Happy 10th birthday Raspberry Pi! The tiny computer has come a long way in just ten short years. It all started when Raspberry Pi Foundation founders Eben Upton and Rob Mullins set out to create an affordable, easy-to-use computer that students could use to learn coding. And they succeeded - Raspberry Pi has become one of the most popular computers in the world, with millions of units sold.
The first devices were not intended to be the massive platform they are today, Instead, the plan was simply to make a few thousand devices to encourage children to learn to code. Raspberry Pi devices were first sold in 2012, and the response was overwhelming. Not only did students love them, but makers and hobbyists snapped them up as well. It quickly became clear that there was a much larger market for the tiny computers than originally anticipated.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation has always been focused on education, and they continue to work with schools and organizations around the world to promote coding and computer science education. In addition to their educational initiatives, they have also developed several tools and resources that have made it easier for makers of all levels to create amazing projects.
Over the years, Raspberry Pi has undergone several iterations, each one more powerful than the last. The original Model B was followed by the Model B+, the Raspberry Pi Zero, the Raspberry Pi A+ and A series, the Raspberry Pi Compute Module, and the Raspberry Pi Model B+. Beyond that, there have been a whole lot more.
The Raspberry Pi 4 is just one example of how much Raspberry Pi has changed over the years. The original Model B had just 256MB of RAM and a 700MHz single-core processor. The latest Raspberry Pi 4 has a quad-core processor clocked at up to 1.5 GHz, as well as 8 GB of RAM. It also features improved networking with dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) on board.
In addition to hardware changes, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has also made several changes to the operating system over the years. The original Raspberry Pi devices ran on a modified version of Debian Linux, but the Raspberry Pi Foundation later developed their own operating system, Raspbian. Raspbian is based on Debian and is optimized for the Raspberry Pi hardware. Since then, the platform has transferred to Raspberry Pi OS, another Linux-based operating system.
As amazing as all of the changes to Raspberry Pi have been, perhaps the most impressive thing about the tiny computer is the community that has grown up around it. There are now millions of Raspberry Pi devices in use all over the world, and there are countless projects and applications for them.
From small projects like retro gaming consoles and media centers to large-scale deployments like industrial control systems and weather stations, Raspberry Pi is being used for everything. The possibilities are truly endless, and the Raspberry Pi community continues to come up with new and innovative ways to use the tiny computers.
As Raspberry Pi celebrates its tenth birthday, it's clear that the best is yet to come. Thank you for being a part of this incredible journey, and we can't wait to see what the next ten years have in store for Raspberry Pi.
Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.
Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.
