Raspberry Pi 4 as desktop computer

[blars]

After purchasing a Raspberry Pi 4B (4 Gig) on a black friday sale, I have switched over to using it as my main desktop computer.  So far I am really happy with it: faster and more memory than my old Intel NUC, and has higher display resolution.  I am using the Raspian operating system (based on Debian) when I previously used Debian.  I consider it unfortunate that they don't support Debian, but Raspbian is pretty close with less security out of box and more beginner friendly stuff to replace by an old fuddy-duddy like myself.  Note I am not a typical computer user, and don't allow any Microsoft software on systems that get my passwords.

The Raspberry 4 board is $55 for the 4 gig version normally, I got 15% off.  To use, a power supply, micro SD card, monitor, keyboard, and mouse are required, case is optional.   So a complete system is around $150 if you have a TV with HDMI input.  (I use a 40" 4k TV that I got for about $100.)  Adafruit.com is repeating their 15% off sale now.  The Pi uses less than 15 watts and has Wifi built in.

 

[Qxxx]

I find the convenience of a self-contained notebook/laptop far exceeds anything else. Have you tried a Chromebook which uses a Linux-based OS?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromebook
https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/chromebook-buying-advice

I agree with you about the shortcomings of Microsoft OS products. although I only actually use Win10 at present. There are several massive holes in WinXX that 90% of people from my own surveys are not aware of.

Good reasons not to use Windows ...

1. the PCs as they come are totally open to the cyberverse. If you go to Personalize (right-click) >> Home >> Privacy, Security, Accounts, and Apps, you'll see that every single menu option is "enabled", which means the PC is wide open to the world. I go into every single menu and disable everything, myself.

2. Furthermore, every time you do a Win update, some of those settings are opened up which you may have closed previously.

3. M$ now has a facility called "Microsoft Compatibility Telemetery" (as it shows up on the Task Mananger) which runs every time you log onto the internet, and which sends all sorts of data about your personal machine to home base. And when this kicks in, your HD goes totally berserk. Duh. None of the so-called "fixes" work either, from my experience.

4. Who knows what else. ????

 

[Trebor English]

I have been using a Raspberry Pi 3B+ for a while.  Since virtual memory on the SD card is a bad idea I have only 1 GB of ram.  For most things that's enough.

 

[skyl4rk]

How is the speed? Can it handle multiple programs? Have you tried video editing?

I have an older pi that I set up as a desktop but went back to a laptop. It was the type when they first came out with wifi included in the pi, I'm sure they have improved since then. It was pretty slow.

 

[badmotorscooter]

Don't forget, Chrome OS and Android controlled by Google.

Just another Microsoft in a different flavor...

 

[blars]

How is the speed? Can it handle multiple programs? Have you tried video editing?

It's a 4-core Arm at 1.5 GHz.  Two USB 3.0 ports, two 2.0, and GHz ethernet, previous only had USB 2.0 and shared bandwidth with the wired ethernet.  I have not tried video editing.

It's much faster than my previous system, but that was 5 years old and had a low-end laptop chipset of that time.

 

[LowTech]

Also running a Pi as my in-house computer. Mines a 3B+.
I do need a better monitor/tv as my ancient one makes way to much radio static and uses too much power. Other than that, and learning not to have several tabs open at the same time I'm pretty happy w/ it.
Another plus for me is that I go a couple times a year to visit my mom and do a bunch of kayaking. I used to pack my laptop back and forth on the plane. Now I have the same setup there and just carry my SD card and thumb drives of storage. That gives me the same computer there while only carrying a handful of things back and forth.

Haven't yet looked into the 4's, but then I'm usually behind the curve.

 

[B and C]

I just stuck my toes into the world of linux with a pi4 with 4 gig. I put a power button and a LED on a case to show if powered up or not and easy shutdown. Speed? It is snappy but not a video editor with only an arm processor. I use my intel i7 with 12 gig for that. I am setting it up to be my van LAN server (poet?). When I put samba on it for window shares it auto installs emby too. I want to keep emby but it seems to keep breaking my lan share (won't show drive on lan after emby setup). I added a 5tb portable hard drive to it as my file share source on the lan and media for emby. At least I made a backup of my power and led as a starting place. What am I on, try 6? I will be running it in headless mode but have my radio screen attached.

Still working my way through all the linux commands and boy, are they confusing for this old brain.

 

[mpruet]

I spent some 30+ years of my working life doing software development in various versions of Unix and Linux.  While I spent countless hours with awk, grep, sed, vi, etc., I also spent a lot of time writing scripts to make my work easier.  

