Hey, I just got a Raspberry Pi Model B for christmas as a surprise gift, I've heard a bit about it and have a working os...

But I'm wondering if there's anything cool that you've seen/heard about/done with a Raspberry Pi that you think is generally quite helpful/fun to have along with any add-on boards which you think make it better.

So far we've tried

-Temperature sensor to online graph (at http://www.t4sustainability.co.uk)
-Ridiculously Expensive 2 port USB charger hub

Plans
-Cheap Apple TV alternative with BBC iPlayer/YouTube
-Various OS attempts (Android, Windows XP, Ubuntu)
-Movie Server (with externally powered hard drive caddy via USB)
-In Car entertainment?

So, any ideas/thoughts and input on current plans would be appreciated.

-Matt

You can't do the various OS' because the Pi is an ARMv6 processor. No windows, or Ubuntu will run. Raspbian is Debian for Pi which is the closest to Ubuntu you'll get.

You also can't do iPlayer because it doesn't do flash.

It does good for media center with XBMC though. Use OpenELEC for that.

Hmm, okay.

Can I ask about Putty/Windows Remote Desktop?

What do you mean? Connecting to the Pi from Windows or Vice-versa?

Instead of using a HDMI output and moving the TV out of the Kitchen/Pi into kitchen...I've seen people run windows remote desktop on a raspberry pi...however I've been getting an error message whenever I try to despite the exact same method working on the other, identical, RPi B-even if we use the same SD cards...

Run xbmc on it, and if you've got dvb-c/s/t use vdr as tvserver for example. And voila you've got yourself a low footprint mediacenter with pvr ability, that could serve the whole household with tv/media.

Interesting...

Quote from MattsterGT :

Instead of using a HDMI output and moving the TV out of the Kitchen/Pi into kitchen...I've seen people run windows remote desktop on a raspberry pi...however I've been getting an error message whenever I try to despite the exact same method working on the other, identical, RPi B-even if we use the same SD cards...

I wouldn't use RDP. VNC is probably the better option. The other option is (if you use unix or want to install a X server in Windows) is X11 Forwarding.. in which case you can run a specific application, and it'll send the output to your computer (per application) instead of to the Pi's screen.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

You can't do the various OS' because the Pi is an ARMv6 processor. No windows, or Ubuntu will run. Raspbian is Debian for Pi which is the closest to Ubuntu you'll get.

You also can't do iPlayer because it doesn't do flash.

It does good for media center with XBMC though. Use OpenELEC for that.

OpenELEC seems to have scratched APT for some reason, so if trying different applications is something you'd like to do XBian is probably a better choice since you can install stuff with a package manager thater than compiling yourself (which takes a loooong time on the RPi).

I use my RPi for XBMC only.I did try some Desktop tasks in Raspian but the device is just a tad too underpowered to make it worth while.

Edit: Not sure where you guys are going with the RDP/VNC discussion. Neither is fast enough for video even on LAN (use smb/nfs for that!), and since basically any x86-x64 machine is more powerful I dont understand why you'd want the RPi to run the process in the first place.

Fel: OpenELEC isn't supposed to be used like a normal Distro.. it's supposed to be simply for XBMC only. It's slimmed down without Apt for a reason

We were discussing VNC and such for actually using the desktop (instead of using a KB+Mouse).. but I will agree that the Pi is too slow for desktop tasks.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

No windows, or Ubuntu will run.

Windows CE 5, 6, or 7 should run.

I might be wrong here, but I think I read that Microsoft agreed to develop a version of Windows 8 that would run on RPi. There was an article on raspberry pi site long time ago and I can't give my head on this.

Never heard of anything like that. MS has already made a version of W8 that runs on ARM processors (called Windows RT) but it's only meant for their own useless surface RT tablets.

You could probably do a nice multimedia server with DLNA support and wireless capabilities if you have a compatible TV set. Or maybe a network router/server with shared storage, it might be particularly useful if you download a lot of torrents and stuff.

Quote from hazaky :

I might be wrong here, but I think I read that Microsoft agreed to develop a version of Windows 8 that would run on RPi. There was an article on raspberry pi site long time ago and I can't give my head on this.

WinRT is for ARMv7 only and it's much too bloated to run on RPi's hardware. Besides a gazillion of other issues the price of the OS would exceed the price of an RPi.

Quote from wheel4hummer :

Windows CE 5, 6, or 7 should run.

Probably not. The Pi uses a weird boot process. The GPU actually launches the boot process from the SD card.. It's weird.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

Probably not. The Pi uses a weird boot process. The GPU actually launches the boot process from the SD card.. It's weird.

Why would this affect loading windows CE if it does not affect loading linux? Either way the GPU is loading the kernel into RAM, regardless of what OS that kernel may be for, right?

Quote from wheel4hummer :

Why would this affect loading windows CE if it does not affect loading linux? Either way the GPU is loading the kernel into RAM, regardless of what OS that kernel may be for, right?

The biggest thing would be the fact that CE is closed source. I'm sure if it wasn't, the boot process could be modified.. But AFAIK, the Pi uses a really bizarre boot process very unlike most ARM based computers.

That said, I don't know much about CE other than its Microsoft so probably has a set boot process that's more similar to a normal computer.

Also: for Linux to boot it has a custom kernel for the Broadcom chip that the Pi uses, presumably to aid in the weird boot process. Fortunately, Broadcom has been opening more and more of the Pi's internal stuff and making the code viewable and available.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

The biggest thing would be the fact that CE is closed source. I'm sure if it wasn't, the boot process could be modified..

Windows CE is not closed source, it is shared source. Anyhow, one does not simply install CE, but you actually have to build the OS, not terribly unlike building a linux kernel. You have to either write your own board support package (BSP), or use a pre-existing BSP which includes, among other things, the bootloader. So I really do not see why you are fixating on 'the boot process' to such an extent.

Because the Pi does use an awkward way of booting. Do you know of any other computer or SoC that uses the GPU that way?

Regardless, CE would be a waste of time. You can't do hardly anything with it.