Product: 111846446X

This book has a message beyond introducing you to the Pi. Eben Upton, co-creator of the Raspberry Pi, and one of the author’s of the book, takes you through the history of development and the ideological motivation for developing the Pi.

Succinctly to paraphrase his argument in the foreword: Kids don’t actually know much about technology because they cannot program; GUI is as far as they get and that isn’t getting very far.

From this welcome admission and shattering of tired generational assumptions that the young are somehow organically technically talented Upton posits and moves to remedy what he sees as a crisis. Thus the story of the Pi’s beginning is discursive and motivated by an educator putting to practice his talents: education and empowerment through that instruction!

Upton and his co-author Gareth Halfacree guide the read through topics that range from the Pi’s basic ARM architecture and its implications for the OS it can run, setting up a Linux system on the Pi, getting it past the command line and ultimately making the Pi and the flavor of Linux running on it a productive programming environment.

What is refreshing is unlike many books on the Pi they don’t dwell on the size of the board. They don’t waste space in conversational and loose writing. Rather, they give you information and educate. This is precisely what a technical book ought to be and ought to facilitate: understanding!

But that is not all! The two also augment this trove of information with a Python primer, a media center crash course, and even discuss the expansion boards available for the Pi –included the very powerful Gertboard.

I like this book so much I bought a bound copy merely to support a good piece of technical writing!

Congratulations on this book and I hope anyone who reads this review finds the book as instructive and valuable!
Rating: 5
111846446X
Count: 17