My father asked me to set up a Raspberry Pi with the essentials to try out Linux and potentially ditch Windows if he likes it enough. He specifically requested YouTube, Amazon Kindle, GIMP, Audacity, KeePass, and a text editor like Notepad. I’ve installed Armbian Debian with the Cinnamon desktop environment. What would you have chosen?
As for the essentials, I’m not sure where to find a list of the most commonly used programs to install. I’ve just installed what I think he would appreciate, for example, Firefox with uBlock Origin, SponsorBlock, KeePassXC-Browser, and G App Launcher extensions. Now I’m going to see if I can install Amazon Kindle and Notepad using Wine, along with a couple of alternatives like Calibre and gedit. Then I’ll set up a Google Drive folder so he can share his files with his main computer until he decides to switch. Finally, I’ll use Timeshift to create a snapshot after I’ve finished setting everything up.
What essentials am I missing? Do you have any suggestions?
edit: I’ve realized that this is a bad idea. I’ll just install Linux on one of his spare x86 computers and explain that many programs aren’t available for ARM. Then, after he gets used to Linux, I can install it on his current laptop and maybe move his Windows installation to the spare computer, if I can figure out how to do that.
Someone already explained why this is a bad idea.
Now if he’s interested in the microcontroller adjacent functions of the pi or the one built into a keyboard like the old amiga and trs home computers then set him up with a kvm switch or second monitor +barrier and a normal x86 computer running Linux.
I would strongly not recommend a raspberry pi
I see your edit, and would like to comment that you also haven’t mentioned which rpi you were going to try this on. I recently wanted to set up a quick little pc using a rpi, just so I could browse the web and maybe watch some videos. Tried a rpi2 I had laying around. No way. Moved to a rpi3, and while it would load most pages, youtube was a bust as it completely maxed out the ram and swap. I then went to a rpi4 with 8gb and it has been doable, kind of. Sometimes it’s pretty choppy with the video, but basic web browsing is ok. I did try my plex the other day through the browser and it was barely acceptable. Lots of stuttering and sometimes just hangs, but that’s not the ideal way to view plex on anything. Haven’t tried my rpi5 yet, but my point to all this is that I think you are on the right track setting it up on a spare pc he has. If you had given him a rpi as a ‘desktop’ replacement it might have just soured him on the whole idea.
Raspberry Pi 5 with 8 GB of RAM
Why do this on a raspberry pi and not just boot a live usb on his normal computer, or on a small partition?
Yeah, you’re risking a bad experience with the pi. You can probably get a cheap PC sans OS on eBay with a real drive. SD cards just crap out in an instant at random, so if your whole OS is on one… One day he’s gonna turn it on and EVERYTHING will be gone. Every SD card I’ve ever relied on for OS purposes in a Pi or Android situation has just died within a few years.
My main concern is if its him trying out linux for the first time and hes on a pi he might associate things like no ARM compatility for some programs, slowness due to low system specs, etc with the linux os rather than with the pi itself. Its comparing apples to oranges. To compare 2 OSes you should run them on the same type of machine.
He already has a couple spare computers. I don’t really know why he asked to try it on the Pi.
if he wants to try it on the pi itll def work and all just maybe explain the experience wont really be the same he would get on a regular pc also to really try linux out id suggest letting him try a bunch of different DEs and see which he likes. Personally i think on small screen mobile devices like a laptop that Gnome is best, and on a desktop id go with KDE plasma. Cinnamon is also pretty good just depends what you want.
I don’t know I would have to ask him.
That seems fine. Honestly, if he’s new to Linux and wants something stable, maybe consider an atomic distro. But Debian is pretty damn good.
I’d wait until he has requests. Ask for feedback about what he feels like he’s missing and make updates as needed. Easier than trying to anticipate.
You can have a look at what’s popular on flathub.org
Definitely do get Freetube as a YouTube client!
Notepad in wine is pointless compared to something like gedit, which you have, or similar editors like geany or kwrite. Cinnamon might even have their own basic text editor. And then there are further options like mousepad from the xfce project or featherpad from the lxqt project.
Notepad in wine will just lead to frustration because of poorer integration.
Finally, I just saw your edit and I think you’re spot on. Not because of ARM, which is actually decently supported, but because running an OS off of a microSD card is slow and tedious. It just isn’t made for that quick, small random access.
