Yes, I’ve got it!
After more or less 3 weeks of waiting, I can finally put my hands on my new, shiny Raspberry PI!
And I have to say I had lose any hope to get it before 2013, but, unexpectedly, it got to my house just a few hours before 2012 came to the end.
**Rasp-what?
** Just in case you have never heard about it (if so, please consider starting to sometimes read at least the Tech section of the BBC news website, because it is completely unacceptable for a geek not to be aware about the Raspberry PI! :P), the Raspberry PI “is a credit-card-sized single-board computer developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation with the intention of stimulating the teaching of basic computer science in schools.” (source: Wikipedia).
**So, what’s so great about it?
** The great thing about the Raspberry PI, is that it is a full Linux PC (with very low performances, as you might expect) and it costs just 35$ for its Model B-version, which is better equipped (Model A is -in my opinion- simply not enough, without regarding of what you use it for).
Besides the purpose for which the Raspberry PI is developed, which is to teach kids and young people basic programming skills, there are many things you can do with such a device.
One of the main things I see programmers doing with the Raspberry PI is playing. Having fun with it, experimenting anything their imagination can produce (as long as that small device can do it – don’t forget it is a very small PC).
So, what I am doing with it in these days is to set up a full LAMP server, and I will post in the next days how to do it (it’s quite simple).
There are also a few other things I want to try it for, like using it as a backup server (adding to it an external HD), or as a media centre (with the help of Raspbmc). And I am sure new ideas (even for business) about how to use it will come to my mind in the next weeks.
If you want more informations about the Raspberry PI project, just visit the Foundation’s official website: http://www.raspberrypi.org, or you can buy a Raspberry Pi Model B 512 MB RAM Latest VERSION 