Microsoft Is Selling A Computer Preloaded With Linux On Its Website (Raspberry Pi 3 With NOOBS)

On February 29th, The Raspberry Pi Foundation released the much-awaited Raspberry Pi 3 with features like onboard Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The latest version of the single board computer is now powered by a 64-bit processor that’s about 50% faster than its predecessor.

Following the announcement, Microsoft has updated the support for the board via a new Windows 10 IoT Core Insider Preview update that’s now available for download. But, it’s interesting to note that Microsoft is selling Raspberry Pi 3 with NOOBS on its online store, which is basically a computer running a Linux distro.

This powerful and affordable Raspberry Pi board comes with a 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor, 1GB RAM, 4 USB ports, an HDMI port, and MicroSD slot. The company is selling the board for $50 with a 16GB 10class MicroSD card preloaded with NOOBS. With this deal, you get free shipping and free returns.

I wonder why Microsoft is shipping the Pi with NOOBS onboard and ditching its own Windows 10 IoT Core. For those who don’t know, NOOBS an easy operating system installer which contains Raspbian, the Raspberry Pi’s official operating system based on Debian Jessie. While NOOBS can be used to download a variety of operating systems, onboard Raspbian should make Linux lovers happier.

Go ahead and grab your Raspberry Pi 3 from Microsoft Store!