Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
THIS CHAPTER IS a beginner's guide to your irst steps with the Raspberry Pi. It goes from
getting it out of the box to getting something on the screen. Even if you already have your
Raspberry Pi up and running, it's worth a quick skim as you'll discover how a 21-year-old
student changed the world and a bit about how the operating system for your Raspberry Pi
works. After this chapter, you'll get into the real fun of creating projects!
The Operating System
he Raspberry Pi primarily uses Linux for its operating system (OS) rather than Microsoft
Windows or OS X (for Apple). An operating system is a program that makes it easier for the
end user to use the underlying hardware. For example, although the processor (the chip at
the centre of the Raspberry Pi that does the work) can do only one thing at a time, the oper-
ating system gives the impression the computer is doing lots of things by rapidly switching
between diferent tasks. Furthermore, the operating system controls the hardware and hides
the complexity that allows the Raspberry Pi to talk to networks or SD cards.
Linux
Part of the success of the Raspberry Pi is thanks to the enthusiastic community that is behind it.
Linux is a testament to what can be achieved with the support of volunteers around the world.
In 1991, Linus Torvalds began work on an operating system as a hobby while he was a 21-year-
old student at the University of Helsinki. A year later, his hobby operating system for desktop
PCs (80386) was available online under the name Linux. Crucially, the code for the operating
system was available as well. This allowed volunteers around the world to contribute; to check
and correct bugs; to submit additional features; and to adapt and reuse other's work for their
own projects. If you master the projects in this topic and learn more about computing, then who
knows - one of your hobby projects could be as successful as Linus Torvalds's is.
The popularity of Linux grew, and in addition to its use as a desktop operating system, it is
now used for the majority of web servers, in Android devices and in the majority of the
world's supercomputers. Most importantly for us, it is used on the Raspberry Pi.
Linux Distributions
Because Linux code is publically available, different organisations have made slight changes to
it and distributed it. This has led to different distributions (versions), including Red Hat, Fedora,
Debian, Arch, Ubuntu and openSUSE. Some companies sell their distributions and provide paid-
for support, whereas others are completely free. Raspbian is based on the Debian distribution
with some customisations for the Raspberry Pi and is what is used in this topic.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search