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[West Texas CEO]

So,

I got two Raspberry Pi 4's about 18 months ago, before they became scarce.

My first thoughts were, "how cool, a mini computer!"

Well Raspberry Pi's are NOTHING like a PC. After 18 months, only one of them is barely in use.

You spend hours upon hours googling around why things doesn't work, boot, start, etc..
Then you spend even more hours figuring out errors and when it starts working its
always a disappointment.

Retropie is one (perhaps only) thing that Raspberry Pi does half decent, although it takes hours to
get it to work.

Then you try different takes on Kodi, which is garbage and debatably illegal.

After my 4th attempt getting a "cool gaming machine" I got close.
Had to buy the NESPI Case just to get elementary things like shutting off to work.

After a week of trying to get my second Raspberry Pi to work as a music player with touch screen
I'm simply giving up. I'm tired of googling, tired of guessing what people mean, tired of errors,
tired of things not working 100%.

Whatever you guys think Raspberry can do, a PC or an android phone can do multitudes better.

These "mini computers" will eventually fade away because they wont ever be of practical use
to most people.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

You spend hours upon hours googling around why things doesn't work, boot, start, etc..
Then you spend even more hours figuring out errors and when it starts working its
always a disappointment.

Just download Linux like the rest of us

 

[West Texas CEO]

Just download Linux like the rest of us

I get confused by the plethora of flavors.

 

[dem]

Looks like you had the Raspberry Pi experience.
That's what they are for.... tinkering and learning.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

I get confused by the plethora of flavors.

Like most things, you’re safe with Mint.

 

[Artoris]

So,

I got two Raspberry Pi 4's about 18 months ago, before they became scarce.

My first thoughts were, "how cool, a mini computer!"

Well Raspberry Pi's are NOTHING like a PC. After 18 months, only one of them is barely in use.

You spend hours upon hours googling around why things doesn't work, boot, start, etc..
Then you spend even more hours figuring out errors and when it starts working its
always a disappointment.

Retropie is one (perhaps only) thing that Raspberry Pi does half decent, although it takes hours to
get it to work.

Then you try different takes on Kodi, which is garbage and debatably illegal.

After my 4th attempt getting a "cool gaming machine" I got close.
Had to buy the NESPI Case just to get elementary things like shutting off to work.

After a week of trying to get my second Raspberry Pi to work as a music player with touch screen
I'm simply giving up. I'm tired of googling, tired of guessing what people mean, tired of errors,
tired of things not working 100%.

Whatever you guys think Raspberry can do, a PC or an android phone can do multitudes better.

These "mini computers" will eventually fade away because they wont ever be of practical use
to most people.

I look at it as an educational thing, and even then you are probably better off learning from something more conventional

 

[badblue]

These "mini computers" will eventually fade away because they wont ever be of practical use
to most people.

They were never practical for most people to begin with.

 

[ÆMNE22A!C]

Man that's quite the frustrating journey.

 

[Sleepwalker]

It's a piece of shit, just buy one of those actual mini computers that come with windows 11 and are like $150-$200 with an amd APU.

 

[gothmog]

You left out who fooled you and what did you think you were getting?

 

[Valonquar]

Make one a PiHole and point all your stuff to it for DNS. No more ads anywhere.

 

[West Texas CEO]

You left out who fooled you and what did you think you were getting?

I was fooled by the hype surrounding these crappy devices.

They even have have a RasPi built into a keyboard to make you think it could function as a regular PC.

It does not.

And Raspberry Pi Zeroes are even worse!

 

[gothmog]

I was fooled by the hype surrounding these crappy devices.

They even have have a RasPi built into a keyboard to make you think it could function as a regular PC.

It does not.

And Raspberry Pi Zeroes are even worse!

I think you just were misinformed. Use one as a pihole device. I use it on my Synology as a container now but it was working great on a standalone Pi3

 

[nightmare-slain]

I had a raspberry pi and sold it because it's too much trouble. I like fucking about with computers and know more about them than most people but I wouldn't call myself an expert.

Linux can be difficult to get it working properly especially on a Raspberry Pi. I've had a lot of bother getting Linux installed on my PC. The most basic shit you'd expect to just work requires doing a search and messing about. I'm talking about things like getting sound, internet connection, setting proper resolution/refresh rate.

The most stable flavours are Ubuntu and Mint. Those are the only two I'd recommend to any newcomer to Linux.

I wanted to buy a new Raspberry Pi but can't find them anywhere and anyway I know it'll get pissed off and sell it lol. I was using Ubuntu as my main OS but can't get it working at all now since upgrading my PC. That's another issue Linux has. It didn't like my new GPU so wouldn't boot into it lol.

