I played around with it a bit this evening, using a Raspberry Pi 2. Here are my initial impressions.
-Initial setup was not difficult, basically you download an ISO, mount it, run the installer inside the ISO. This installs a utility that you can use to write the Windows Core image to a MicroSD card,
- Only one wifi adapter is supported, and it is sold out most places. The most commonly used, Edimax, adapter is not supported. You can’t do jack without networking, so unless you have the appropriate wifi adapter, you will need a wired connection.
- It boots into a little UI that shows you the computer name and IP, and lets you do a few minimalist administrative tasks. There may be more there that I have not discovered yet.
- You use PowerShell remoting to remotely log in. It says SSH is also supported - have not tried that yet.
- Looks like you will use Visual Studio on a remote host, along with Remote debugging to write, deploy, debug, and test apps. I think for me, this is the only real attraction, as I am very familiar with these tools, and would love to be able to write apps for it in C#.
- There does not seem to be much available in terms f apps and services. Of course, using Raspbian (Linux) there are a HUGE amount of packages, most of the fairly mature. So this is a major disadvantage to Windows on this platform.
So overall, it looks like a nice start, but I would say it is not really ready for prime time yet. I think a lot that’s nice about the Pi is that you can use it to glue together several things to make a cheap but useful system. For example, I used a Pi, a webcam, a motorized pet feeder, some custom hardware and software to make a little system that I can use to feed my cat and observe that he is ok when I am away from the house. If I tried that with Windows, I would immediately run into the lack of software or hardware support for webcams. So what use is it, really?
I think the big question is will MS stick with it, and how much investment will it get. For now, at least for me, it’s a wait-and-see platform.
Great initial info! Thanks!!
Thanks. Maybe there will be more supported stuff by the time I want to build my BB8. I really was most attracted to the C# coding.