IoT & Hardware
Reader small image

You're reading from  Learning Raspbian

Product typeBook
Published inFeb 2015
Reading LevelBeginner
Publisher
ISBN-139781784392192
Edition1st Edition
Languages
Python
Tools
Raspbian
Concepts
Single Board Computers
Right arrow
Author (1)
William Harrington
William Harrington
author image
William Harrington

William Harrington lives and works at his family's cattle station, Olga Downs, in northwest Queensland, Australia. He attended university at James Cook University, Townsville. At the age of 20, he established his own company, Harrington Systems Electronics, which sells the NLIS RFID tag reader The Pipe Reader that he designed and manufactures. He also received the AgForce President's Innovation Award in 2005. In 2006, he graduated with honors as a computer systems engineer and received the Queensland Primary Industries Young Achiever Award. Since then, he has gone on to design the uSee remote monitoring system, a revolutionary and low-cost remote monitoring solution. Having a home-based company has become part of a unique diversification strategy for the family and has provided them the opportunity to stay on the land. Due to a never-ending passion for technology, William speaks regularly on many topics, so he will bring a futuristic version of the technology that is possible in the next decade. Since 2011, he has also been a director and programmer for Farm Apps Pty Ltd, developing smartphone and tablet apps that increase farming efficiency. He enjoys travelling and brewing beer at home. William works alongside his wife Hollie, having recently welcomed their young son, Jack, into the world.
Read more about William Harrington

Right arrow

Raspbian

No matter how good the hardware of the Raspberry Pi is, without an operating system it is just a piece of silicon, fiberglass, and a few other materials. There are several different operating systems for the Raspberry Pi, including RISC OS, Pidora, Arch Linux, and Raspbian.

Currently, Raspbian is the most popular Linux-based operating system for the Raspberry Pi. Raspbian is an open source operating system based on Debian, which has been modified specifically for the Raspberry Pi (thus the name Raspbian). Raspbian includes customizations that are designed to make the Raspberry Pi easier to use and includes many different software packages out of the box.

Raspbian is designed to be easy to use and is the recommended operating system for beginners to start off with their Raspberry Pi.

Debian

The Debian operating system was created in August 1993 by Ian Murdock and is one of the original distributions of Linux.

As Raspbian is based on the Debian operating system, it shares almost all the features of Debian, including its large repository of software packages. There are over 35,000 free software packages available for your Raspberry Pi, and they are available for use right now!

An excellent resource for more information on Debian, and therefore Raspbian, is the Debian administrator's handbook. The handbook is available at http://debian-handbook.info.

Open source software

The majority of the software that makes up Raspbian on the Raspberry Pi is open source. Open source software is a software whose source code is available for modification or enhancement by anyone.

The Linux kernel and most of the other software that makes up Raspbian is licensed under the GPLv2 License. This means that the software is made available to you at no cost, and that the source code that makes up the software is available for you to do what you want to. The GPLV2 license also removes any claim or warranty. The following extract from the GPLV2 license preamble gives you a good idea of the spirit of free software:

"The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users….

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things."

Previous Page
Chapter 7 of 15, Page 5
Next Page
You have been reading a chapter from
Learning Raspbian
Published in: Feb 2015Publisher: ISBN-13: 9781784392192
© 2015 Packt Publishing Limited All Rights Reserved
Register for a free Packt account to unlock a world of extra content!
A free Packt account unlocks extra newsletters, articles, discounted offers, and much more. Start advancing your knowledge today.
Sign up now
undefined
Unlock this book and the full library FREE for 7 days
Get unlimited access to 7000+ expert-authored eBooks and videos courses covering every tech area you can think of
Start free trial
Renews at $15.99/month. Cancel anytime

Author (1)

author image
William Harrington

William Harrington lives and works at his family's cattle station, Olga Downs, in northwest Queensland, Australia. He attended university at James Cook University, Townsville. At the age of 20, he established his own company, Harrington Systems Electronics, which sells the NLIS RFID tag reader The Pipe Reader that he designed and manufactures. He also received the AgForce President's Innovation Award in 2005. In 2006, he graduated with honors as a computer systems engineer and received the Queensland Primary Industries Young Achiever Award. Since then, he has gone on to design the uSee remote monitoring system, a revolutionary and low-cost remote monitoring solution. Having a home-based company has become part of a unique diversification strategy for the family and has provided them the opportunity to stay on the land. Due to a never-ending passion for technology, William speaks regularly on many topics, so he will bring a futuristic version of the technology that is possible in the next decade. Since 2011, he has also been a director and programmer for Farm Apps Pty Ltd, developing smartphone and tablet apps that increase farming efficiency. He enjoys travelling and brewing beer at home. William works alongside his wife Hollie, having recently welcomed their young son, Jack, into the world.
Read more about William Harrington

Personalised recommendations for you

Based on your interests and search pattern

Architectural Patterns and Techniques for Developing IoT Solutions

Architectural Patterns and Techniques for Developing IoT Solutions

This book covers all the patterns and considerations that give you both the power and flexibility to build scalable, secure, and performant IoT solutions by combining various patterns in interesting ways. It also lists the benefits of combining IoT with technologies like blockchain, 3D-printing, 5G, Generative AI, quantum computing, and LLMs.

BookSep 2023304 pages
Arduino Data Communications

Arduino Data Communications

Arduino Data Communication focuses on IoT’s Internet aspect, guiding you in setting up your own infrastructure for storing and managing the data collected from sensors. This book goes beyond microcontroller basics, equipping you with the knowledge essential for building real-world projects.

BookNov 2023286 pages5
Arduino IoT Cloud for Developers

Arduino IoT Cloud for Developers

From fundamental principles to advanced techniques, this comprehensive book equips you with the knowledge and skills needed to design and deploy IoT applications seamlessly. Explore cloud integration, best practices, and real-world projects to harness the full potential of IoT application development with the Arduino IoT Cloud.

BookNov 2023402 pages
The Azure IoT Handbook

The Azure IoT Handbook

Building IoT Systems with Azure IoT is a comprehensive introduction for those who are new to the Internet of Things and looking to get up to speed in no time. This book will teach you how to create and develop IoT solutions with intelligent edge-to-cloud technologies in the Azure cloud.

BookDec 2023248 pages