128MB computer size of an USB stick

All details can be found here.


Pity they use Ubuntu instead of SL, but still an interesting project

ah ha....nice. I like their attitude. If you can't have a modicum of fun doing something (like this forum), I don't really want to do it

This device was finally launched on February 29, 2012. I ordered mine the same day, with a ship date of May 11, 2012. I missed out on the first build lot of 10,000, which sold out in an hour. There are two sites that this can be ordered from, and one of them has already received 200,000 requests of interest for the device. Although they immediately ramped up the next production batch, I suspect I will not see mine for a very long time; that is fine, because by then they will work out the bugs (They already installed the incorrect rj45 Ethernet jack on the circuit board (supplier error), and which they are currently correcting).

It turns out that Ubuntu does not support a device of this old of an ARM vintage, and there are no plans to remedy that. I could care less, because I mostly work with Red Hat, Scientific Linux, Centos and Fedora anyway, and a Fedora ARM version specifically designed for the Raspberry PI was just released a couple of days ago.

It is not a very powerful device, but for $35 I can think of a couple fun applications I can use it for. I plan on getting a wireless device for my desktop, and a usb wireless dongle for the Raspberry pi, and then using VNC to access its desktop (LXDE and XFCE are available due to their small footprint).

This sounds like it could be a fun toy! I am going to slap my $35 down.

QUOTE (AndrewSerk @ Mar 12 2012, 02:41 PM)

This sounds like it could be a fun toy! I am going to slap my $35 down.

Here is how to order, by the way. This is for the “B” model with the Ethernet port, etc. The $25 “A” model is not available yet. There are two ways to order the raspberry pi:


METHOD #1) Express interest in the unit through Newark / Element14 or RS Components:

RS COMPONENTS
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=raspberrypi&cm_mmc=UK-PPC-0212-_-02_Raspberry_PI-_-Raspberry_PI-_-Raspberry_Pi

OR

NEWARK / ELEMENT14
http://www.element14.com/community/groups/raspberry-pi

I chose to express interest at the Newark / Element14 site. Within a couple of days they sent me an email with the ordering information. The device is shipped directly from the Raspberry pi folks to the person placing the order, and there is a $20 surcharge if you decide to order using this method for the direct shipping charges from the UK.

METHOD #2) Order directly from Newark / Element14 (Or from RS Components).

http://www.newark.com/jsp/shoppingCart/shoppingCart.jsp?_requestid=96771

I actually placed my order from Newark using this method instead of the former method. The device will be shipped to a Newark warehouse in the US. It will take an extra month to arrive, at least according to my ship date quote, but there will be no $20 surcharge. The part # you need to order is 83T1943.

Thank you for the info pjc123,

I expressed my interest in purchasing the raspberry pi board at newark.com .

Now patiently waiting.

Thanks again,

QUOTE (AndrewSerk @ Mar 12 2012, 03:08 PM)

Thank you for the info pjc123, I expressed my interest in purchasing the raspberry pi board  at newark.com . Now patiently waiting. Thanks again,

Well, my raspberry pi finally arrived yesterday.

Today I am looking into what other parts I need to order and which ones have been tested as working properly; I know at a minimum I need an SD card, case, and a usbA male to USB micro male power cable adapter in order to get up and running; all other parts I already have in my stockpile (keyboard, mouse, HDMI cable and power supply) . Other things I may get include a wifi adapter, usb hub and some electronic components to hook up to the GPIO ports (resistors, capacitors, leds, switch, breadboard, jumper cables) so I can write some python programs to control the output.

Unfortunately the Fedora 14 ARM software is not very stable, so I will be using Debian first, which is more stable at the moment. They are working on Fedora 17 ARM software currently and claim that it will be a more robust version, which I prefer because I spend most of my time with Red Hat, Scientific Linux, CentOS, Fedora, etc.

I'd recommend a SLC based SD card for durability, a normal MLC based SD card will probably die in a few months if used heavily as OS disk (even more so if used for swapping).

Integral and Transcend make SLC based SD cards, I have also seen an Agfa branded one that is SLC.

Some examples (there are others):
http://www.integralmemory.com/product/endurance-sdhc-class-10-memory-card
http://www.memoryx.net/xsd10241.html
http://www.amazon.de/AgfaPhoto-Professional-Secure-Digital-Speicherkarte/dp/B004994B4O

Mine comes next month. I finally made it to the list
Just a thought:
If you plan heavy use you can just put the Root Partition on the SD (for booting) and put the Rest to an USB Harddrive (swap, home).

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=5695#p76810

My parts arrived last night and I hooked everything up.....works great. I knew it would be slow considering the hardware, but there are some enhancements in progress including kernel updates that quadruple the SD card speed, they are working on getting Xorg to work with the video chip, and the beta release of the latest version of Debian (wheezy) was just released. When Fedora 17 remix is finally completed I will give that a whirl next as I would prefer a Red Hat variant.