| Raspbian Gets A Setup Wizard |
| Written by Harry Fairhead |
| Monday, 16 July 2018 |
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Raspbian, the main OS for the Raspberry Pi range, has just got easier to use, and this is important even if you have no interest in the Pi. I have had a theory for a while that if the Linux desktop ever manages to get a reasonable market share it will be due to the efforts of Rasbpian. This is just a Debian-based distribution, but it is important and different because a major target audience for it is children. When you think of Linux distros you probably think Ubuntu, Redhat and so on. These often claim to be designed to be easy to use but the sort of person they are thinking of as users don't really need things to be very easy to use - just a little bit. The Raspberry Pi foundation, on the other hand, really means it when it says it is trying to make Linux easy to use. The reason is that its single board computers have education as their prime target and education is largely about entry level humans.
Thus Raspbian really does have to be easier to use. This said, to be honest and frank, it still has a very long way to go. The latest improvement is the addition of a first-boot setup wizard. One of the problems with Linux is that after you install it there is generally still a lot to do. The new first-boot wizard walks the user through country, language, time zones, password and WiFi connection.
Of course, to make use of it you have to have a display, keyboard and mouse connected and headless initial configuration is still something that Raspbian lacks. Also new is a graphical application that displays and installs "recommended" software. The main advantage of this is to keep the size of the image down. However, it has a spinoff of advertising the availability of some very nice software to the innocent user. All of the improvements are available in the new download images. Almost as an aside, the announcment mentions that they are also available in the x86 image as well. This is the way that Raspbian could invade the desktop. If a pupil has been using Raspbian on the Pi then they might well feel that the same OS on their desktop, assuming that that isn't a Pi, would be a nice idea. The x86 image will run on a PC or a Mac and it could bring about big changes in the way we use computers as the current generation learning via the Pi grows up. What about a phone/tablet OS based on Raspbian?
More InformationRelated ArticlesA New Version Of Raspbian Almost Solves WiFi Problem The Remarkable Rise of Raspberry Pi Pi Zero Wireless A $10 Birthday Present Raspberry Pi 3 Confirmed - 64-bit For $35
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 16 July 2018 ) |
