The first 10,000 pre-orders of the Raspberry Pi micro-computer are arriving in Linux aficionado's mailboxes -- great news for anyone who wants to pursue DIY software development on a cash-strapped budget. The $35 Model B version of the computer is the length and width of a credit card, and features HDMI, Composite RCA, USB, and Ethernet ports, as well as an SD card slot.
In creating the Raspberry Pi, Eben Upton and his colleagues wanted to produce an inexpensive development platform for students after noticing a decline in knowledge among new computer science majors. Because many families have only one computer, a large numbers of students never get a chance to experiment with programming languages that could potentially render a shared computer unusable.
The Raspberry Pi is a tiny investment that be used to experiment with Linux and software programing without the fear of destroying family photos. For $35, potential students can hook the tiny computer to a keyboard and display, and get their hands dirty with the Python programming language.
The computer ships with 256MB of on-board of RAM and a 700MHz ARM chip, and boots from an SD card with either the Fedora, Debian or ArchLinux distros installed. It's definitely not a system designed for speed.
The distros are available for download from the Raspberry Pi Foundation site. In the future, the Raspberry Pi Foundation plans on selling SD cards with Linux distros pre-installed.
The computer is sold on a first-come, first-serve basis. Retailer RS is currently accepting information for those interested in the second batch of computers. While intersted parties wait, they can take a look at Raspberry Pi team member Liam Fraser's video tour of the computer.
