Microsoft announces that it’s making a free version of Windows 10 for the new Raspberry Pi 2. For those unfamiliar, the Raspberry Pi 2 is a low-cost board with all the elements of a computer and it has been a favorite device on the community.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation announced early this week its second generation of the card-sized computer called Raspberry Pi 2. The new device offers more performance with a 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor, double the memory with 1GB of LPDDR2 SDRAM, it’s fully compatible with the Raspberry Pi 1, and it only cost $35.
Although the community was able to run Windows on the tiny computer, it was never supported by Microsoft, and users needed to resource to workarounds. But today, the software maker promise that it will be delivering a version of Windows 10 for the Raspberry Pi 2.
While we don’t know which Windows 10 version will the low-cost computer will get, Microsoft says it will be free to makers of the community through the Windows Developer Program for IoT (Internet of Things) later this year. More information about the plan will be reveal in the coming months, the company says.
Considering the pricing of the Raspberry Pi 2 and the software maker offering Windows 10 free for the platform, this year you’ll be able to get a full working computer for $35.
It’s not clear when exactly Microsoft will release a version of its operating system, but the company is currently working on Windows 10 for PCs, tablets, and phones, and we expect a public release by early fall. As part of the new process of building software, the software giant is making available to the public early previews of the operating system. Thus far, we’ve seen many new things coming to the operating system such as the new Spartan web browser, the return of the Start menu, new universal apps model, and many other changes. However, the Raspberry Pi 2 is based on an ARM processor, so it’s likely that the version of Windows 10 for this device will have the desktop removed and it will only run modern apps.
Source Microsoft
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].