Can Raspberry Pi Be Used as a PC? A Week-Long Experiment

The Raspberry Pi is a fantastic little “computer,” but can it replace the desktop computers used in offices or schools? Recently, I had more thoughts on this topic after discussing it on Twitter (I am a huge fan of Raspberry Pi), so I decided to put it into practice and give it a try.

For the next seven days, I only used a Raspberry Pi. Every piece of work I wrote and edited over the week was done on this credit card-sized computer.

Can Raspberry Pi really be used as a desktop computer?

From Twitter, I learned that the desktop computers commonly used in schools are quite outdated, and my idea was supported:

– Christian Cawley (@ChristianCawley) February 15, 2019

Of course, there are dissenting voices (from a previous Twitter conversation with my partner):

– Alan Apter (@alanapter) February 15, 2019

To be fair, he is correct about the RAM issue, and whether it can really replace a desktop computer still needs to be tested. Generally, what regular tasks do desktop computers handle?

• Internet connection (browsing)

• Email

• Web browsing

• Word processing and spreadsheets

• Printing

• Chatting (WeChat, QQ, Weibo, Twitter)

These functions are feasible on Raspberry Pi’s default operating system – Raspbian Stretch. With the right setup and customization, doing these daily tasks shouldn’t be a problem.

However, it is undeniable that these functions may not meet everyone’s needs, but for my daily work, they are more than sufficient:

• Sending and receiving emails

• Editing work

• Proofreading writing

• Internet hotspot research and statistics

• Editing photos and screenshots

• Playing music

Let’s get straight to the point and give it a try.

Day 1: Initial Setup

First, I took out the keyboard, mouse, and monitor, then connected the Raspberry Pi to the internet, and I was ready to go.

There are 12 types of Raspberry Pi devices to choose from, and I chose the Raspberry Pi 3 B +.

This computer is equipped with a 1.4GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU, 1GB of RAM, built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and four USB ports. Additionally, there is a microSD card slot for primary storage, and although I only used 8GB, any extra storage I needed would be provided via USB flash drive.

I usually work day shifts, so setting up the Raspberry Pi in advance made sense. Therefore, I prepared everything on Sunday night. Of course, no one wants to waste time “fiddling” with a computer on a Sunday night, and fortunately, setting up my Raspberry Pi desktop took less than 30 minutes.

Day 2: Issues with Wireless Mouse

Monday was mainly a trial phase to see how far I could push this computer. I researched what could slow down the computer? What applications should I avoid loading?

Unfortunately, the wireless mouse was “holding me back.” There was a half-second delay with every move and click, which was unbearable for my “perfectionist” tendencies. Fortunately, I was able to resolve this issue with a small edit to /boot/cmdline.txt

sudo nano /boot/cmdline.txt

Here, I scrolled to the end of the line and added:

usbhid.mousepoll=0

After saving and exiting (Ctrl + X), I rebooted the Raspberry Pi. After the reboot, the mouse was no longer lagging! What a relief!

It seemed like a tough day, but everything returned to normal within minutes. The browser and plugins I needed worked properly, and every browsing and editing task I performed was seamless.

Day 3: Essential Functions No Different Than a PC

This will be the day that decides success or failure: writing and internet data research. Can Raspberry Pi handle multiple browser tabs and word processing?

The display was fine, keeping four to five active tabs open. My main concern was syncing data from Dropbox, as this is essential for me. Fortunately, this went smoothly, allowing me to access my files and open them in Office Online.

While using LibreOffice is a great option, if this crazy idea didn’t work out, I could be “fired”… Meanwhile, the WordPress editing in the Raspberry Pi’s browser window was basically the same as using my usual laptop.

Day 4: Taking a Break

Today is the busiest day of the week, pulling out my “old-fashioned” laptop, and the Raspberry Pi computer gets a day off.

Day 5: Keyboard Not Very Comfortable

Today I resumed work with the Raspberry Pi.

