4 ms·

I take delivery of a Raspberry Pi 4 tomorrow. I’m really hoping it will replace my MBP for almost everything I do — namely clerical office work, teaching high

I take delivery of a Raspberry Pi 4 tomorrow. I’m really hoping it will replace my MBP for almost everything I do — namely clerical office work, teaching high school CS, and web browsing. Exciting times.

SillaDeRuedas 6y ago
Amazing! Isn't this the greatest idea ever?
grugagag 6y ago
Honest question. How is that any better than a small laptop? Is the price point that makes the difference?
- gorgoiler 6y ago
  The price, and I’m also interested in portability and robustness. My plan is to hot desk with this thing between three locations: my office in school, my classroom, and my home office. I also want something weird. Kids kind of look down on PCs and especially Linux. It’s seen as kind of crappy compared to the shiny of iPhones and Windows gaming rigs. I hope to show them that there’s a third kind of computer with which one can do a lot, that also happens to be pocketable and under $100. (And also: ANSI keyboard Pinebook Pro has been sold out for weeks.)
  - wayneftw 6y ago
    You could do the same thing with a $100/150 NUC and get better performance and software compatibility - https://www.amazon.com/Wintel-Pro-Mini-ordenador-T8/dp/B083V1BKZM https://www.amazon.com/Wintel-Pro-Mini-ordenador-T8/dp/B083V...
    - postalrat 6y ago
      I wish Intel or some other company would make a usb-c pc stick. So that I can plug it into a usb-c hub, do work, then later move to another usb-c hub and continue.
      - rovr138 6y ago
        Similar to this, https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/boards-kits/compute-stick/stk1a32sc.html https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/boards-kits...
Klinky 6y ago
I would be prepared to be underwhelmed at using a rpi as a desktop. Graphics drivers still need work. This is where I think Apple can do it right. They can tune drivers and fully optimize system performance, since they basically own the whole stack, and won't be stuck with proprietary broken blobs or reverse engineering a 3rd party design.
- eikenberry 6y ago
  > This is where I think Apple can do it right. While Apple has open sourced a few things, I doubt they will open source their graphics drivers. Though one can hope.
  - Klinky 6y ago
    I don't expect them to open source anything. I expect them to produce competent drivers for macOS and provide the first truly decent and performant desktop experience for an ARM SoC.
- gorgoiler 6y ago
  I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos of, ironically, people using Raspberry Pis to watch YouTube videos. The UI seems snappy, and I can live without full screen 1080p — the only thing that seems poor is full screen full resolution video. Is there anything else I should be looking out for? Raspberry Pi 4 is now OpenGL ES 3.0 certified, so I’m expecting it to only get faster with time. My main concern is a Pi5 being released and my “old” hardware becoming obsolete.
  - simcop2387 6y ago
    I wouldn't expect a pi5 any time soon. Maybe another revision of the pi4 or a new compute module system that allows a proper pi4 compute module (apparently not enough pins on the sodimm form factor they use currently to give the pcie lanes and other things the processor supports).
  - geerlingguy 6y ago
    Here was my experience a few weeks ago: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2020/i-replaced-my-macbook-pro-raspberry-pi-4-8gb-day https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2020/i-replaced-my-macbook... Just as a helpful data point.
DesiLurker 6y ago
NanoPi M4V2 may be better. plus you can install nvme drives in it for additional io perf.
- gorgoiler 6y ago
  I love the diversity in this space but unfortunately I’ve been burned by off-brand pi stuff before. Pine’s RockPro64 and Libre Renegade Elite are two lovely RK3399 devices that I’ve tried. However, each has sufficient quirks that something more mainstream like the Raspberry Pi 4 (with a wide user base, more Google hits for common problems, etc) will hopefully let me focus on using the device as opposed to getting it to function. Non-RPi SBCs also seem to require a lot of off-brand community patches to get them working. I’m pretty wary of bringing an OS build which I downloaded from a third party github page onto a campus full of children. I don’t have any reason to believe the community builds are nefarious, but it’s less of a risk to stick with Raspberry Pi, IMHO.
  - hoistbypetard 6y ago
    > Pine’s RockPro64 and Libre Renegade Elite are two lovely RK3399 devices that I’ve tried. However, each has sufficient quirks that something more mainstream like the Raspberry Pi 4 (with a wide user base, more Google hits for common problems, etc) will hopefully let me focus on using the device as opposed to getting it to function. The Pinebook pro is really nice (I've had one since the beginning of the year) but I completely share your sentiment. I really like mine and spend almost no time fiddling with it now. It made a really nice, reliable daily driver for my son this spring during the sudden and unplanned distance learning the pandemic brought us. But I would not recommend it to anyone whose computer I couldn't/wouldn't personally fix right now. It's close, but not there yet IMO. Bootstrapping, power management and sound all have more rough edges than running Linux on a normal x86 system does right now. I say this fondly: it's still a bit of a project right now. (That's part of the fun for me, but doesn't match your stated focus at all.)
squarefoot 6y ago
The RPi4 is excellent as video player using Libreelec/Kodi, but for some reasons their desktop Linux distro still doesn't support video acceleration, so be prepared to sluggish performance for a while. I also experienced lots of Firefox crashes when playing Youtube videos from the desktop, but cannot tell if due to the interface slowness for the above reasons.
- Const-me 6y ago
  > their desktop Linux distro still doesn't support video acceleration Works fine on my Pi4 with official 32-bit Debian Buster OS: https://github.com/Const-me/Vrmac/tree/master/VrmacVideo https://github.com/Const-me/Vrmac/tree/master/VrmacVideo Based on CPU usage, the included VLC player uses same API.
ClumsyPilot 6y ago
I never understood this obsession with PI as a desktop machine, tlits such a poor choice. A 2013 Intel Atom has more oomph, costs the same, and that's even before we get into potato storage.
- gorgoiler 6y ago
  Portability and first class Linux support are big selling points. It just works. (It literally did just work — shipping arrived first thing this morning, armhf Raspberry Pi OS installed and running within half an hour.) I’d love to try an Atom / Intel compute stick if you had a recommendation though.

