Raspberry Pi is here

Long time no post. I’ve been busy!

I received my long-awaited Raspberry Pi (Pi) Model B. As I mentioned previously, this is a steal for such a compact and capable little computer. I just got around to powering it up, loading Debian Linux onto an SD card, and trying to boot, which promptly resulted in a kernel panic. The curse of the early adopter. Fortunately, there’s a support group for us.

Initial observations:

• The Pi has some nice, modern interfaces, including HDMI, USB, Ethernet.
• There is a general purpose I/O header for hacking.
• Backward compatibility is nonexistent, for concerns of both cost and space. No VGA or RS-232 here. I approve.
• They really  squeezed the part count to save money. In addition to dropping the legacy interfaces, they dropped things like a real-time clock and a power switch. Again, this is understandable when you have a $25 budget, but my Pi will have a power switch.
• One notable omission is WiFi. WiFi support would have to be added via a USB dongle or other means. My concern here is sourcing adequate current through the  Pi. My guess is that one would need to use a powered USB hub with a separate power supply. I expect to see a WiFi add-on card for the Pi shortly to address this need.
• No mounting holes. There is about 1mm of PCB along the long edges to rest or grip onto to mount it in a case, which I would recommend.
• The connector layout is a little odd. The USB jack and SD card slot (with card mounted) stick out. I’d like to see the USB jack flush with the Ethernet jack. The SD card slot is pointed the right way for easy access, but the wrong way for semi-permanent mounting (like with an OS boot partition). Also, a second SD card slot would be nice.