I am currently downloading a web application onto a Rasperry Pi in the hope that it will work. The idea is to use dropbox to sync a web directory when the device loads up which will then be accessed by a touchscreen interface. All files are held and referenced locally so if the internet goes down there is no downtime for people in the gallery.
The system is up and running already on a Mini-mac, and working well. Our problem is that only one Mini-mac in the gallery has an operating system that can run a modern browser such as chrome, which is needed to run the gallery app.
The main test is if the Chromium web browser on the Pi behaves in the same way as Chrome on the mac – if this fails we will need to rethink things – perhaps the javascript could be tweaked to make it work, but maintaining two versions of the app would be rather time consuming.
If and once the app works – the test will be one of perfomance and whether any css effects run too slow to make this a feasable replacement for the Mini-macs.*
* this blog post comes mid way through the project so some background information is needed: we are in the process of migrating a gallery interactive solution from a stand alone system into the main collections database. In doing so we are redeveloping the legacy flash-based applications into a more sustainable javascript web application. During the project it has become clear that new hardware is required in order to run modern web browsers, and the budget implications of replacing 14 mini-macs has got us experimentinf with the Pi.
Watch this space….