x86 Raspberry Pi Desktop is a great way to revive an old PC
- Reference: 1657536309
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/07/11/raspberry_pi_desktop_update/
- Source link:
When the first Raspberry Pi launched [1]just over a decade ago , the Raspberry Pi Foundation offered an ARMv6 version of Debian 7. It worked, but it had a [2]problem : while the Pi 1 had a hardware floating-point unit, the ARMv6 version of Debian couldn't use it. FPU support needed the ARMv7 edition.
Fortunately, Mike Thompson and Peter Green rose to the challenge and created [3]Raspbian – later officially adopted by the manufacturer and renamed the [4]Raspberry Pi OS . It started out as a seriously cut-down edition of Debian, recompiled for ARMv6 plus hardfp support – because the fairly feeble SoC in the early Pi needed all the help it could get.
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Both the Raspberry Pi and its OS have been huge successes, and both the hardware and software are regularly upgraded. What gets less attention is that for five years, [6]there's also been a PC OS version . It's called the [7]Raspberry Pi Desktop . Barring a couple of Pi-native components, such as Mathematica, it's the same set of customizations applied to the x86-32 edition of Debian.
[8]
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Now the PC edition has received an update to the same [10]Debian 11 basis as the Pi edition . However, unlike the Pi edition, it hasn't [11]gone 64-bit : this is still a 32-bit OS for 32-bit PCs (and elderly Intel Macs), and it doesn't use the fancy 3D Mutter window manager.
Most mainstream distros are now 64-bit only. Ubuntu, for example, [12]dropped 32-bit support in 2019 . The ones that still support the architecture are often more technical distros for more skilled users, such as Debian and [13]the minimal Alpine Linux .
[14]
The Rasberry Pi Desktop is a welcome exception. It asks almost no questions during installation and has very few options to tweak. There's no choice of desktop or components, the only thing you can adjust is the disk partitioning. You get the PIXEL desktop environment, which is a lightly customized version of LXDE and some basic tools: the Chromium browser, Claws email, LibreOffice, and some educational and programming-related tools.
Although the installation program hasn't been branded – it still says Debian everywhere – the resulting OS has. It's rather simpler than the default Debian installation process. It configures a Raspberry Pi-themed graphical startup screen and so on, and once installed, a first-run wizard automatically starts which installs updates, [15]creates a user account and finalizes the config.
[16]Raspberry Pi OS update beefs up security
[17]Out of beta and ready for data: 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS is here
[18]Two non-Gtk Linux desktops have put out new versions
[19]Debian 11 formally debuts and hits the Bullseye
We found installation very slow, but to be fair, we were trying it on two very old PCs: a Thinkpad X61 convertible and a Sony Vaio P, a sub-netbook powered by an elderly Atom. With only 2GB of RAM each, both worked perfectly. The OS automatically used Wi-Fi adapters, Bluetooth and so on. On the Vaio, the installer didn't pick up the installation of Windows Thin PC with which it shared a hard disk, but the command sudo update-grub fixed that automatically and it dual-booted fine.
For a low-end PC for a not-very-technical user, Rasperry Pi Desktop is a great little OS. It won't magically make an old PC quick again, but it works pretty well. Programs launch slowly from old rotating hard disks, but once they stagger into memory, they run quite usably. It can handle light web browsing, for instance, but for bashing out emails or basic productivity duties, it should cope fine.
There are other 32-bit distros still out there. Debian itself, and [20]Linux Mint Debian Edition 5 , both support x86-32 – but you'll need a fairly quick machine, with 3-4GB of RAM and hardware 3D, for Cinnamon to be responsive. Although [21]ZorinOS 16 is 64-bit only , ZorinOS Lite 15.3 is still available in a 32-bit edition, with Xfce.
[22]
The Pi OS, with its customized LXDE desktop, uses around 200MB of RAM at idle, and it will run in just 1GB. Slightly more than antiX Linux, for example, but it's much more complete and well integrated. Even Alpine uses more than that, and it definitely requires some tech chops to install and configure, whereas the Pi OS needs next to none. We tried adding Xfce to our install of the Pi OS, only to find that its RAM usage nearly doubled.
