What is Raspberry Pi

Overview

A Raspberry Pi is a credit card-sized computer originally designed for education, inspired by the 1981 BBC Micro. Creator Eben Upton’s goal was to create a low-cost device that would improve programming skills and hardware understanding at the pre-university level. But thanks to its small size and accessible price, it was quickly adopted by tinkerers, makers, and electronics enthusiasts for projects that require more than a basic microcontroller (such as Arduino devices).

Operating System

The Raspberry Pi is slower than a modern laptop or desktop but is still a complete Linux computer and can provide all the expected abilities that implies, at a low-power consumption level.

The Raspberry Pi was designed for the Linux operating system, and many Linux distributions now have a version optimized for the Raspberry Pi.

Two of the most popular options are Raspbian, which is based on the Debian operating system, and Pidora, which is based on the Fedora operating system. For beginners, either of these two work well; which one you choose to use is a matter of personal preference. A good practice might be to go with the one which most closely resembles an operating system you’re familiar with, in either a desktop or server environment.

Installation of Raspbian OS

You can refer to this official installation guide for installing any OS on Raspberry Pi.