Ask HN: Does anyone use a Raspberry Pi as your main computer?

I've done so as a trial for a week, and then while traveling. It's not something I'd want to do unless the tiny form factor and price were strict requirements. I found it perfectly adequate for my style of programming (vim + command line), and occasional web browsing (limited when traveling, just to assist in doing stuff off the computer, like buying tickets, but even then, I'd mostly use my phone).

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30783775

> I spent some time traveling where my only computer was a Raspberry Pi 4 running 64 bit mode, and the only sensible graphics performance I could get in wayland was with “foot”. https://codeberg.org/dnkl/foot

> I was really only using it while staying with family and friends where I was always able to use an old monitor or a tiny "bedroom/kitchen" TV, but a hotel TV would be fine too (I'm assuming ports aren't blocked). I brought a Logitech K400 which is small, wireless, and has a builtin trackpad. Was also only using it for programming and basic web browsing. I don't recommend the keyboard (keys are a bit wobbly, some odd key positioning and shapes, definitely takes some getting used to, and the trackpad is relatively poor), but I just wanted something I could use for an hour or two a day, and it was perfectly acceptable for that. If I had to use it for a few more hours, I'd just bring a proper keyboard and mouse (weight permitting).

> I was confident I'd be fine though, I set it up in advance and used it briefly on the couch with a tiny monitor for about a week.

> I strongly recommend taking advantage of the USB HDD boot that's now supported on Pi 4 -- even some 15 year old 60GB spinning platter you have lying around from a long dead laptop is in my experience going to be faster than an SD card. USB3 to SATA connectors are cheap and reliable.

> The reason I did it was just trying not to be wasteful. My laptop died and I have no problem getting a new one, but I'm pretty sure I'll need a new one in a year for work -- the problem is I won't know the specifications (even OS, architecture, etc.) that I'll need until then, so I just wanted to see if I could get away without having to guess in advance. Generally I like to buy only when I need to, and to buy the best thing available at that time (within reason), and use that for a long time.

My uses that are not as a main computer, are that I use a Raspberry Pi 3B+ primarily as a Plex server (streaming content from two big USB3 connected WD HDDs to a PS4 via DLNA), but also a few other things (gitea, Time Machine (though my Macbook is now defunct), tunneling to a supercheap VPS elsewhere). I also use that same RPi3B+ and a Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB, running in 64-bit mode) for occasional ARM dev (armv7h and aarch64, respectively), but it's purely educational (assembly, etc.)

Except that Udoo is 10x the price I paid for a pi 4, actually 13x including exchange rates.

I have a Pi 4 (8gb) that I use as a home web server. I use a USB flash drive for the OS (Raspbian)/storage and run Apache on it. I have it running in a case with heat sink and a fan. It's quite a useful device for my purposes but it simply isn't up to the task of general computing. I notice big lags when trying to do literally anything. Even just opening up a code editor (VS Code) and a single browser tab you'd think the thing was on its last legs.

I ssh into it from my Windows machine and that seems to work really well. I have noticed a slight amount of lag in the ssh sessions but it's nominal and not a show stopper.

That being said, I only use it as a server and for the last year haven't had a single issue with it. I love it for what it is and want as many as I can get my hands on.

I was going to say this. The sdcard is the weak link in the Raspberry Pi system. Even a USB flash drive is better. I have a Pi 4 that I use as a secondary system and it boots from an external SSD. It makes a real difference in responsiveness.

Did you jump of the MacOS upgrade path? I had to get rid of a computer that couldn't upgrade around the same age (but maybe slightly older)