Last Updated on March 31, 2023 by pg@petergamma.org
LibreOffice and Firefox not recommended for Raspberry Pi OS, according to Jesse Smith from DistroWatch who reviewed Raspbian in 2015:
“Though I did not intend to run the Raspberry Pi as a desktop computer, the Raspbian operating system does provide users with the LXDE desktop environment. The Pi does not have a great deal of processor speed or memory, but it does have enough resources to run LXDE and a handful of applications. So long as the user does not wish to do a lot at once, the Pi offers a fairly responsive desktop interface. I probably would not run heavier programs such as LibreOffice or Firefox on the Pi, but Raspbian does provide the Epiphany web browser and a few other desktop programs.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi_OS
This review was written 8 years ago. But after what we have learned from Mark John Cockerill, developer of the Radxa Zero based off-road mini PC about the Radxa Zero and how it can be used:
what speaks against immediately choosing a Debian Radxa Zero mini PC instead of a Raspberry Pi? Eventually
- that Debian has no touch support
- we do not have any tests about Debian running on the Radxa Zero
- And would not Armbian be better for this device than Debian?
- Armbian has the advantage that it allows the installation of Home Assistant on it.
- this setup yet. The Radxa Zero can even be used with a Debian SSD:
https://jamesachambers.com/radxa-zero-debian-ssd-boot-guide/
which can be found on
James A. Chambers Legendary Technology Blog
He publishes professional guides as for instance how to migrate Home Assistant to orange Pi 5:
https://jamesachambers.com/migrate-home-assistant-to-orange-pi-5/
and has 137 followers on his GITHUB page:
This is the second Radxa Zero user we have get to know who uses a Radxa Zero. Are these two demo makers who want to sell as a product? We do not have any evidence for it. So what are we waiting for to start using the Radxa Zero with Debian and have a Linux mini PC?
The PinePhone Pro specifications:
- Rockchip hexa-core SoC operating at 1.5GHz
- 4GB of dual-channel LPDDR4 RAM
-128GB of internal eMMC flash storage.
Radxa Zero specifications:
- CPU: Quad Cortex-A53 1.8 GHz, 12nm process
- RAM: LPDDR4 512MB/1GB/2GB/4GB
- Storage: eMMC 5.1 8/16/32/64/128GB
- The Radxa Zero can be upgraded with a Debian SSD