Part one - installing Noobs.
With your new shiny Raspberry Pi computer will need an operating system. This, as I am sure you know, is the software that runs the computer by providing an interface and managing resources such as file structures, memory and processor threads.
I have chosen to use a 32GB SD card for the operating system and apps and an 8GB card for data. You don't need to use a card this large for the OS, however I want to try out several operating systems at once (and I definitely need RISC OS as well as Raspbian). First time users will probably just want to start with Raspbian and a single 8GB card.
Both of my cards have been formatted with SD Association's Formatting Tool running on my Windows machine, but there are versions for Linux machines as well. Make sure you set "FORMAT SIZE ADJUSTMENT" option to "ON" in the "Options" menu.
I then downloaded the latest version of Noobs which is an operating system installer which makes the whole process of installing the operating systems much easier.
Once the Noobs files have been extracted from the zip file they have been copied on the OS SD card. This card was then inserted into the Raspberry Pi and Noobs started when I powered up.
When you do this, a menu will appear and you can choose which operating systems you would like to install.
Then sit back with a good book and wait for the system to do its thing. Talking of good books, I thoroughly recommend Raspberry Pi Manual: A practical guide to the revolutionary small computer (Owners Workshop Manual) (Haynes Owners Workshop Manuals (Hardcover))
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This book is an excellent introduction to all things Raspberry Pi, from setting up the machine and getting started with programming languages to building a web server and hardware hacking. It is like a cross between a computer manual, a recipe book and a Haynes guide to a motor vehicle maintenance. It is written in plain English, with very easy to follow code examples and colourful pictures. There is plenty in here for many weekend Raspberry Pi projects and I thoroughly recommend that you go out and get a copy.
Well that's all for now, I'll be back later with more Raspberry Pi goodies.