A while back you probably heard of the itty-bitty Raspberry Pi computer; a computer which is essentially nothing more than a board with the proper ports for things like a keyboard, mouse, video and network. (Note: No-network version is $25 and the one with Ethernet is $35.)

Some of you may be asking, "Why would I want a computer with a sub-1GHz CPU that can only run Linux?" Well, the question you should be asking is why not?

While true that the Raspberry Pi is intended for students so they can understand the basics of how a computer works, the Pi is really not that far removed from what computer hobbyists were using back in the late 1970s – albeit a whole lot smaller.

Whether built as a hobbyist project, a car PC, entertainment center PC, basic file server or whatever the intention, the Pi is one of the smallest, cheapest computers you could build that works. How could any hobbyist not want one of these?

Look for the Raspberry Pi for sale coming soon in 2012.

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