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Microsoft will give a free copy of Windows 10 to developers using the newly announced Raspberry Pi 2. The new Model B is six times more powerful than last year's Model B+, according to the Raspberry Pi foundation, seemingly make it possible to run Microsoft's next-generation Windows.
To date, the Pi has been running off various Linux operating systems, the main distribution being a variant of Debian, although there are also adapted versions of Ubuntu, Fedora and other distributions available for download from the Raspberry Pi website.
Now it seems Microsoft wants a slice of the Pi. The company has announced it will be joining the Raspberry Pi foundation and making free copies of Windows 10 available to those who participate in its Windows Developer Program for IoT (Internet of Things). That is a non-commercial developer scheme that encourages members to build connected devices.
With Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton aiming to sell three million Raspberry Pi 2 units, Microsoft clearly saw this as a movement it didn't want to miss out on. The Windows Developer Program for IOT currently supports the Intel Galileo boards, but these have proved nowhere near as popular with amateur tinkerers as the Pi, as Microsoft concedes.
"Raspberry Pi has quickly become one of the Maker community’s favourite platforms because their highly capable, low-cost boards and compute modules enable developers to bring their vision to life," writes Kevin Dallas, general manager of the Windows IoT Group on a Microsoft blog. "Raspberry Pi 2 is a surprisingly powerful device that opens up the world of computing and programming to a huge range of people and skill levels."
It's not clear which version of Windows 10 the developers will get - indeed, Microsoft is yet to announce any version details of the next-generation OS, which is currently in Technical Preview and isn't set to be launched until this autumn.
Microsoft says it will share more details about its plans for Windows 10 on Raspberry Pi in the coming months. In the meantime, it's encouraging developers to enrol in the developer program to receive updates closer to launch time.
