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Raspberry Pi for Dummies
Get your slice of Raspberry Pi
With the invention of the unique credit card-sized single-board computer comes a new wave of hardware geeks, hackers, and hobbyists who are excited about the possibilities with the Raspberry Pi—and this is the perfect guide to get you started. With this down-to-earth book, you'll quickly discover why the Raspberry Pi is in high demand!
There's a reason the Raspberry Pi sold a million units in its first year, and you're about to find out why! In Raspberry Pi For Dummies, 3rd Edition veteran tech authors Sean McManus and Mike Cook make it easier than ever to get you up and running on your Raspberry Pi, from setting it up, downloading the operating system, and using the desktop environment to editing photos, playing music and videos, and programming with Scratch—and everything in between.
Covers connecting the Pi to other devices such as a keyboard, mouse, monitor, and more Teaches you basic Linux System Admin Explores creating simple hardware projects Shows you how to create web pagesRaspberry Pi For Dummies, 3rd Edition makes computing as easy as pie!
649 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
176 people are currently reading
327 people want to read
About the author
Sean McManus
29 books6 followersSean McManus writes inspiring books about technology and business.
Many of his most popular books introduce children and adults to programming, including using Scratch, Python, and the Raspberry Pi. Sean's novel for adults, Earworm, goes undercover in the music industry, exploring what happens when music, AI, and business collide.
Visit Sean's website for free book chapters and details of Sean's copywriting services for tech companies.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 19, 2013
Reading this book reminded me of a conversation I had many years ago whilst at secondary school with a fellow pupil. The microcomputer had just been introduced and we were both excited at the prospect of being able to write our own computer programs.
Pretty soon we were both fluent BASIC programmers, and expanded our knowledge to controlling various circuit boards using simple interfaces.
Then, one day, my fellow pupil installed a spreadsheet application and was so impressed with the capability it offered that he viewed programming as an unnecessary burden.
He lost interest in computer programming, whilst I progressed further by studying computer science at university. In my mind, this is pretty much the approach taken with ICT taught in many schools today; it seems to be more about how to use the technology rather than learning how to program.
The Raspberry Pi provides everyone with a very cheap way of redressing this imbalance. That’s not to say that everyone should learn how to be programmers, but at least by giving students a quick and simple way of learning some basic programming skills it may inspire the next generation of programmers.
This book takes you through the key steps required to get your Pi fully operational. It starts, logically, with how to load the operating system; a version of Linux best suited for the Pi. As Linux may be new to many Pi users, the authors introduce some of the key shell commands, as well as a desktop environment, for those wishing to use one.
With the Pi up and running, the authors describe how the Pi can be used ‘for both work and play’. This includes an introduction to office applications (‘LibreOffice’), how to view various media files (photos, audio and video), and how to build a website.
As an introduction to simple and visually-based programming, the authors present ‘Scratch’. This has a visual interface and is described as a quick and easy way of building arcade-style games. For more in-depth programming techniques there is an introduction to the Python programming language.
For those readers interested in exploring electronics, there is a section dedicated to ways of building electronic circuits and interfacing with the Pi. As this topic may be new to many readers, the authors state no previous knowledge of electronics is required; they even describe how to use a soldering iron! The section covers analogue as well as digital interfacing.
To further whet the readers’ appetite, the final section of the book describes some Pi-related projects. It was interesting to see the wide range of applications the Pi has been put to, and I’m sure this will inspire many others.
If you have just purchased a Pi and are not sure where to begin, this book provides an excellent place to start. The authors assume only basic knowledge of computing (such as being able to use a Windows computer), which means the book is suitable for a broad spectrum of readers.
Reviewed by Mehmet Hurer BSc (Hons) MBCS CITP CEng
Pretty soon we were both fluent BASIC programmers, and expanded our knowledge to controlling various circuit boards using simple interfaces.
Then, one day, my fellow pupil installed a spreadsheet application and was so impressed with the capability it offered that he viewed programming as an unnecessary burden.
He lost interest in computer programming, whilst I progressed further by studying computer science at university. In my mind, this is pretty much the approach taken with ICT taught in many schools today; it seems to be more about how to use the technology rather than learning how to program.
The Raspberry Pi provides everyone with a very cheap way of redressing this imbalance. That’s not to say that everyone should learn how to be programmers, but at least by giving students a quick and simple way of learning some basic programming skills it may inspire the next generation of programmers.
This book takes you through the key steps required to get your Pi fully operational. It starts, logically, with how to load the operating system; a version of Linux best suited for the Pi. As Linux may be new to many Pi users, the authors introduce some of the key shell commands, as well as a desktop environment, for those wishing to use one.
With the Pi up and running, the authors describe how the Pi can be used ‘for both work and play’. This includes an introduction to office applications (‘LibreOffice’), how to view various media files (photos, audio and video), and how to build a website.
As an introduction to simple and visually-based programming, the authors present ‘Scratch’. This has a visual interface and is described as a quick and easy way of building arcade-style games. For more in-depth programming techniques there is an introduction to the Python programming language.
For those readers interested in exploring electronics, there is a section dedicated to ways of building electronic circuits and interfacing with the Pi. As this topic may be new to many readers, the authors state no previous knowledge of electronics is required; they even describe how to use a soldering iron! The section covers analogue as well as digital interfacing.
To further whet the readers’ appetite, the final section of the book describes some Pi-related projects. It was interesting to see the wide range of applications the Pi has been put to, and I’m sure this will inspire many others.
If you have just purchased a Pi and are not sure where to begin, this book provides an excellent place to start. The authors assume only basic knowledge of computing (such as being able to use a Windows computer), which means the book is suitable for a broad spectrum of readers.
