{"id":2732,"date":"2025-11-27T19:45:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T19:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/randomnerdtutorials.com\/?p=2732"},"modified":"2025-11-28T13:25:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T13:25:14","slug":"getting-started-with-raspberry-pi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/randomnerdtutorials.com\/getting-started-with-raspberry-pi\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Started with Raspberry Pi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article is an introduction to the Raspberry Pi. Learn what a Raspberry Pi is and what you can use it for. Explore its features, set it up, and install the operating system.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Updated 27 November, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check all our Raspberry Pi tutorials and Projects here!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introducing the Raspberry Pi<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Raspberry Pi is a small computer board about the size of a credit card. It was developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation to promote basic computer science teaching in schools. Since its first general sale in 2012, more than 46 million Raspberry Pi boards have been sold by February 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The Raspberry Pi has become tremendously popular among kids and electronics hobbyists, experienced makers, tinkerers, and even computer scientists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Raspberry Pi<\/a> is hackable and small. So, it\u2019s the perfect solution for tinkerers! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: <\/strong> The Raspberry Pi board used to cost around 35$. However, increasing demand, constraints in the supply chain, and a shortage of chips caused the Raspberry Pi price to skyrocket to more than 150$. Additionally, in many cases, you may need to wait a lot to get one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raspberry Pi (Desktop Computer vs Headless)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In some way, you can look at the Raspberry Pi like a normal computer, it has a processor, RAM, USB ports to plug a keyboard and a mouse, an HDMI port to plug a TV or monitor, and you can even connect it to the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can do most things you do with a regular computer like web browsing, document editing, playing games, coding, and much more. The figure below shows the Raspberry Pi 3 set up as a desktop computer.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Raspberry Pi Headless<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

However, you don’t even need those accessories (mouse, keyboard, and monitor) if you don’t want to set it as a Desktop computer. It can run headless and you can control it remotely using Linux commands via a Terminal after establishing an SSH connection, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Raspberry Pi GPIOs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Raspberry Pi board has one special feature that normal computers don\u2019t: General Purpose Input Output (GPIOs) Pins. These GPIOs let you interact with the real world allowing you to build great electronics projects. Inputs can read data from sensors. Output signals can be sent to actuators to turn something on and off.<\/p>\n\n\n

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To learn more about the Raspberry Pi GPIOs, read our Pinout Guide: Raspberry Pi Pinout Guide: How to use the Raspberry Pi GPIOs?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Applications for Your Raspberry Pi<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are no limits to what you can do with your Raspberry Pi. Here are just some examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n