Today is the 10th birthday of the Raspberry Pi! (sort of… it is not a Leap Year, so today is as close as it gets).
I have been a Pi fan for many years - since before it was released, actually! It was more than ten years ago, in September 2011, when I met Eben and Liz Upton at an Open Source technology conference in Oxford. They were showing off some interesting new hardware: a credit-card sized circuit board called a “Raspberry Pi”. Eben went on to speak about the background to the project, and his passion to create an affordable computer that any child can own, learn to code, and build hardware projects.
I made a video that day, showing the pre-release board. It remains by far my most-watched YouTube upload!
The Pi was a huge additional validator for Linux, and also for growing the developer base for Python. The Open Source community quickly embraced the boards.
My main experience has been using the Pi in a variety of “Internet of Things” projects (my background is in the MQTT community). I’ve got a number of Pis around my house, for functions including acting as a bridge between smart home devices and Apple HomeKit using HomeBridge; for self-education (see more about my Pi Cluster, below); as MQTT brokers and clients. My “bits box” is filled with Pi accessories and HATs (expansion boards) that I enjoy tinkering with and using for prototyping, much as I’ve been pivoting to MicroPython and ESP32 more recently.
Not only that, I’m a fan of all things Raspberry Pi, and wrote about the arrival of the Pico last year, as well - that definitely spurred my interest in MicroPython even further.
So, Happy Birthday, Raspberry Pi! 🎂 and Thank You for helping to make software and hardware, coding and electronics, accessible to a much broader audience.
I’m a volunteer moderator for the #raspberrypi topic here on DEV, and I’ve taken the opportunity of this anniversary to spruce up the topic page. Feel free to use the topic tag when you’re sharing your learning experiences on Pi!
What have you used the Pi for? I’d love to learn more, in the comments! 😁
Latest comments (5)
Well, after reading this post I am glad that I saw your seminar "Where next?" and learnt something new about Augmented and Virtual Reality, The thing that got my interest was the fact that you asked your colleague to take a screenshot of IBM's "Virtual Center" because you don't use windows, a brief mention of raspberry pi pre-release board, the hoverboard prototype, and how can we leave Nike's Lego shoe. You had me at the last of your speech "and if not it's been long couple of days and we are all burned out".
I am still saving money for the board as the prices have been hiked up 25-30% in recent 6 months. At the closing note I would like to say thank you for the information, yah the comment is longer then I expected.
( Please ignore the fact if my grammar is wrong 😅, I am from India and English isn't my native language )
wow, thank you for reading and checking out my other content! Appreciate you taking the time to comment.
I've considered looking into Raspberry Pi for crytocurrency mining. There seem to be a lot of cool things you can do. I've gotten a 3 and a 4 but haven't really had time to play around with them as much as I would like.
Yeah, it's cool
my first raspberry appeared to me literally three years ago, unforgettable feelings
Thanks for sharing this Andy. I am a big fan of pi. It kind of ignites a child like curiosity in me. I love the fact that this project took off. Usually projects like this are over in a few iterations, but this has grown and so has its community.