This is one of those rare items where a small purchase price leads to doors being opened into whole new worlds.

The Raspberry Pi 2 has sufficient horsepower to be a comfortable software learning and development tool. I am running Geany as a multipurpose programming IDE on my Pi. This free software is released under the GNU license, works with multiple programming languages including Python, C, Java, and HTML. My Pi came with several versions of Python, and I am using Geany in Python to work through the excellent (freely downloadable) Python learning books by Professor Allen Downey. The PDF downloads can be located at Downey’s site http://greenteapress.com/wp/ . Somehow, the simple uncluttered Pi environment seems more conducive to my learning Python than does the more complex and cluttered surroundings of my Windows laptop.

The Raspberry Pi 2 also has one foot firmly in the embedded computing and physical computing worlds due to the fact that it has software controllable GPIO pins. I am learning to use Python (and C) to manipulate these pins, which allows my programs to control things in the real world.

Unlike typical embedded microcontrollers, the Pi has sufficient horsepower and graphics ability to be able to create sophisticated user interfaces, an area which I have previously found to be challenging with other hardware. The Pi 2 can handle the memory and graphic intensive processes needed to allow the embedded system to communicate with that most difficult of components; the human user. And if you need a highly deterministic and jitter free element as part of your system, you just have the Pi talk to a cheap microcontroller like the Arduino or Parallax Propeller (eight 32 bit cores) for those functions.

Hooking the Pi to the Internet was a snap using the USB WiFi adaptor which came with my kit. Plug it in, set the appropriate parameters in the appropriate configuration file, and off it goes. I am already playing with controlling my Pi GPOI pins over the Internet using my android phone and a Blynk application (downloaded from the Play Store for free).

To sum up, this is probably the most bang for the buck that I can remember encountering for a very long time.

I am planning on introducing some Pi 2s to some of my tech students at our local college where I teach. It is all part of a nefarious plot to infect them also with this potentially disruptive technology which may lead to them spending large numbers of hours enjoying themselves (I mean diligently studying) while learning to write programs which control the world around them.

Dave Fedukowski Southwestern Oregon Community College

I ordered a Raspberry Pi Starter Kit (and the RPi touch screen). It was easy to get up and running. I tried to put together a "simple simon" game using the large buttons and LEDs, but I couldn't figure out how to arrange the buttons in a square - they're too big if you're using the breadboard - so I made a linear game. It works great. I need to ramp up and get the sensor hat and a camera, do a bit of OpenCV. It's a great platform!

I am still working on the Arduino Kit. This will be followed by the Photon Kit, then Rpi Kit, both on hand. Progress is steady but measured. I am augmenting with more in depth investigation using oscilloscope, multimeter, and books such as "Pratical Electronics for Inventers" , C programming, and a couple of college texts on computer architecture .

I still have yet to learn all of what this can do but I have big plans for my RPI2.

Has all the stuff you need to get going, and no "filler". When I bought it, this kit included a memory card that's twice the size of the starter kit from the competition.

In the way back time, I bought one of the original Raspberry Pi's, and did a bunch of fiddling with it, impressed with the capabilities and what was packed into a $40 feature complete computer. A move, and other life changes caused me to put it away.

Lately, I have been on a kick to get back in touch with my tinkerer self, and after binge-ing on some Arduino goodness, I picked up this kit.

The main difference is that it makes it stupid simple to actually use the GPIO, with jumpers and the breakout "T" for the proto board. Add in a selection of switches, LED's, and other bits, and you can really begin to do some simple things, even following the excellent Simon Monk books.

This is a great starter kit, and will springboard your exploration.

It has good support but in the box and online. Simple to get started and have all the parts i needed for my experiment.

the power supply sent with kit is CRAP! in order to get the pi to boot, I had to build my own 5v power supply. every thing else is doing great once pi booted.

bought a few of these now. it's a great kit to get started with, kind of a dream for little tinkerers starting out.

Add small HDMI screen (or big screen TV), usb keyboard and mouse, and your kids may not want to leave the house for the next couple of weeks. Elementary school aged children may even develop the sudden urge to learn Python (Pi Minecraft TNT wont light without it) or Ruby (for sonic Pi) Get ready to RTFM, but the breadcrumbs are out there (maybe up-to-date breadcrumbs could be collected and distilled on your site?). And If you really want to blow their minds, get one of those low res FLIR cams and plug it right into the breadboard (again, RTFM and assembly required, but your kids will be essential part of the assembly as only they can tell a MOSI from a MISO on those tiny breakout boards.

Suggestion tho to the Sparkfun elves: after you take whichever one is in charge into the keeping kit packing lists updated into the parking lot to symbolically (or not) spank them with one of those sexy red not-so-universal USB connector cables, please get them to update the packing list to hence forth include one that actually works with the Pi2. It's not a big deal, and most of us have a few lying around anyways, but it would be a nice touch, and would make this kit Always Awesome.

I'm giving this 3 stars because NOOBS SD card wont mount easily on a LINUX machine which is kinda handy for moving files and looking at things. This really isn't a Sparkfun problem but its still a problem. Here's the work around: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=105437&start=25

Great set of items to get started with. All the needed pieces are available.

The Raspberry Pi Starter kit exceeded my expectations and is a great value for the price. Everything worked well together. I was up and running in no time and the Edimax wifi adaptor works great. No extra configuration was needed for the wifi adaptor. Just select your wifi network and your online. The 8G SD card is technically a NOOB card, but it came already configured with the Raspbian OS, which was fine with me because I was up and running quicker.

Very impressed with this kit. If you are just starting out with the Raspberry Pi and need the Pi, case, power supply, SD card, wifi adaptor, etc., then this is the kit to buy!