Now that I’m retired, the only thing that I ever do in a Unix-like system is when I turn on my mini-Mac and go into the command line.  Yep - Mac-OS is based on one of the Unix type systems with a fancy GUI.  

The vast majority of my time now on any computer is on my iPad - and everything is self contained there.  I got rid of most of my Unix books.  I still have my old Stevens book, ‘Linux in a nutsheel’, and Kerrigan & Ritchie ‘C’ book. But truth be told, I haven’t opened those in years...

 

[LowTech]

The gui's on most of the newer distros mean most people never even use the command line.

 

[B and C]

I haven't figured out any way to make real changes to the system from the gui other than run the command line thing. In my working life I had to learn some linux but it didn't stick as I only used it briefly before retiring. I don't think it would have helped with the pi as I was working on cisco equipment for telephones.

Another fail with samba this morning. Think I am moving on to openmediavault and then install emby afterwards and see if emby breaks it.

I am using Raspbian on my pi.

 

[LowTech]

There is a pretty decent Pi forum at raspberrypi.org. I have no knowledge of the 4.

 

[B and C]

Yep, been there. My luck seem to be no one else with the issue. Not going down the rabbit hole of troubleshooting over the net. Guess I get to use a gui for openmediavault and emby. It will be a lot easier on this old brain. I've been on a gui since win 3.1 and it wasn't all gui either. Started with dos 3.1 and before that was basic on a TI (Texas Instruments) something. Unix just never clicked with me.

 

[wayne49]

Another fail with samba this morning.  Think I am moving on to openmediavault and then install emby afterwards and see if emby breaks it.

I am using Raspbian on my pi.

Samba is somewhat tricky. Unfortunately, my notes skipped what I did between "not seeing the share" and the next line "now seeing the share". I had searched the internet and found the mystery bits of code that I needed. I do not have that magic logged in my history file or my notebook.

I recently purchased that $20 wi-fi gizmo that acts as a repeater and I setup samba between my laptop and tower. I last did samba a few years back when I had cable internet with a Netgear router as the basis for my LAN.

 

[B and C]

Mine goes the other way. I set up samba and it is on the network to use. Reboot and it is still there. Don't mess with it for a couple of hours (on all the time) and network disappears and emby shows up. Darndest thing.

 

[Zork]

The issue I see is the data limit placed on hotspots (assuming you are dependent on cellular data). As I understand, these data limits are hard limits, not merely throttling. So when your 15 Gb of hotspot data is used up, your tablet or R Pi can no longer be connected until the next month.

The solution around this that I am exploring is Samsung Dex, an Android desktop - no hotspot or tethering limits apply. Essentially, you place your Samsung phone in a cradle that has power in, and HDMI out (and USB out for mouse and keyboard, but you can also use Bluetooth for those). A 24" Energy Star monitor draws about 25 watts. Not sure how much power the phone draws, but the combination would be less than the typical laptop (around 55 watts), and with a larger screen. And you could go with a 14 inch monitor to save even more energy.

 

[B and C]

Won't your phone connection have the same cellular data limits? My hotspots are unlimited data, at&t mobley, visible phone and verizon hotspot plus phone hotspot. Hard caps may come into play if you are abusive to the network. I don't know where that line is. I have found that my verizon jetpack at 600 Kbps to be adequate for streaming.

 

[Zork]

Hi, B and C,

Data limits differ for phone data vs hotspot data. For example, Verizon's current top tier plan has a 75 GB "unlimited" phone data plan but there is a 30 GB limit for hotspot data (hard throttle to 600 Kbps).

But if you go over the 75 GB, apparently you aren't "deprioritized" unless the cell tower traffic is busy. And it's good to know that even if you go over the hotspot limit, that 600 Kbps can be adequate. Thanks for the info - I am trying to get a handle on all this and it is complicated. Also, I am spoiled by a high speed home connection, and have zero experience with how it works on the road with these plans.

 

[B and C]

Web pages will not load instantly at 600 Kbps for sure My phone has the hotspot feature at LTE speeds and my jetpack has 600 Kbps all the time truly unlimited. My other two are also LTE but subject to throttling and the visible is probably subject to deprioritization too. I run all these for ~$150 a month. When I can't get a signal (with my weboost) on any of these, nobody else can either on any carrier that have been around me. I generally only stay a day in a place without a signal. The kids may need to get in touch with me. My brothers and sister are older than me so I don't like to be where I can't be gotten ahold of.