SillaDeRuedas 6y ago

Amazing! Isn't this the greatest idea ever?

grugagag 6y ago

Honest question. How is that any better than a small laptop? Is the price point that makes the difference?

gorgoiler 6y ago
The price, and I’m also interested in portability and robustness. My plan is to hot desk with this thing between three locations: my office in school, my classroom, and my home office. I also want something weird. Kids kind of look down on PCs and especially Linux. It’s seen as kind of crappy compared to the shiny of iPhones and Windows gaming rigs. I hope to show them that there’s a third kind of computer with which one can do a lot, that also happens to be pocketable and under $100. (And also: ANSI keyboard Pinebook Pro has been sold out for weeks.)
- wayneftw 6y ago
  You could do the same thing with a $100/150 NUC and get better performance and software compatibility - https://www.amazon.com/Wintel-Pro-Mini-ordenador-T8/dp/B083V1BKZM https://www.amazon.com/Wintel-Pro-Mini-ordenador-T8/dp/B083V...
  - postalrat 6y ago
    I wish Intel or some other company would make a usb-c pc stick. So that I can plug it into a usb-c hub, do work, then later move to another usb-c hub and continue.
    - rovr138 6y ago
      Similar to this, https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/boards-kits/compute-stick/stk1a32sc.html https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/boards-kits...

