Raspberry Pi3B desktop systems

Having recently 'discovered' how useful the RPi3 can be as a basic desktop system, I was wondering who else is using them as a desktop computer.

Which operating system do you use?

Do you use microSD cards or do you use USB drives, & if so, what kind?
(HDD, SSD, Pendrive, SD/SDHC card in a USB adapter, etc.)

What type of screen do you use?
(Regular desktop monitor, a TV, etc.)

How do you use yours?
(Internet browsing, music player, film viewing, etc.)

I own two RPi3, & connect to VGA & HDMI monitors, &/or TV.
My main use of them is web browsing & playing music.

I have a Raspbian installation (without the heavy programming applications) as my main system, running from a 32GB pendrive.

(I also have NetBSD/16GB microSD card - PiCore/4GB pendrive - Raspbian Lite/4GB pendrive - OpenBSD/4GB pendrive.)

I'm surprised no one else here is using one - they're so inexpensive & fun to use.

I have a pi, a pi2 and a pi3 too. Yes, it is fun. pi3 is a multimedia center (running kodi), pi2 is a fileserver and used for my own tasks, also desktop can be started on it (but usually not running). My pi is built into my model railroad system.
All are running raspbian from a (micro)SD card, no additional HDD/SSD/whatever. Also there is no monitor attached (but the TV)

I have a Pi zero W that is used for logging temperature/humidity and a Pi2 as a play toy but neither as just a desktop computer.

I use a rpi 3 for my main computer. And I'm running Quirky http://puppylinux.org/main/Download%...ase.htm#quirky on it since i do a lot of c/c++ it's much easier to set up then raspbian and a lot faster too.

I can even use it to record from my scarlet studio usb Mic interface!

All in all that was 35 bucks spent wisely.

I was just looking at FatDog the other day, & it seems like it has a version that should work, so I will take a look at it sometime, running from ram would certainly speed up my RPi3.

Originally Posted by Mill J I use a rpi 3 for my main computer. And I'm running Quirky http://puppylinux.org/main/Download%...ase.htm#quirky on it since i do a lot of c/c++ it's much easier to set up then raspbian and a lot faster too. I can even use it to record from my scarlet studio usb Mic interface! All in all that was 35 bucks spent wisely.

RPI 3 is a very slow hardware. It is better to wait for RPI 4 or 5...

Originally Posted by patrick295767 RPI 3 is a very slow hardware. It is better to wait for RPI 4 or 5...

I'm assuming this is sarcastic?

@fatMac Ive never heard of fatdog but it sounds very similar to Quirky,except Quirky uses the ubuntu arm repo. this makes it very nice

Originally Posted by fatmac I'm surprised no one else here is using one - they're so inexpensive & fun to use.

Well I checked into that several times. Talking from my point of view I have to spend 100 Euros. Not the hey look like its a few bucks.Rasp pi 3 ~40 Euros + small bits like sdcard, power supply, case and such. IT sums up everytime at 80-100 Euros

The pi zero was never 5 us dollars in central europe. They sold it for aournd 40 Euros in germany for example. I saw from a german reseller for electronic hobbyist a rasp kit with ~7" screen and such for a total of 250-300 Euros.


Next the rasp has issues with hdmi connectors its very fragile what I have read.

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In comparision a mainbord with soldered cpu and passive or active cooling costs around 45-60 Euros. You need a power supply and one ram Stick. I am also most probably at 100 Euros.

I have a lot of VGA monitors. I begged those Windows noobs to have em, because they gift them away in my area now. Everyone uses hdmi or whatever it is now. The rasp does not support VGA without nasty hacks.

Sadly a plain mainboard with soldered cpu + second hand power supply + second hand ram stick is far cheaper, costs half as a rasp pi in central europe. And has many benefits because harddrives work, VGA works, has several usb, no power supply issues. much faster, nearly same power consumption,

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I also considered using a rasp pi as a desktop.

The big issue with it, is the power supply, as you need more amps and that's a hidden flaw.

Lets assume I have many peripherals and some harddrives. than the rasp is out of juice because of the flawed power supply.
also i am quite certain i can not plugin 2x sata 3 SSDs at native speed.

Requirement as it worst: 2x SATA3; 1x printer, 1x keyboard, 1x mouse, 2x screen, 1x wireless lan, 1x optical drive to burn a disc for my car, 1x gamepad, 1x headset and microphone

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Power consumption vs useability wins any ~10 Watts mainbaord with soldered amd apu. intel gpus are not useable for anything.

Originally Posted by Mill J I'm assuming this is sarcastic? @fatMac Ive never heard of fatdog but it sounds very similar to Quirky,except Quirky uses the ubuntu arm repo. this makes it very nice

I'm quite certain any pentium 4 beats the hell out of that rasp pi.
When you want to encode something you can use the special instructions which the arm does not offer at all.

for a basic desktop use you can use a pentium 3 notebook wit 850 mhz also. that also plays mp3, can browse the web.

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Go ahead and compile your gentoo on arm. Than you will see how fast it is. AFAIK it takes very long what I have read in the past. Than crosscompile than you will see the difference.

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ARM = Nexus 4 Smartphone. It is around 4 years by now old. It gets hot, it is sluggish. it s also arm. You can now argue with me it is not a rasp, but from architecture, and comparison it is nearly the same in my point of view. I think nexus 4 should be more powerful from the cpu, but with much worser heat management. I think nexus 4 has the benefit of more RAM, and 16GB Flash rom on board, which the rasp does not have. It needs an SD card

There are many old smartphones out there? Which are hardly in use. I never understood why none really bothers reusing them.

@_roman_ Before we continue...have you ever used a RaspberryPi 3?

I run slackARM on mine and use it primarily as a backup and fileserver. I attempted to use an Rpi2 as a media center with Kodi in the past and I just wasn’t too impressed. Went back to my roku3 with Plex. They are so cheap and fun to play with. My friends and I did some onboard drone projects with an Rpi3.

Originally Posted by Mill J I'm assuming this is sarcastic? @fatMac Ive never heard of fatdog but it sounds very similar to Quirky,except Quirky uses the ubuntu arm repo. this makes it very nice

This serious of course. Haven't you noticed how slow runs the Raspberry (using X11 apps) ?

Tinycore is definitely a good way to do something with it, but certainly not Ubuntu or Debian on it.

Originally Posted by patrick295767 This serious of course. Haven't you noticed how slow runs the Raspberry (using X11 apps) ? Tinycore is definitely a good way to do something with it, but certainly not Ubuntu or Debian on it.

Yes raspbian is slow. But I'm impressed with Quirky, it'll boot to the desktop in less than 20 seconds. It also ships with the full LibreOffice suite that isn't slow at all(at least not what I use it for. I even installed Gimp on it, sure it's a little slow and one of the more advanced features is unusable because of ram.

But the thing is, likely by the time 5 is released, it'll still be slow by those standards.