So far, most things have been fine, but my typing experience on the keyboard has been terrible.

Anyone who types a lot needs to choose a decent, practical, and comfortable keyboard. This is a great lesson for any computing project, especially for desktop computers.

Day 6: Image Editing Works Fine

This is the last day working with the Raspberry Pi, and I have a few articles that need some images edited. I felt quite nervous as I began the process of installing GIMP and was pleasantly surprised to find it available in the Raspbian repository. A few minutes later, I was cropping and resizing images as if I were using a full desktop.

Don’t get me wrong. GIMP on the Raspberry Pi is not suited for high-end photo processing. However, it works well for medium-resolution photos and graphics.

Day 7: How About Gaming?

Finally, it’s Saturday, and I can try if I can play games.

The Raspberry Pi is an excellent retro gaming machine. With wireless HDMI, you can even stream the Raspberry Pi’s game content to your TV. Of course, you can stream games and install the famous Steam:

Steam should be installed on your PC, running and up to date.

When you launch Steam, it usually updates automatically, but if not, open the Steam menu and select check for Steam client updates.

After updating, go to View>Settings, then select Family Streaming. Here, check Enable Streaming and make sure the client options button is set to Balanced. (You might change this later to improve performance.)

Click “OK” to confirm.

Like your computer, the Raspberry Pi should be connected to your network via Ethernet. Once started, open a terminal window (using Ctrl + Alt + T shortcut) and enter:

sudo apt updatesudo apt install steamlink

The first command updates the Raspberry Pi’s package list. The second finds the Steam Link software in the package and installs it.

Wait for the process to complete and press Y to confirm if prompted. A moment later, the Steam Link software will be installed on your Raspberry Pi. Assuming you have games in your Steam library, you can start playing on your TV through the Raspberry Pi.

To launch the Steam Link software, open the menu on Raspberry Pi>Games>Steam Link.

A full-screen Steam interface will appear, showing your computer name and connected controller. Select your computer to start the network test. The Steam Link on the Raspberry Pi will prompt you to enter a PIN code on your computer, so do that and click “OK.”

If all goes well, you should see a message informing you that the network will be used with Steam Link. Use “OK” and “Back” to return to the main menu.

However, you might receive a notification to update drivers. Steam will handle this for you; just click “Install” when prompted.

After updating, you will be able to access your Steam library. Note that the software will run in the foreground on the PC (not as a background process), so make sure no one plans to use the computer while you are gaming.

Once everything is done, click the power button in Steam and then click stop streaming.

How Was the Final Experience?

So, after a week of experience, can the Raspberry Pi act as a substitute for a desktop PC? Here are my findings:

1. The pre-installed extensions in Chromium seem to conflict with the ones that automatically installed when I logged in with my Google account. Disabling the extra extensions resolved this issue.

2. Multiple browser tabs must be kept to a minimum.

3. The Raspberry Pi is not very portable.

4. Downloading from the cloud is slow.

5. Incorrect keyboards and/or mice can be troublesome.

6. GIMP runs on the Raspberry Pi, providing quality image editing.

Overall, these are minor issues that shouldn’t trouble most users, and they are within an acceptable and debuggable range. However, I mainly do writing, editing, and basic image editing, which is sufficient for office work.

In the end, this proved my view of the feasibility of the Raspberry Pi as a desktop PC. Certainly, there are some frustrating aspects, but it should be fine for students and office workers. The keyboard is an issue, but on the other hand, using a mouse is an advantage.

In short, I believe my point is that the Raspberry Pi is a suitable low-budget computer. It is not perfect, but it serves its purpose and can be a pretty decent device.

Looking for an economical or smart desktop computer alternative? If the Raspberry Pi isn’t suitable, you might also consider Samsung DeX, which has allowed Samsung phones and tablets to use a hidden desktop mode since 2018, enabling you to use Android like a PC.

Source: Makeuseof

Author: Christian Cawley

Translated by: Fu Bin