Raspberry Pi
Microsoft is bringing its Windows operating system to the Raspberry Pi, the tiny and wonderfully inexpensive computer that helps you build your own digital gadgets.
Up until now, the Raspberry Pi has only Linux and other open source operating systems. But Microsoft is set to change that. The software giant revealed the news following the release of a new version of the Raspberry Pi, which will pack four times the processing power of its predecessor, plus include a full gigabyte of RAM, and more USB port, while still selling for just $35.
In recent years, Microsoft has worked to make good with the open source community by helping to port popular open source tools to Windows and even by open sourcing some of its own software. And now it’s also trying to woo the community through hardware-building hobbyists.
Since its release in 2012, the original Raspberry Pi has been used to build everything from aerial drones to beer fermentation systems to supercomputers. Microsoft wants in on this mini-revolution. And this could lead to bigger things.
After all, alongside the Raspberry Pi, a whole host of consumer internet connected products, such as the Nest thermostat that Google acquired last year, have hit the market, pushing the world even closer to the so-called “Internet of Things.” Microsoft recognizes that the grassroots efforts of hobbyists are where the products of the future will come from, and it desperately wants those devices to run Windows.
Last April, the company announced Windows for Internet of Things, a free version of the operating system for devices with screens smaller than nine inches wide. In August the company began shipping a basic version Intel’s Galileo boards, a competitor to the Raspberry Pi.
It’s important to note, however, that although this version of Windows will be free to use, it still isn’t open source because the source code won’t be available to the public. The exact licensing terms for Windows for IoT have yet to be released, but ZDnet reports there will likely be several versions of the operating system.
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