Raspberry Pi 2 review and experience

I just had to have a piece of that Pi....

Lame jokes aside,
I have been procrastinating over the idea of buying a Raspberry Pi for some time. It is a cool credit card sized (not quite) computer that can be put to use on an almost endless list of projects.

I hoped that it would enable me to learn some basic programming and computing as modern computer's/operating systems hide the complications behind pretty menus and icons.

The only thoughts stopping me were that my old DELL laptop from my school years, was most likely more powerful, so why spend more money to buy something less capable.

That seems to be the key word; power. The Raspberry Pi 2 is less powerful than my laptop and most computers, but it consumes less power. So much so that I can run it off of my battery pack I use to top up my phone. The Pi's low price point and power consumption make it the ideal brains for portable and set-and-forget type applications.

I have tried emulation on the Pi and whilst it is cool, later games from the N64 and Playstation 1 don't always run smoothly. Minor problems aside however the Pi 2 excels at other retro consoles allowing me to plaster them on the lounge room TV for some rather good entertainment.

You can use the Pi like a regular computer with a graphical Desktop. The main flavour of Linux you may find yourself installing is Raspbian, either via NOOBS or flashing it straight to an SD card.

In a short and sweet ending that is about as far as I got with tinkering with the little device,
It presented as massive amount of opportunities for the DIY enthusiast but until I have a legitimate use for the little computer It has been set aside for the time being. The main struggle I found with it was I began making up uses for it, stuff that could be done easier and more conveniently by other devices I have.

The main objective of the Pi is for learning, and with such a large community backing and a wealth of tutorials the raspberry pi 2 is well worth its small price tag. However keep in mind you will need a power supply, keyboard + mouse, micro sd card and optionally a case and wifi dongle all of which bring the overall cost up.