 

[Eotheod]

How you are struggling is beyond me, it was pretty simple to buy a Pi4 8GB, install Raspi x64, join wifi and away I went. I use it for pihole, but I've also got it running ROMs if I want to play on big screen, and it also functions as a UniFi server too. Come out house extensions, I'll have it as the central controller for IOT devices as well.

I'm planning on purchasing a smaller Pi to build a cat deterrent to stop one of our cats eating food from others. Would just be a simple board connected to a small dot camera that recognises the cat by profile and sprays water at them.

 

[HoodWinked]

The problem is always some default config is just slightly off and it takes hours to troubleshoot.

Its mostly just a fuck around tinkering thing. I used one to cast my computer to a TV but it kept breaking when nvidia updated their drivers.

 

[Kilau]

I think they are great. I made a NAS, call it a PINAS so I don’t have to leave a loud, hot, power hungry PC on to serve Plex and other files. Also doubles as a network controller.

If you don’t have a use for one then sorry but they are good devices.

 

[Ribi]

Just buy a steam deck and use it as a computer

 

[EddieVanHelgen]

Snake oil.

 

[MayauMiao]

I would love to get one and turn it into a retro game emulation box if only it had slightly more horsepower.

Waiting for Pi 5.

 

[Lasha]

Are you unfamiliar with Linux? Raspberry Pi are best used as Linux PC. My children use a pi 4 as their main computer without any issues. I flashed two older ones with LibreELEC to use as Kodi boxes. They are great devices.

 

[Dr_Salt]

I use them as arcade emulators.

 

[John Marston]

Goddamn you I always check out your threads even if the title would be "Potato big breasts hot air balloon midgets on fire with Mia Khalifa swimming pools".

 

[AREYOUOKAY?]

Are you trying to do everything on your own or using a premade build?

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I remember hearing about these. I think they were about $100. And videos would say it's the best way to play retro games on a TV. Buy one of these, get a case with it, install tons of roms and go. Add a PC gamepad and it's around $150 CDN.

I said fuck it and bought one of those Pandora arcade things from China with like 1000 games on it for about the same price, since it was less hassle.

 

[Corian33]

I discovered them years ago. Only tinkered a bit, but I made a RetroPie that has like every possible game from NES/SNES/GBC/GBA and the other consoles of the era.

Spent maybe 3-4 hours getting that set up. The device + case + SD card + Bluetooth SNES controller was like $60 altogether. Still works perfectly fine 5 years later.

Worth the money and time to me.

 

[Torrent of Pork]

Pis are alright as a basic web-browsing, and light office work Linux desktop replacement, just not at their current prices.

 

[mopspear]

I got fooled twice and still don't know what to do with them. If you want a retro box like with Lakka or Batocera, I say just but a refurbished small PC. I got one and it's much simpler and more powerful.

 

[AGRacing]

I saw this today at a mall near me.

Looks like the folks at Adidas share your frustration.

 

[Northeastmonk]

I want to learn Linux as a network engineer. I see these Pi’s used as honeypots. I’d splurge and get a pf sense firewall. Those Pi’s don’t seem powerful enough to be a firewall, but they’re more practical as a controller or monitoring device. Do some at home pen testing or put it on its own VLAN and have it manage something. Funny thing is when I was an intern I ordered one of the first 64 bit mini cards and ran Oreo or something very old on it. I was a Uber Noob in IT, so I didn’t see it’s potential.

 

[Soodanim]

I saw this today at a mall near me.

Looks like the folks at Adidas share your frustration.

That's not surprising, the retail company I used to work for used them for the shop floor screens as well. They're perfect for certain scenarios, they used to be £30 mini machines that were excellent at being low power devices set up to silently drive something (PiHole being a perfect example). And of course the cheap education possibilities that made them a somewhat altruistic product.

When you go into higher power territory it sort of loses the idea of what Pi was originally supposed to be and you might as well get something else.

I don't know how Pi prices are these days, but they shot right up for a while and made them near useless.

 

[GymWolf]

You should have got a strawberry cheesecake instead.

 

[Raonak]

You do sound like a bit of a fool.

What do you expect? it's a cheap micro computer for tech enthusiasts to work on custom projects.

It's not meant to be some sort of general use computer.

 

[Drew1440]

OP should have got an Nvidia Shield or the Amazon Fire TV Cube, both can easily be made into emulation machines and can support upto the Dreamcast, Gamecube if you get the 3rd Gen Fire TV Cube.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Raspberry Pi's are for building PiHoles

 

[Joramun]

Like everything else there's levels to this.

I like tinkering with hardware and can troubleshoot and figure out sys admin stuff but programming is something I'm weak at.

Some devs at work are pretty good at coding but man do they suck at using computers/systems. They always get confused between their normal accounts and admin accounts and when and how to use them when remoting into systems.

