail. The downside of that is that, sometimes it contains TOO MUCH detail.
Do not think of the Pi as a desktop replacement. It really isn't powerful enough to do more than one thing at a time, and many of the things is does are somewhat sluggish compared to any reasonably current machine.
As has been noted, the software for the Pi (and possibly the hardware as well) is a work in progress. This is an opportunity to get in near the beginning and see how the development unfolds. These forums are a chance to get questions about how to do things from people who have had the same or similar problems to ones you run into. In some case, you may be told how to resolve an issue by the very person who *wrote* the software in question (just *try* that with Microsoft!). You may even uncover a software defect (bug) that those working on the system haven't seen before and YOU may be the person who has the honor of helping them fix it.
As for the comment upthread about not really being the thing for kids to learn on... Nonsense. If you'd seen the kids at the Silicon Valley Jam last Saturday happily working away on various Pis, you'd give *that* idea up in a flash.
In the first place, whether or not you should get a Pi (aside from answering the question: Do you WANT to get a Pi?) is: Will getting a Pi adversely affect your household budget? Can you afford to spend $50 and not worry about having to eat beans for every meal next week or not being able to pay your rent on time? If buying a Pi would have that sort of effect on you...don't do it.
Now on to the substantive matters... How much Linux is like Windows rather depends on just how long you've been using Windows. If you go back to Windows 3.x and had a computer that didn't automatically boot into the Windows desktop, Linux on the Pi is quite similar. You can make the Pi go directly to a graphical desktop, but you don't have to. Like those times, to use the power and capabilities of Linux, you are likely to make a lot more use of the command line interface (which is easily accessible in the graphical desktop) than you would in any Windows system since about Win95.
The commands are different than DOS, as is some of the syntax, though the underlying principles are pretty much the same from a user perspective. One of the most useful things that Linux has inherited from unix (conceptually, not from derivative code) is having the programming manual that tells you what every command in the system does, in detail. The downside of that is that, sometimes it contains TOO MUCH detail.
Do not think of the Pi as a desktop replacement. It really isn't powerful enough to do more than one thing at a time, and many of the things is does are somewhat sluggish compared to any reasonably current machine.
As has been noted, the software for the Pi (and possibly the hardware as well) is a work in progress. This is an opportunity to get in near the beginning and see how the development unfolds. These forums are a chance to get questions about how to do things from people who have had the same or similar problems to ones you run into. In some case, you may be told how to resolve an issue by the very person who *wrote* the software in question (just *try* that with Microsoft!). You may even uncover a software defect (bug) that those working on the system haven't seen before and YOU may be the person who has the honor of helping them fix it.
As for the comment upthread about not really being the thing for kids to learn on... Nonsense. If you'd seen the kids at the Silicon Valley Jam last Saturday happily working away on various Pis, you'd give *that* idea up in a flash.