Following on from Google Giving’s decision to gift 15,000 Raspberry Pi units to UK school children in January, Google Creative Lab have released a free, open-source project called Coder which turns the RPi into a personal Web server and Web-based development environment.

 

Once Coder is installed on an SD card and plugged into the RPi you can log onto the system using most browsers running on a PC, Mac or Linux machine over the local network connection (Wi-Fi or cable).

 

According to Jason Striegel of the Google Creative Lab “It's just what you need for crafting HTML, CSS, and JavaScript while you’re learning to code”. With the Coder software installed the RPi becomes a low-cost development platform which can be used by parents and teachers to demonstrate the basics of building Web applications.