Purchase a Raspberry Pi at
The full cost: Yes the raspberry pi costs about $35, but you really need to add an SD card, a power cable, and a case. You also must have (or purchase) a keyboard, mouse and monitor (preferably HDMI).
Download the SD Card Formatter.
Format the card.
Download NOOBS (new out of box software)- a handy installer for several operating system for the Raspberry Pi.
- Raspbian
- OpenELEC
- Arch
- RaspBMC
- RISC OS
- Pidora
Unzip then copy the contents of NOOBS to the SD Card.
NOOBS allows you to choose one OS to install on your SD card. You can later install a different one on the same card, but it overwrites the first.
Networking:
Networking:
- You can use an ethernet cable for a wired connection
- You can set up Wi-Fi with a USB wireless adapter. We've had good luck with the Wi-Pi.
- You can connect your Pi to your mac with an ethernet cable and share your Mac's internet connection. Give the Pi a fixed IP address and use Terminal on the Mac to ssh into the Pi. This eliminates the need for an external monitor, keyboard and mouse.
