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After six years in the making, the Raspberry Pi bare bones computer has finally gone on sale, with thousands of people trying to buy one.

The £22, credit-card sized low-cost computer is the brainchild of the Raspberry Foundation and has been developed to help teach computer programming skills in schools.

"Six years after the project's inception, we're nearly at the end of our first run of development – although it's just the beginning of the Raspberry Pi story.

"Now we start developing educational tools and initiatives, at the same time as continuing research and development on Raspberry Pi hardware," the Foundation said.

With the Government determined to change how computing is taught in English schools, education secretary Michael Gove praised the initiative and said: "Initiatives like the Raspberry Pi scheme will give children the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of programming. This is a great example of the cutting edge of education technology happening right here in the UK."

The Raspberry Pi is sold with no case, keyboard or monitor but can be connected to these and peripherals. It uses the Linux open-source operating system and also has an Ethernet port which means it can connect to high-speed broadband connections.

Costing only £22, with an even cheaper £16 version going on sale later this year it has drawn wide interest from people around the world including educators and computer enthusiasts.

It is hoped that this support and the low cost will encourage more children to develop additional software and suggest other uses for the computer.

The Raspberry Foundation initially planned to manufacture the devices in the UK but costs prevented this so it has had thousands produced by a Chinese manufacturer.

Initial response to the computer going on sale was enormous with the websites of the two British distributors, Premier Farnell and RS Components, crashing the morning it went on sale as thousands of people went online to register to buy one.

NB Note from Editor: After the launch of the Raspberry Pi, manufacture was delayed owing to a glitch. However, this is an excerpt from an article written on 18 April 2012 by the Raspberry Pi team of element 14.

‘We now have in excess of 100,000 confirmed orders for the Raspberry Pi globally and can confirm that everyone  who ordered before 18th April will definitely receive their Raspberry Pi before the end of June 2012, whatever your existing order confirmation says! Those placing new orders from today can expect a July delivery……... ‘

Later in the article ... ‘We shortly expect to announce the availability of customised cases for your Raspberry Pi s, and these can be found on the accessories page of our element14 community along with the other accessories needed to get the most from your Pi; beginners guides; the  latest tech news; delivery updates; early user reports and feedback; and other valuable information. http://www.element14.com/community/groups/raspberry-pi. Thank you for your patience and support.

So it looks like a reality.  We would love to know if anyone has one and is prepared to write a short review for The Sandhurst Dirtectory - Editor