The Raspberry Pi is a single board credit card sized computer (SBC) that was released in 2012. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a non profit organisation based in Cambridge, England, they are also made in the UK. The intention was to encourage youngsters to get into programming. As over the years the family computers have become so technical many are now reluctant to fiddle in case they lose data.
Enter the Pi - low cost, launched at around $30 (and £30) - runs on a free Linux OS which can easily be installed on a bootable microSD card. Program to your heart's content, mess up, cut the power, start again. No family photos or videos lost, no important documents lost, there to be experimented with.
When it was launched it was aimed at younger people and education, what they did not foresee was the enthusiast (aka - geeky) market.
Over the years improvements have been made yet prices have remained virtually the same, we are now up to Pi 5. They have fixed memory, initially 252MB, quickly increased to 512MB now, choices of 2GB, 4GB and 8GB memory. Obviously the 4 and 8GB prices are more but the 2GB is still around $30. The early ones could only boot from microSD card, now they can boot from USB plus there is an incredible accessory market too. There are clones but the Raspberry Pi, because it was aimed at the educational market have the best support.
Even the original was able to run a desktop, basic web browsing (no Youtube videos), word processing, printer support, the later ones can easily run a very efficient desktop that includes video editing.
At the moment the Pi 3, 4 qnd 5 are all still offered, oddly all around same cost but each have their uses, the Pi 3 will run a perfectly adequate desktop and there are no cooling issues (unless overclocked), the Pi 4 needs a cooler but this will not run continuously and maybe, if run headless for projects or light desktop use may not need cooling. The Pi 5 however needs cooling. So all three available and suitable for different needs.
My original Pi 1 with 252 MB RAM runs Apache web server, files server, a scanner server, ssh. It also runs a desktop and VNC server though neither of these run at boot time and are just for rare occasions when I needed a desktop to set up a server.
From the Pi 3 onwards they have wifi and bluetooth, 4 USB ports and ethernet. Latest have USB3 and GB ethernet.
There is also a baby Pi, the Pi Zero W - intitially launched a few years back at $5 and given away free with a magazine this is a fully functioning Raspberry Pi but with WiFi, Bluethooth, micro USB, micro HDMI and no ethernet ports. They have recently launched a new version of this which is quad core and performance similar to a full sized Pi 3.
Fascinating devices with so many possibilities.
Geffers
Interesting to hear the story behind the Raspberry Pi, why is was created and the unexpected market that helped the Raspberry Pi thrive and grow.
Thank you also for all of the detail and uses of the Raspberry Pi. It's a great product developed for a great educational reason and has so many uses too. I like also, how the company has kept the Raspberry Pi affordable which also encourages the younger people's interest while also maintaining that niche market for others.
I'm going to bring this up in the activity for more members to see your post too.