Klinky 6y ago

I would be prepared to be underwhelmed at using a rpi as a desktop. Graphics drivers still need work. This is where I think Apple can do it right. They can tune drivers and fully optimize system performance, since they basically own the whole stack, and won't be stuck with proprietary broken blobs or reverse engineering a 3rd party design.

eikenberry 6y ago
> This is where I think Apple can do it right. While Apple has open sourced a few things, I doubt they will open source their graphics drivers. Though one can hope.
- Klinky 6y ago
  I don't expect them to open source anything. I expect them to produce competent drivers for macOS and provide the first truly decent and performant desktop experience for an ARM SoC.
gorgoiler 6y ago
I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos of, ironically, people using Raspberry Pis to watch YouTube videos. The UI seems snappy, and I can live without full screen 1080p — the only thing that seems poor is full screen full resolution video. Is there anything else I should be looking out for? Raspberry Pi 4 is now OpenGL ES 3.0 certified, so I’m expecting it to only get faster with time. My main concern is a Pi5 being released and my “old” hardware becoming obsolete.
- simcop2387 6y ago
  I wouldn't expect a pi5 any time soon. Maybe another revision of the pi4 or a new compute module system that allows a proper pi4 compute module (apparently not enough pins on the sodimm form factor they use currently to give the pcie lanes and other things the processor supports).
- geerlingguy 6y ago
  Here was my experience a few weeks ago: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2020/i-replaced-my-macbook-pro-raspberry-pi-4-8gb-day https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2020/i-replaced-my-macbook... Just as a helpful data point.

DesiLurker 6y ago

NanoPi M4V2 may be better. plus you can install nvme drives in it for additional io perf.

gorgoiler 6y ago
I love the diversity in this space but unfortunately I’ve been burned by off-brand pi stuff before. Pine’s RockPro64 and Libre Renegade Elite are two lovely RK3399 devices that I’ve tried. However, each has sufficient quirks that something more mainstream like the Raspberry Pi 4 (with a wide user base, more Google hits for common problems, etc) will hopefully let me focus on using the device as opposed to getting it to function. Non-RPi SBCs also seem to require a lot of off-brand community patches to get them working. I’m pretty wary of bringing an OS build which I downloaded from a third party github page onto a campus full of children. I don’t have any reason to believe the community builds are nefarious, but it’s less of a risk to stick with Raspberry Pi, IMHO.
- hoistbypetard 6y ago
  > Pine’s RockPro64 and Libre Renegade Elite are two lovely RK3399 devices that I’ve tried. However, each has sufficient quirks that something more mainstream like the Raspberry Pi 4 (with a wide user base, more Google hits for common problems, etc) will hopefully let me focus on using the device as opposed to getting it to function. The Pinebook pro is really nice (I've had one since the beginning of the year) but I completely share your sentiment. I really like mine and spend almost no time fiddling with it now. It made a really nice, reliable daily driver for my son this spring during the sudden and unplanned distance learning the pandemic brought us. But I would not recommend it to anyone whose computer I couldn't/wouldn't personally fix right now. It's close, but not there yet IMO. Bootstrapping, power management and sound all have more rough edges than running Linux on a normal x86 system does right now. I say this fondly: it's still a bit of a project right now. (That's part of the fun for me, but doesn't match your stated focus at all.)

squarefoot 6y ago

The RPi4 is excellent as video player using Libreelec/Kodi, but for some reasons their desktop Linux distro still doesn't support video acceleration, so be prepared to sluggish performance for a while. I also experienced lots of Firefox crashes when playing Youtube videos from the desktop, but cannot tell if due to the interface slowness for the above reasons.

Const-me 6y ago
> their desktop Linux distro still doesn't support video acceleration Works fine on my Pi4 with official 32-bit Debian Buster OS: https://github.com/Const-me/Vrmac/tree/master/VrmacVideo https://github.com/Const-me/Vrmac/tree/master/VrmacVideo Based on CPU usage, the included VLC player uses same API.

ClumsyPilot 6y ago

I never understood this obsession with PI as a desktop machine, tlits such a poor choice. A 2013 Intel Atom has more oomph, costs the same, and that's even before we get into potato storage.

gorgoiler 6y ago
Portability and first class Linux support are big selling points. It just works. (It literally did just work — shipping arrived first thing this morning, armhf Raspberry Pi OS installed and running within half an hour.) I’d love to try an Atom / Intel compute stick if you had a recommendation though.