How much time do I need to install operating system on my laptop? Maybe an hour… for everything from “i would…” to “done”. Including creating bootable USB drive and installing software (maybe without these few 30GB+ installers). And it doesnt matter if i will install Windows 10, 11 or one of these most known linux distros like Ubuntu.
How much time have i spent on Raspberry Pi 4b 4GB to install an linux based OS? about 5-10 minutes including download of installer and copying files onto SSD.
How much time have i spent to make it WORKING… two days.
So lets talk about WHY THE HELL i have lost my mind and started to hate this small form factor computer.
I have started from sth that i know. Ubuntu Server. There is a new version – 22.10. Previously i have used 22.04 on the same RPI. But its newer… what can go wrong?
So US22.10 installs properly. BUT there is a caveat – if you will NOT give it a wifi specs on install… there is NO software to config it from CLI. If you give that config… there will be working networking BUT this system have “autoupdates: on” by default so … it will start to download you an updates and will kill your wifi connection anyways. Proper way is … to provide network ssid/pass via installer BUT turn off home network before first start of RPI, disable auto update…
I have not gone so far.
I have installed Raspberry Pi OS
And it also had autoupdates that killed my wifi.
Then i went into Ubuntu Desktop Raspberry Pi. It worked… kinda – after install i was able to disable autoupdates AND THEN put wifi credentials, and connect… But the hell this software is so messy. I hated it from beggining for things like:
- THREE apps to manage installed software
- NO WAY to uninstall unnecessary software “at once” – each removal = sudo password
- “ubuntu software” crashing every three uninstalls
- “ubuntu software” cannot update snapsomething because “ubuntu software” is open (yep!)
And ofcourse cherry on the top: after ALL updates, after all “we suggest…” shit… network died. I cannot connect into any of my home WiFis. Because? Oh now i don`t care.
I have decided “fuck off linux” but i opened this “Raspberry Pi Imager” and there was one more linux distro… Manjaro – ok ill try.
Manjaro Minimal – CLI based – doesnt have tools to configure network WITH encryption out of the box. And i cannot install it without wifi.
Manjaro snap? swap? sth like that crashed on first boot.
Manjaro KDE/Plazma – installed. worked at start really slow. But after few “disable nice looking stuff” clicks in settings it was ok. Updates… didnt destroy network setup! (SUCCESS Manjaro team! – and its fun that “not destroying” is a success). But … after all Firefox with 2 tabs was too much for it. And i dont have enough energy and time to spend to try another display manager like XFCE or other lightweight dm, download all updates and check if it is not destroyed. Sorry bro.
Decisions? None.
I wanted to swap my powerful laptop to small form factor machine to give me youtube music playback, maybe youtube 720p experience and 5-6 open tabs in firefox. And i will not buy anything to do it if i have laptop that can do it with usage lower then 30W because doing it it is still in idle mode.
And old SFF desktops are similiar power hungry, newer are expensive so it doesnt matter. Ill stay with my old setup and RPI will get some dust on it.