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What I learned from using a Raspberry Pi 5 as my main computer for two weeks (arstechnica.com)
submitted 2 years ago by leo@lemmy.linuxuserspace.show to c/news@lemmy.linuxuserspace.show
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[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I think you should look at the pi in a different context.

Imagine you’re writing a book and you can’t get stuff done while you’re stuck here with the rest of us. You decide to sail around the world on a boat and use the time to finish that book before the deadline.

The solar panels aren’t enough to power a gaming PC, but they are enough for a pi and a small display. You don’t want to bring a laptop, because you’re really picky about the keyboards you use. However, a pi with your favorite keyboard with custom hello kitty key caps and fine tuned switches should make that experience more pleasant.

Even if you’re not stuck on a boat, having a limited environment like this could help you focus on getting stuff done. Sure, you could watch YT all day long, but you wouldn’t really enjoy it on this computer. Adding that extra threshold to distractions might give you the productivity boost you’re looking for. Unless of course if productivity means doing computationally intensive things like 3D modeling, animation, video editing etc.

[–] leo@lemmy.linuxuserspace.show 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That's a really cool thought. But the more I think about it, the more I see that these ARM chips in the Pis are getting faster and faster with every iteration, so a distraction free experience may not last forever. They're brute forcing the path to something as powerful as an M-series chip, and it'll be at a much lower cost when they get closer to the end result. Once it actually gets there, you'll be able to plug that keyboard with the Hello Kitty keycaps into it, too!

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I kinda agree for the most part. Obviously, that distraction free environment isn’t going to last forever. However, performance and the demand for it tends to grow hand in hand, so what’s considered acceptable entertainment isn’t fixed.

In the past, the pi has always been a low power device, and that’s the way it’s probably going to continue in the future. Obviously, you’ll be able to do more with the same amount of power, but the demand for the computational performance tends to increase all the time.

What’s considered a distraction depends on the decade during which you’re asking that question. Sure, you can distract yourself by playing SuperTuxKart on a pi right now, but why would you when you know about Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk, Genshin Impact, Destiny 2, ray tracing and all the modern bells and whistles. Besides, you still have that book to write, so are you really going to play (subjectively) boring arcade games to distract yourself. In that sense, the definition of a “limited environment” is fluid and might apply to the pi much longer than expected.

It also depends on the person. If you’re really into games more than 20 years old, then the pi really can’t offer you a quiet environment at all. To you, it’s an entertainment device at that point. In that sense, the pi has never been a distraction fully free environment. On the other hand, it has always been a low-power device which means that the performance has been years behind what you would expect from a cheap laptop.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

From that article it seems ARM linux desktop is still rough.