Raspberry Pi, the super-basic £25 Linux computer that's proven a whopping hit with the nerds, is now no longer restricted to one per person. Great news -- now your Magic The Gathering coven and your Android dev coffee morning can order as many as their dorky hearts desire!
The bare-bones board is available to order from suppliers RS Components and Premier Farnell. "This means that customers worldwide can now order multiple quantities of the Raspberry Pi Model B board," says Jo from RS, "along with the associated accessories, including SD cards pre-loaded with the latest Raspberry Pi operating system and Raspberry Pi cases for safer storage."
That's right -- the Pi is so bonkers barefaced bargainous that it doesn't even come with a case. Enterprising users have made their own, including out of (what else?) Lego. RS sells black, white and clear Pi cases (no, not pie cases) for just £4.79.
You can expect your Pi to arrive in four to six weeks, according to Jenny from Farnell. RS reckons it should be able to fulfill new orders by the end of September, so a little longer, but it is selling the Pi for less -- £25.92 compared to £29.46 from Farnell (both including VAT).
The Raspberry Pi is amazingly adept for such a tiny, cheap bit of kit. Load up a media-friendly bit of software via the SD card slot and it'll happily pump high-definition video to your TV over HDMI. You can even use your smart phone as the remote control.
It has Ethernet and two USB sockets too, so you can plug in a mouse and keyboard and surf the web. The first official accessory, due in October, will be a 5-megapixel camera, founder Eben Upton confirmed this weekend.
The Pi has been hailed as the saviour of computer science by the likes of education secretary Michael Gove and Google chairman Eric Schmidt, as its round-of-drinks pricing means anyone can get their hands on one and use it to learn programming. Schools are expected to put in big orders -- and it looks as though they could be in classrooms by Christmas.
Are you plumping for Pi? Would you like to see them in your school? Drop us a line of code in the comments, or over on our fruit-flavoured Facebook page.
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Comments 5
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Loadit 17 July, 2012 10:38
Since when did it become a Linux machine? It does not have a program language installed youhave to put one in yourself which can be one of many as well as linux.
Nick Hide 17 July, 2012 13:04
The project's slogan is, "Raspberry Pi: An ARM GNU/Linux box for $25. Take a byte!"
damien2501 17 July, 2012 15:01
Yay! Raspberry pi rocks
anonymous 19 July, 2012 19:53
How does it encourage people to program any more than any other computer? Also, which schools have ICT labs full of HDMI monitors? Mine doesn’t!
That said, I think they are cool and I have already bought two!
tuxtester 10 August, 2012 19:47
David Braben, one the Raspberry Pi founders is either completely out of touch with the technical world or lying. I suspect the latter because the Raspberry Pi is a waste of valuable school funds.
In the following broadcast he makes the bizarre claim that it's cheaper for schools to purchase a Raspberry Pi in order to teach students how to program computers rather than use the tools which can be downloaded for free where there is no requirement to purchase anything.
http://download.guardian.co.uk/audio/kip/technology/series/techweekly/1344347653104/8784/gnl.tech.120807.jp.tech_weekly.mp3
Additionally there are a few hidden costs associated with Raspberry Pi:
1. Cables. The matchbox sized Raspberry Pi does not come with the necessary cables in order to make it work. They have to be purchased separately.
2. The skills that students might gain from playing with the Raspberry Pi will not necessarily be of any use in the contemporary Information Technology Industry so just wasting valuable school funds and students' time.
There are many free tools that can be downloaded and used to teach students how to program computers.
Teach Android development, it's free and it's useful.
All the tools required to develop (and learn how to develop) Android are free. Android is the operating system used by the majority of mobile telephones around the world and is owned by Google.
Therefore the skills learned by programming for Android are exceptionally useful to the computer industry and the applications created by the students will likely earn the students (or the school) money if the applications are uploaded to Google Play where people who own a mobile telephone that runs on Android can pay-for and download them.
Again, the majority of all mobile telephones around the world use Android and the development tools required to program for Android (and learn how to) are free.
I suspect that David Braben of Raspberry Pi knows this and he is deliberately deceiving those in education who sign the cheques.