ev3dev is a project that makes Debian Linux work on LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3. We’ve just added support for BrickPi/Raspberry Pi too.
We have just released a SD card image with Debian jessie and kernel drivers for the BrickPi. Basically, we have taken the BrickPi C library and turned it into a kernel driver to fit the scheme that we use on the EV3. This has the advantage that you can use just about any programming language you like (if you can read and write a file, you can use kernel drivers) and the same programs will work on the EV3 or the Raspberry Pi.
If this sounds interesting to you, you can get started here.