On the DVD

NOOBS (New Out Of the Box Software) version 1.3.10, provides beginners an easy way to install operating systems on their Rasp Pis.

Six operating systems on a single DVD:

NOOBS (New Out Of the Box Software) version 1.3.10, provides beginners an easy way to install operating systems on their Rasp Pis. The NOOBS installation manager offers the following operating systems:

l Raspbian "wheezy" – Debian-based distribution recommended for beginning users.

Raspbian "Boot to Scratch" – A version of Raspbian that boots to the kid-friendly Scratch programming environment.
Pidora – A Fedora remix optimized for the Raspberry Pi.
Arch Linux ARM – A special version of the popular Arch Linux tailored for the Pi.
OpenELEC – Open Embedded Linux Entertainment Center – A small (80-120MB) Linux distribution that turns your Raspberry Pi into an XBMC media center.
Raspbmc – XBMC media center distro based on Raspbian.
RISC OS – Not Linux, but a separate OS that has been around since 1987 and traces its roots to some of the original developers of the ARM chip.
The Raspbian and Raspbian "Boot to Scratch" images are located on the SD card and can be installed without access to the network. Other options require a network connection for network-based installation.

The DVD enclosed with this issue comes with a collection of some of the best and most popular Raspberry Pi distributions. Format an SD card of at least 8MB as FAT32 using a card reader attached to your PC and write the files included on this disk to the SD card using a disk image writer application. Then, unmount the SD card, insert it into the Raspberry Pi, and reboot.

In the NOOBS boot menu, select the operating system you want to install. To try a different system later, hold down the shift key at the Raspberry splash screen to bring back the NOOBS boot menu. Most of the articles in this issue assume you are running Raspbian "wheezy." See the links in the "Resources" box for information on the other distributions included on this DVD.