Give Linux a go if pi isn't your thing.

Plus pi's are so expensive now you're better off buying a second hand sff.

 

[Wildebeest]

They don't have to be useful to most people, in terms of the sort of common apps you would see installed on a phone, their purpose it to be useful to some oddball who comes up with some novel use for them, hopefully not involving high explosives in residential areas.

 

[Ar¢tos]

I've used a pi3 as my main pc for 2 years without problems, then converted it into a media player with libreelec until 4 days ago, when a kodi update finally made my smart TV a better media player.
You just need to be aware of its limitations and keep your expectations realistic.

 

[nightmare-slain]

I saw this today at a mall near me.

Looks like the folks at Adidas share your frustration.

looks like it might be an issue with the OS. at first i thought the SD card might be removed but it is detected. the QR code takes you to a page saying you need an OS and shows you how to download it. the partition stuff seems to suggest that there is an issue with the installation. you can see it is meant to boot from USB-MSD (mass storage device) but that looks like that is what is causing the issue.

 

[YCoCg]

Considering the thread title I was REALLY hoping this was going to be about someone conning you into buying a truck load of Raspberry Pies "I was told they'd have great resell value! But they all went bad right away!!" *Seinfeld music*

 

[nightmare-slain]

at least you weren't fooled into a cream pie

 

[Deleted member 1159]

That reminds me, ever since I upgraded my internet my Pi 4 I was using as a pihole has gone unused…I should do something with it.

 

[01011001]

I mean, it's supposed to he a hobbyist platform mostly.
tinkering is part of that.

my cousin, who has 2 left hands when it comes to technology, managed to make an emulation box out of a Pi 3, so it can't be that hard

 

[nightmare-slain]

That reminds me, ever since I upgraded my internet my Pi 4 I was using as a pihole has gone unused…I should do something with it.

just curious what what upgrades did you make that you don't need a pihole?

i run adguard DNS through my router so all devices have basic adblocking and on my PC i have Firefox with uBlock and a few other extensions. That does a good job of blocking ads. on my iPhone I have Private Relay and Wipr extension along with all the other privacy settings in Safari.

I did think about getting a Raspberry Pi for pihole but I don't know if it's worth it.

 

[Deleted member 1159]

just curious what what upgrades did you make that you don't need a pihole?

i run adguard DNS through my router so all devices have basic adblocking and on my PC i have Firefox with uBlock and a few other extensions. That does a good job of blocking ads. on my iPhone I have Private Relay and Wipr extension along with all the other privacy settings in Safari.

I did think about getting a Raspberry Pi for pihole but I don't know if it's worth it.

It’s not that the upgrade removed the need for it, it’s just I haven’t bothered figuring out how to make it work with Google Fiber. I’m sure it’s possible if I bought and set up my own router, but for now I’m just using the mesh system that came with it and…5 months later still haven’t bothered customizing anything.

 

[nightmare-slain]

It’s not that the upgrade removed the need for it, it’s just I haven’t bothered figuring out how to make it work with Google Fiber. I’m sure it’s possible if I bought and set up my own router, but for now I’m just using the mesh system that came with it and…5 months later still haven’t bothered customizing anything.

sorry my bad i read your post the wrong way lol.

i dont know anything about Google Fiber but my router is an Asus AX86U and i run Merlin on it.

i assume Google gives you a modem/router and that's what you're using? my ISP gave me a modem/router but it sucks so i put it in modem mode and added my own router.

 

[Deleted member 1159]

sorry my bad i read your post the wrong way lol.

i dont know anything about Google Fiber but my router is an Asus AX86U and i run Merlin on it.

i assume Google gives you a modem/router and that's what you're using? my ISP gave me a modem/router but it sucks so i put it in modem mode and added my own router.

That’s essentially what I’d have to do. There’s a modem that has an Ethernet out, which goes to a mesh router and there’s a repeater upstairs. It seems like the settings/options on the mesh system are extremely limited, and can only be accessed via phone app, but I could just plug my own router in and set it up how I like. I just haven’t felt the need or gotten around to it tbh. Maybe when I build a new PC that I wire into it directly so I can get the full gigabit speeds I’ll do something like that.

 

[drganon]

I used one as an emulation system for my tv. Didn't have any issues with it.

 

[AJUMP23]

Make one a PiHole and point all your stuff to it for DNS. No more ads anywhere.

I need to do this. But I don’t know how.

 

[nightmare-slain]

Make one a PiHole and point all your stuff to it for DNS. No more ads anywhere.

is it better than using uBlock or setting a DNS on your router? i have adguard DNS on my router for all my devices (except Switch because the eShop won't load).

does the pihole run something like ublock on it in addition to what you'd find in adblocking DNS servers?