Reviewed by Mehmet Hurer BSc (Hons) MBCS CITP CEng
July 1, 2018
This book is great. It gave me what I want.
It tells about RP, its history and models. It shows what available Operating Systems that RP can run and how to install them. It illustrates general apps that are installed with Raspbian.
It tells how to configure the RP (I already know it but reading may give one something that s/he didn't know).
It provides sample programs and codes (which is probably useful for beginners that don't care much about details of the code). It shows samples of python (and scratch, when applicable) for some programs and projects.
For people that have no background this book shall be useful but very long.
For beginners: just read only relative chapters that will orient you about this product and what it does and how to operate it correctly.
For advanced users: it is likely that reading this book will teachyou something that you didn't know before.
I would've preferred avoiding long and detailed codes in the book to make it easier and more straightforward for readers. codes and examples could've been added as appendixes or published in a separate project's book.
Overall 5/5 for this book. I suggest reading about python in a separate book (or take a python course) to make one's stronger in this programming language if s/he wants to practice it with RP.
It tells about RP, its history and models. It shows what available Operating Systems that RP can run and how to install them. It illustrates general apps that are installed with Raspbian.
It tells how to configure the RP (I already know it but reading may give one something that s/he didn't know).
It provides sample programs and codes (which is probably useful for beginners that don't care much about details of the code). It shows samples of python (and scratch, when applicable) for some programs and projects.
For people that have no background this book shall be useful but very long.
For beginners: just read only relative chapters that will orient you about this product and what it does and how to operate it correctly.
For advanced users: it is likely that reading this book will teachyou something that you didn't know before.
I would've preferred avoiding long and detailed codes in the book to make it easier and more straightforward for readers. codes and examples could've been added as appendixes or published in a separate project's book.
Overall 5/5 for this book. I suggest reading about python in a separate book (or take a python course) to make one's stronger in this programming language if s/he wants to practice it with RP.
August 13, 2025
A solid reference book. Aspects of the Raspberry Pi change quickly, so make sure you get a recent edition, and that your version of Pi is in the reference book. A lot of older books (such as this) don't cover the Raspberry Pi5.
October 14, 2017
Så blev man en lidt klogere dummy! Mit næste projekt bliver at bygge en google assistent ud af en papkasse! Stay tuned! 😀
July 30, 2018
Great information and helpful for the layman that I am.
September 2, 2013
The book I read to research this post was Raspberry Pi For Dummies by Sean McManus et al which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. The Raspberry Pi which harkens back to the days when you bought a computer in kit form and had to assemble it is quite an exciting concept. I think in Britain it retails for £30 & for the money is really good value. In this is an example of someone who built a mainframe computer by connecting up 64 Raspberry Pi's and found a way of attaching them using lego blocks. A mainframe normally would cost millions of pounds and here is a way of building one for thousands or even hundreds. There are two versions of the Pi a version A with 256 MB of memory & 1 USB connector & a version B with 512 MB & 2 USB connectors. The 2nd version is the current one they make. It's the first dedicated linux computer and mostly uses a version called wheezy which you can download from the internet for free but must put on a compatible SD card that doubles as your storage on the Pi. There is also a compatible operating system called Raspberrybmc that turns your pi into a dedicated media centre with the right hardware of course that is an alternative to wheezy. The Pi uses Python for programming but there is also a visually based game design program you can download called scratch. There is a website at http://raspberry.mit.edu where you can download lots of applications for the Pi or submit your own. Being linux of course it's all open source or free. Many people build there own arcade machines using the Pi of which there are several projects in the book. Being linux you can also use software like libreoffice and gimp to do serious computing and you can connect a USB keyboard & a HDMI monitor among other things.
September 29, 2013
This is the second "for Dummies" book I have purchased in the last two years and both contained a surprising amount of information which would be useful for both beginners and more experienced users.
"Raspberry Pi for Dummies" is divided into six parts covering a variety of topics including initial set-up of the Pi, installing an Operating System, using Linux, Programming with both Scratch and Python, coverage of circuits and interfacing the Pi to hardware.
I specifically purchased my Raspberry Pi to set it up as a Media Centre/Server and this book contents a very detailed chapter on doing this.
Much of the content of the book could most probably be found somewhere on the Internet but it is nice to have it all in one place. I would certainly recommend this book to the beginner and it even turned out to be a very useful resource for someone like me who has been working with computers for a number of years.
"Raspberry Pi for Dummies" is divided into six parts covering a variety of topics including initial set-up of the Pi, installing an Operating System, using Linux, Programming with both Scratch and Python, coverage of circuits and interfacing the Pi to hardware.
I specifically purchased my Raspberry Pi to set it up as a Media Centre/Server and this book contents a very detailed chapter on doing this.
Much of the content of the book could most probably be found somewhere on the Internet but it is nice to have it all in one place. I would certainly recommend this book to the beginner and it even turned out to be a very useful resource for someone like me who has been working with computers for a number of years.
May 25, 2015
Like another book on the Raspberry Pi I reviewed earlier, this is a very useful book on the basics of using the Raspberry Pi. This book is a bit longer and thus includes more projects and applications for the Raspberry Pi. In addition to programming, this book also teaches you to use the Pi as an everyday computer and how that is possible. I have completed some of the projects, and I must say, they are pretty fun. I highly recommend this book to newcomers to the Raspberry Pi.
July 24, 2014
Great getting started, especially if you want to get your hands a little dirty on first steps to integrating with devices.
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March 25, 2015dsfsdfsdf
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 3, 2015
Good for beginners, liked last few chapters which explains about circuit basics and GPIO usage, very well explained
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April 25, 2018Interesting, though slightly out of date now. However, it still has all the basics.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews