Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 11
Other Operating Systems
I am a huge fan of trying just about any operating system I can get my hands on. At this point in time I could use
anything from Plan 9 to OpenVMS as a workstation (although I don't think I would want to). I very much like my
Gentoo Linux desktop but the thing I would like you to think about is why you like your desktop operating system.
You're going to have a very hard time to justify your reasons unless you have tried another OS. I don't just mean install
it and then decide it's all too hard and different and give up. You need to give yourself a few days or weeks to use it and
work with it. Only then will you see each operating system's strong points and weak points. Far too many people just
stick with Windows or OSX. There is nothing wrong with any of the mentioned operating systems but they just don't
fit my needs. I know they don't fit my needs because I have used them for a decent amount of time. If you take a look
back, many years ago you would have found a vast range of operating systems to use, each with their strong points and
each with their loyal supporters. Unfortunately just as much as available architectures have shrunk so have available
operating systems. I find it a little sad that our choices are so limited nowadays.
Now given that the Raspberry Pi may be your first non-x86 architecture machine, it's a good choice to also try
out a different operating system as well. After all you don't want to just go and replace your main desktop with an
alternative operating system. The Raspberry Pi will give you the opportunity to install many different operating
systems without risk. In fact this topic covers at least two different Linux distributions. While it's still Linux they act
very differently. There is a growing list of officially supported operating systems for the Raspberry Pi and there is also
a large amount of work done by individuals to get alternative operating systems onto the Raspberry Pi.
In this chapter you're going to be introduced to four different operating systems.
•
First will be everyone's favorite, Android. How could you not put Android on an ARM device
at least once?
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Next up you will take a look at RISC OS and get an understanding of its deep history with the
ARM architecture.
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Then to really throw something odd into the mix you will learn about Bell Labs' Plan 9.
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Lastly I will give you a quick guide on how to install Gentoo Linux onto the Raspberry Pi.
Gentoo is my favorite Linux distribution so there is no way I could leave it out. After all, every
machine I have runs Gentoo.
Whatever operating system you end up leaving on your Raspberry Pi, you can feel content with the fact you have
explored other options and not just blindly accepted what everyone else is doing. The operating systems discussed
in this chapter may not be suited for you but please do give them a go and see what's different and what you find
interesting about them. When you do go back to your preferred operating system, I can guarantee you will appreciate
it more.
