Welcome!

I've collected a few of the energy efficient, minimalist Raspberry Pi B+ computer boards to learn Linux, computer systems management, coding and for a few household projects. In this blog I'll be talking about these endeavors. Hopefully, you will find some useful information here.

Raspberry Pi model B+ with Pi-Bow wooden case.

The Raspberry Pi is a computer board that uses a very energy efficient and surprisingly powerful processor, similar to what you'd find in a smartphone or tablet. It's "hard drive" is a Micro-SD card, which can be easily swapped out. It has ports for power in (5V), HDMI, 1/4 audio out, 4X USB and Ethernet; internally, it also has I/O ports and a dedicated camera port; unfortunately, it does not have on-board WiFi or Bluetooth, though USB dongles are available. The Raspberry Pi runs on a wide range of Open Source operating systems, many of which are based on Linux. The Raspberry Pi itself is the board only, and you also may need to get at least a 5V power supply (a smartphone power supply might work, check the specs), Micro-SD card (8GB seems to be a good size), case, Ethernet cable, HDMI cable, monitor (TV), keyboard and mouse; most of this stuff can be found lyin around, and a case can be made of cardboard for the true DIY freak. Using a powered USB hub, you can attach an external HDD if you need a large amount of storage (though you always need to have the operating system on the Micro-SD card).

There are 2 basic ways that you can set up your Raspberry Pi: headed or headless. A headed setup has a keyboard, mouse and monitor attached. This allows you to run a graphical desktop and have a direct interface with the computer. On a headless setup, you run the Raspberry Pi without attaching a keyboard, mouse and monitor, instead relying on a remote connection. This type of setup is great for servers of many types.