Raspberry Pi

[Richard Leonecoeur]

So! I did a search, and I didn't see another thread about it. Though, forgive me if I somehow didn't search for the correct terms (I figured raspberry and pi would do it. :p )

Anyway... It's a $25-$35 GNU/ARM based computer. There's a $25 one with no Ethernet and only one USB port, with 256 MiB of memory, and there's the much more recommended $35.00 version, with two USB ports, an Ethernet port, and 512 MiB of memory. Both run the same processor, an ARM6 clocked natively at 700 MhZ, but with the update clockable to 1000 Mhz without voiding the warranty.

They're fun little things; they have a pretty good GPU with the videocore4, but the XLDE isn't GPU accelerated yet, so using the desktop can feel a bit slow at times. Chromium (browser) compiles and runs well; I've found a YouTube player that works with OXMPlayer from the command line well (allowing GPU acceleration!)  I use Raspbian on mine, but I'm intending to get a second SD card to play with RaspBMC.

It'll be great for retro-style console gaming, though, if you're into that. It's incredibly portable, too, especially with a 'dumb' powered USB hub (that is, it sends power without waiting for a data response) so that you can power it through that. Get a portable PAL/NTSF/Brazil PAL portable television with component or HDMI video, and you're good to go! I took some pictures with my currently crowded desk (I updated my Magic the Gathering deck) of what I use for it, but unfortunately.... I can't find my camera cable right now. I did, however, find my second SDCard.. The one I was going to use for standard operation. So I'll have to put the updated image on that, and put RaspBMC on the faster one. Or maybe I'll just do it the other way around. I'll have to do some tests to see if the Class 4 vs Class 10 really makes a difference in this case.

I can suggest components, know places that deliver fairly quickly (and restock fairly quickly) in the United States at least; overseas (from the United States) suppliers (even though it's manufactured in UK/China) seem to always be out of stock, though.

I have for mine:
A compact Wireless Keyboard (cost me about 6.99), a portable USB optical mouse (About 4.99), a portable ~7 inch (~17.75 cm) LCD TV, and a 16GB class 10 and a 16GB Class 4 SD card. Right now I'm sharing my desktop's internet connection with it; I really want to get a wireless adapter for it, but that'll require a USB hub... so I need to find a dumb one, like I said, to keep it requiring one plug when possible.

Pics when I can.  It's a neat little mini workstation/youtube viewer, since I'm still in the process of setting it up. I might get one of the 512 MiB ones, and perhaps turn this into a private webserver/cheap network attached storage/HTPC (excellent at streaming HDMI) or something. Maybe even a car computer! It's cool.

Anyway, link: http://www.raspberrypi.org/

[Eldargard]

I was considering getting one of those but was not sure if it would be beefy enough for my taste. I would want to run Debian or Arch with an LXDE desktop. I just may have to give it a go one of these days! Have you had any luck finding an cheap but functional case? Can you power it with a mini-usb cell phone charger (I would assume so)?

[Richard Leonecoeur]

If you live in the US, MCM is an affiliated distributor with Element 14. They offer cases, and much more, including many of the products that will work with it simply for that fact. It's smart; they make no money off the Pi directly, but should make plenty of indirect profit (including shipping in some cases, but mostly from the sales of accessories.)

Raspbian is a very efficient Debian ARM_HF install. With the 512 MiB version, you should be able to handle a more standard ArmHF flavor of Debian; however I still recommend Raspbian as it is optimized for the Pi. It comes with LXDE natively, as well as programming environments and more.

The 512 MiB version could easily be used as a small/portable workstation; people have done a lot of really cool things with them. There's webservers running off of two of them and external harddrives, for instance. (One handles one set of operations, the other another. That's with the 256 MiB version though; now with 512 it'd be even better).

They're powerful for $35, but don't overestimate. You'll probably underestimate it, actually.

They also make great, inexpensive HTPCs. Retrogaming + Great HD streaming? Yes please.

I need to figure out a decent PERL repository that works with it, though; CPAN doesn't like Debian, or Debian doesn't like CPAN. Which sucks. I should also learn Python and figure out the differences, if any, present in QT vs cpp.