Since [23]ChromeOS Flex now needs a 64-bit machine and 4GB of RAM , we'd say the Pi OS is the best way to revive an old PC for a non-technical user. ®
Get our [24]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2012/04/16/raspberry_pi/
[2] https://raspbian.org/RaspbianFAQ#What_is_Raspbian.3F
[3] https://raspbian.org/RaspbianAbout
[4] https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YsxJKD3ztl12NTtWxhsVlAAAAAA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2016/12/22/raspberry_pi_foundation_releases_operating_system_for_pcs_macs/
[7] https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/raspberry-pi-desktop/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YsxJKD3ztl12NTtWxhsVlAAAAAA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YsxJKD3ztl12NTtWxhsVlAAAAAA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/08/raspberry_pi_os_bullseye/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/03/64bit_raspberry_pi_os_released/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2019/06/19/ubuntu_axes_i386_support/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/26/alpine_linux_316_released/
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YsxJKD3ztl12NTtWxhsVlAAAAAA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/08/raspberry_pi_os/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/08/raspberry_pi_os/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/03/64bit_raspberry_pi_os_released/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/09/new_qt_linux_desktops/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/16/debian_11_bullseye_released/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/19/linux_mint_debian_edition_5/
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/12/zorin_16_1_released/
[22] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YsxJKD3ztl12NTtWxhsVlAAAAAA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[23] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/16/google_chrome_os/
[24] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
I was recently testing OpenBSD on my X60 and I don't believe Firefox or Chromium were available in the 32-bit edition - did you build them manually?
Eeek. Chromium still is:
https://cdn.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/7.1/packages/i386/chromium-100.0.4896.75.tgz
The last i386 build I run is actually 6.9 and indeed that is the last version where Firefox supported. Possibly issues with Rust but I'm not sure.
https://cdn.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/6.9/packages/i386/firefox-88.0.tgz
There is also Iridium (still chrome based) which might be an option:
https://cdn.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/7.1/packages/i386/iridium-2022.04.100.0p0.tgz
(Apologies for the janky links; obviously pkg_add is to be used ;))
Thanks for the information, I was wrong about Chromium then - must be because I don't really use it at all. You're right though, it does run surprisingly well on the old 1st Gen Core Duo.
"For a fat guy, you don't sweat TOO much...", and other examples of 'damned by faint praise'
Perhaps a knowledge of what other more-serious Linux distributions are available would be an asset, when writing an article such as this.
The closely-coupled antiX and MX-Linux have been available for years, and work extremely well on older laptops and netbooks, as do other Linux distributions.
From the article:
"...We found installation very slow, but to be fair, we were trying it on two very old PCs...
"For a low-end PC for a not-very-technical user, Rasperry Pi Desktop is a great little OS. It won't magically make an old PC quick again, but it works pretty well . Programs launch slowly from old rotating hard disks, but once they stagger into memory, they run quite usably . It can handle light web browsing, for instance, but for bashing out emails or basic productivity duties, it should cope fine..."
From
"MX Linux MX-18 & 10-year-old EeePC netbook - Fantastic"
Updated: April 1, 2019
https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/eeepc-mx-linux.html
"...What really matters is how the netbook behaves. And it behaves oh so well. It's fast and responsive. LibreOffice, which wouldn't even start previously, opens within about 10 seconds. Firefox takes about 20 seconds to launch, but then it runs fine. I tried 720p video, and the playback is quite all right....”
“...MX Linux MX-18.1 Continuum has restored life to my netbook. It runs beautifully fast, it's elegant, loaded with real, practical goodies. The tremendous part is really the speed. This mini-laptop was weak even when I bought it, but to be able to keep using it in a nice fashion a decade later is truly an achievement...."
There are other serious alternatives.
Re: "For a fat guy, you don't sweat TOO much...", and other examples of 'damned by faint praise'
I too was surprised to see no mention of MX Linux. It certainly brought a bit of life back to my eeepc, when it began to struggle with more recent versions of Mint. Also worked very nicely on an old Compaq dual-core laptop.
Just to reverse the point of the article - I particularly like the performance of an MX-Linux respin on my Raspberry Pi 3.
I use this on my R60 ThinkPad (slightly bulkier, more plasticy version of the T60).
It is good; it is one of the lighter desktops. Still feels a bit heavier than Windows XP but does ultimately allow you to run more recent versions of everything.
My only issue with my GPU (and old Intel GMA 945) is not very well supported by the OS anymore, especially in the web browsers it is very slow with lots of black / graphical corruption. It tends to be better to run the browser itself in software; i.e:
$ LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 chromium
It could be that the xf86-video-intel is not being used and the modesetting support isn't well maintained for such an old GPU but I didn't want to spend too much time fiddling.
One unlikely OS that I find very, very good on this era of machine (too new to send to landfill, but too old to run "modern" bloat) is OpenBSD. If you can accept the spartan installer (which is very easy btw, if you look at it objectively), it provides a clean OS with X11 and FVWM to get you started. Firefox and chromium are available.