Lots of buzz on PSF list about Python and Raspberry Pi. I know from independent sources that Python has attracted considerable attention in the UK education community. Also, the BBC Micro also came out around this time and our PSF chairman is in the UK to help celebrate its anniversary (50th? -- getting there). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Micro
In having a public charter, unlike private advertiser based broadcasters such as Fox, the BBC is rather different from any USA channels, including PBS. Its forays into public policy and initiatives, such as the Computer Literacy Project of the 1980s, out of which the BBC Micro was born, is not mirrored in the USA. Raspberry Pi doesn't currently run Python but there is some thought that it should. I haven't researched the GNU / Stallman take yet, though I know he's unhappy about the sell-out of Linux distros to closed source video drivers, which appear as proprietary blobs (already compiled binaries) with no source. The Raspberry Pi uses secret code to drive its GPU so is not technically a purely FLOSS project (as of today anyway). Debian has a long history of working with not-free annexes so this will feel like home to most Debian developers. I'm glad the BBC has a mandate to serve the public in the UK with interesting and innovative gadgets. That's the kind of R&D we like to see, including with closed source components (I have access to closed source games galore). Even if the UK versions seem obsolete more quickly, because leading edge (like the XO), the follow-on products have the BBC to thank for opening world markets ( = the human imagination) to these new concepts. Kirby
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