Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi (https://www.raspberrypi.com) is a small single-board computer. The newest one is the Pi 5. Because of its popularity a strong community has formed and a lot of additional hardware, software and guides can be found.
The also very popular Arduino excels at direct interaction with sensors and actuators, while the Raspberry Pi has a more powerful processor and can run an OS (typically Linux), so that you can leverage the wealth of software that is available.
Uses for a Raspberry Pi
Since it is a small computer its use is open ended. Some things you could use it for:
- Cheap desktop computer
- As a music streamer
- Home automation
- Block advertisements with Pi-Hole
- https://www.raspberrypi.com/tutorials shows more examples
Linux knowledge
This website contains a complete Linux guide to teach you the ropes. These pages/paragraphs are especially relevant for the Raspberry Pi: