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Today is the 10-year birthday of the Raspberry Pi (RasPi), the single-board computer that needs no introduction in geminispace. As I type these words into vim, launched from a terminal emulator, on my Arch Linux (btw) OS running i3WM, all lightweight but souped-up with customisation and years of refinement of my personal dotfiles and configuration, I'm reminded that my own journey to this place - this 'free software' ecology I'm inhabiting that differs vastly from the Microsoft Windows or Mac OSX I had grown up with - was a journey that largely began in 2013, not long after the Raspberry Pi was launched; and the RasPi was a big factor in getting me here.
I was an MA student at an art college, after having been an arts/humanities BA undergrad student a few years prior to that (and following a few subsequent years working my first post-college job and some time spent backpacking around the world as well). I was studying an arts/technology course, as I had an obsession with all things 'media' and communications theory at the time (this broadly encompassing everything from natural language, linguistics and grammar, philosophy of language, and an extension here into other aspects of arts/media practice - détournement, painting, audio-visual, etc.) At my college, in the departments where I was taking courses and hopefully beyond this as well, the flavour of OS used by staff was Linux - most often Ubuntu or other popular forms of the Linux OS. This was largely so because of the politics of free software that were aligned to by teachers at the college, as well as the complimentary nature of the *nix system with the technical skillset that formed many parts of their studies and discipline; computing, software studies, etc. This was largely my first exposure to free software and the command line, and the RasPi was the first linux-based device that I found in my possession. We had been running some RasPi's in class for some collaborative local-access projects between a group of us, and I decided to purchase one for some experiments at home. These were really my first steps into a different relationship with software towards a creative hands-on approach through free software, server configuration (and onwards into some sysadmin, programming, git, gopher, gemini.. etc). For me, it really all began with the Pi.
Watch the video I link to below[1]. Watch the whole thing. It's easy and accessible and mainstream and basic and simple and beautiful - and it really paints a picture of the different ways in which we can encounter computer technology: as a creator/maker/tinkerer/participant, or as a consumer. I grew up in the 90s with a desktop PC and some video game hardware (a Nintendo Gameboy and a SNES), I had been a PC gamer as a teenager and I'd heard of linux but hadn't dived in, and it wasn't until this MA, started 5-years after my undergrad degree was finished, that I had this exposure to technical/non-consumer computing. In the video that RasPi released today, on their 10-year anniversary, it's clear to me what an awesome impact this has had on people like me (and, more importantly, people who are experiencing this type of computing as kids!). There's such a clear contrast in the video here of technologies for consumers or technologies for makers/creators. This distinction is something I think we should remember at the heart of spaces like geminispace and in communities most accustomed with free software or open source.
History of Raspberry Pi (YouTube, 28 Feb 2022)
Tags: #raspberrypi #raspi #linux #freesoftware #softwarestudies