The raspberry pi ‘pico’ went on sale/was launched on 21st January 2021

I had to solder two 30 pin headers so that the unit could sit on a breadboard or appropiate HAT

I started using a chromebook – which looking back was a bit of a mistake – it worked ok, as to load the initial firmware – but i quickly discovered there is no current way to load scripts onto the board.

The ‘official’ raspberry pi site guides you to install the bootloader/firmware for either

Micropython (this link will break over time – will not be the latest version)

MicroPython v1.13-290-g556ae7914 on 2021-01-21; Raspberry Pi Pico with RP2040

• C/C++

Adafruit has Pico support for circuitpython

Adafruit CircuitPython 6.2.0-beta.1 on 2021-01-27; Raspberry Pi Pico with rp2040

Pimoroni has its own port of Micropython

MicroPython f5d0ca0 on 2021-01-24; Raspberry Pi Pico with RP2040

Raspberry Pi Pico Python SDK – link

Getting Started with Raspberry Pi Pico – link and this

Github links

Pimoroni setting up Micropython – link