+29 votes
by (1.7k points)
I would like to learn raspberry pi, is it hard?  
I would like to learn raspberry pi, is it hard?

17 Answers

+20 votes
by (2.3k points)
 
Best answer
No. They teach it in middle school now
by (230 points)
LOL. that is a good one.  
by (2k points)
@tabber67 they do. The school i worked at the engineering program had several.  
by (230 points)
Yup, along with early age F. I. R. S. T. competitions. (They call it something else IIRC. )
by (1.7k points)
@granger what state had the engineering program?  
by (2k points)
@volpe1 south florida. several schools have stem but mine was a private school. they had 3d printers, welders, robot kits, battle bot classes . etc. Nothing short of amazing what they kids can do at their age compared to what we had available.  
+12 votes
by (1.2k points)
How much have you used Linux?  
by (1.7k points)
@six6 I haven’t used Linux in over 20 years
by (1.2k points)
@volpe1 id start by getting back into that
+20 votes
by (480 points)
Depends on your experience and what you wanna do with it. Not too bad though with all the guides out there already! If you have any kind of Linux experience already, then it's even better
+20 votes
by (4.7k points)
Learning a programming language can be a challenge. But there are lots of how to guides and help online to make it easier. I say give it a go.  
+22 votes
by (1.2k points)
Raspberry pi is a plot. You will secretly get vaccinated.  
+12 votes
by (710 points)
I second this question. I got a 3 for Christmas some time back and never really found a project that seemed worth the learning curve. Any suggestions that aren’t on the top 50 projects lists?  
by (230 points)
@telium set up network device monitoring using NEMS?  
https://nemslinux.com
by (3.9k points)
@telium setup a proper home automation solution like Home Assistant or (easier) Domotucz to manage all your other stuff.  
by (590 points)
@telium PiHole.  
by (1.5k points)
@telium same here. I just use mine as a pc
by (4.5k points)
I used to use a pi3 for a home automation system (home-assistant. io), pi-hole (pi-hole. io), open VPN server (pivpn. io) and a dynamic DNS client (noip Duc) for remote access. The thing was perfect. Never skipped a beat. Now the pi has been repurposed and it sits in my sister's shop and works as digital signage solution for her business (pisignage. com).  
by (4.5k points)
I also used to have a raspberry pi in my car as part of a media server installation. It was running Kodi.  
+21 votes
by (8.6k points)
If you want a more gentle and rewarding start into programming, then start with Arduino. Much cheaper, much easier to interface to other electronics and just as much guidance online. The hardware is much more reliable too.  
by (1.7k points)
@variola0 I was looking at that as well didn’t know which one was better/easier to learn.  
by (8.6k points)
@volpe1 Arduino is much easier. You don’t have to worry about all the operating system stuff.  
by (720 points)
@variola0 and it will run. forever. and basically never ever crash if you get the code right.  
+20 votes
by (6.3k points)
Cool thing about the Pi is many people have created images that you copy to an SD card and it's all there. A little configuration and it's up and running. Great for things like a NAS box, Home Automation Hub or Firewall/Router. Lots more, just Google RasPi images. And if you want more experience, it's a computer with an OS and programs to play with, write your own in your favorite language or whatever.  
+17 votes
by (1.5k points)
Have a look at this guys site, full or Raspberry Pi home automation  
https://notenoughtech.com/featured/...rver/
by (1.7k points)
@gere4 thanks!  
+19 votes
by (1.5k points)
It's just a Linux box that can control a bunch of IO ports. If that sounds easy, yes, if that sounds hard, it's probably NOT that bad :)
+21 votes
by (1.4k points)
Depends what you want to do with it. Out of the box it functions just as a small low powered Linux computer and can be used as such but the flexibility comes with the input/output pins which you can connect other devices to and write programs or scripts to control using Python language
+17 votes
by (460 points)
Learn what? You can use it for so many things
+20 votes
by (840 points)
No, it is the same like learning computer
+22 votes
by (500 points)
Depends how far you want to take it. Connecting a sensor to it is approachable. If you want to stream data to the cloud real time, that's another story :)
+3 votes
by (1.6k points)
Do you know what a Rasberry Pi is? Basically a computer.  
by (1.7k points)
@painting I k ow it’s a computer I want to learn how to program, I guess I said that wrong!  
by (1.6k points)
Got ya. It can do many things depending on what image you install. I have one I am using to run a Plex server. I have another one I use to control my music synced christmas lights.  
+12 votes
by (1.2k points)
A smart mirror is a good first project. I love mine!  
by (130 points)
@six6 thanks, please send some blogs etc.  
+14 votes
by (17.1k points)
A raspberry pi is just a computer that runs Linux.  
by (880 points)
There's a version of windows for it too.  
by (17.1k points)
@painting Cloe Yes, fair enough. However, 95% of use cases are linux based.  
by (880 points)
@unclothe1851 I'd be surprised if MS had more than one percent of the market. I've always wondered how many custom os's are sitting on them, although most likely if there are, they'd probably be based on linux anyway.  
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