Is it possible to survive only on raspberry pi 4b4?

[Anshul333]

I have been using a raspberry pi 4 B 4GB as a desktop for over a week now and have never fased any difficulties what so ever and everything is working flawlessly.
This sbc is truly a desktop replacement for me.
Now I am thinking to sell my old Ubuntu desktop.
Also all of the programs I used on my old desktop work fine in raspbian.
I heard that the SD card may corrupt if pi is directly powered off, so I have already prepared a secondary SD card.
After all is there any case in which I might need my old desktop.

[jahboater]

I heard that the SD card may corrupt if pi is directly powered off, so I have already prepared a secondary SD card.

Treat the SD card the same way as you would the hard disk or SSD in your desktop PC. It has the same purpose, it is the system disk. Always try to shutdown the Pi cleanly, just as you did your PC.

The only real difference is that the lifetime is usually less than a full size SSD, so might wear out earlier.

After all this is there any case in which I might need my old desktop.

That's the big question! I am considering the same when my old PC's die. The attraction of a tiny, silent, computer that hardly uses any electrical power, yet is reasonably powerful is considerable.

The only caveat is that there may be software around that's specific to Intel x86/x64.
The Pi has ARM Cortex-A72 processors. Fortunately most Linux software is reasonably portable.

[epoch1970]

Congratulations.
If you were using a Windows Desktop, I would have said "keep it".
If you are already capable of managing without Windows, then I say "sell it".
Pi is certainly one of the best linux platforms available out there, regardless of price.

[kilograham]

you may also need food and water

[ejolson]

I have been using a raspberry pi 4 B 4GB as a desktop for over a week now and have never fased any difficulties what so ever and everything is working flawlessly.
This sbc is truly a desktop replacement for me.
Now I am thinking to sell my old Ubuntu desktop.
Also all of the programs I used on my old desktop work fine in raspbian.
I heard that the SD card may corrupt if pi is directly powered off, so I have already prepared a secondary SD card.
After all is there any case in which I might need my old desktop.

If your desktop has a 1TB or greater disk drive in it, you might consider mounting that drive on your Pi 4B using a powered SATA to USB3 enclosure. I have no experience with USB3 RAID enclosures and expect they might lead to a headaches. However, if you have multiple drives, some enclosures have a simple hub built-in and can hold four drives.

[wildfire]

Don't forget air

I'm keeping my old(ish) laptop for gaming/x86 software and as a spare. Other than that I'd be happy to use my Pi's exclusively.

[jahboater]

My cat sleeps on top of my powerful Intel PC. She likes warmth.

Sadly the Raspberry Pi is too small.

[epoch1970]

My cat sleeps on top of my powerful Intel PC. She likes warmth.

Sadly the Raspberry Pi is too small.

Apparently the Pi is okay, still...
https://twitter.com/Raspberry_Pi/status ... 6558006272

[ejolson]

My cat sleeps on top of my powerful Intel PC. She likes warmth.

Sadly the Raspberry Pi is too small.

Apparently the Pi is okay, still...
https://twitter.com/Raspberry_Pi/status ... 6558006272

If trading the PC for a Pi, better trade the cat for a hamster at the same time.

[HawaiianPi]

I heard that the SD card may corrupt if pi is directly powered off...

Same thing could happen to the HDD or SSD in your Ubuntu Desktop if you just pulled the power. Same on a Windows or Mac PC as well. This is nothing new. Most PC operating systems need to be safely shutdown before power is turned off.

If your desktop has a 1TB or greater disk drive in it, you might consider mounting that drive on your Pi 4B using a powered SATA to USB3 enclosure.

I'm currently running my Pi 4B from a 256GB SSD. Had both 256GB and 500GB drives on it for a little while, just for fun. My 4B and both 2.5 inch SSDs were powered only by the older 2.5A official PSU from my Pi 3B (with a USB-C adapter).

... if you have multiple drives, some enclosures have a simple hub built-in and can hold four drives.

I have one from Sabrent with 4 old laptop drives in it. I think I've tried it on one of my Pi computers before, but I'll give it a try on my 4B when I get some time and report back if I have any trouble.

[W. H. Heydt]

I have been using a raspberry pi 4 B 4GB as a desktop for over a week now and have never fased any difficulties what so ever and everything is working flawlessly.
This sbc is truly a desktop replacement for me.
Now I am thinking to sell my old Ubuntu desktop.
Also all of the programs I used on my old desktop work fine in raspbian.
I heard that the SD card may corrupt if pi is directly powered off, so I have already prepared a secondary SD card.
After all is there any case in which I might need my old desktop.

It is certainly possible, and more likely to be so since your other system runs Linux. Because of that you are much less likely to be running anything that won't run on a Pi, primarily games that are x86 and Windows only. All that said, it is sometimes convenient to have a second system, if only to write new SD cards (though that can be done on the Pi as well. Another alternative would be to get a second Pi so you have a backup system on hand. (I really have trouble understanding people who only have *one* computer. What do they do if it needs to be repaired?)

[W. H. Heydt]

If your desktop has a 1TB or greater disk drive in it, you might consider mounting that drive on your Pi 4B using a powered SATA to USB3 enclosure. I have no experience with USB3 RAID enclosures and expect they might lead to a headaches. However, if you have multiple drives, some enclosures have a simple hub built-in and can hold four drives.

I would set the threshhold a lot lower than that. While there are certainly uses that would consume great quantities of storage--such are video archives or editing--for most "everyday" uses even 100GB is overkill. I run many of my Pis on 8GB cards. If I think that's not enough because of how I plan to use it, then 16GB. If that isn't enough, I usually take a leap to a 60GB SSD.

[HawaiianPi]

(I really have trouble understanding people who only have *one* computer. What do they do if it needs to be repaired?)

I repair it (says the guy with a Win10 Gaming laptop, a Chromebook and 4 Raspberry Pi computers on the desk in front of him...)

[W. H. Heydt]

My cat sleeps on top of my powerful Intel PC. She likes warmth.

Sadly the Raspberry Pi is too small.

I used to have a cat that liked to hang out on top of a 21" CRT monitor. He'd hook his front claws over the edge and occasionally bat at things on the screen. Since this had him on top of the cooling vents, I built a shelf that also enabled him to be there without hanging on as it was level enough that he wouldn't slide off. I miss that cat... He was a feral rescue that appeared to half Chartreux.

[ejolson]

(I really have trouble understanding people who only have *one* computer. What do they do if it needs to be repaired?)

I repair it (says the guy with a Win10 Gaming laptop, a Chromebook and 4 Raspberry Pi computers on the desk in front of him...)

If the SD card gets corrupted, it's very handy to have a second computer that works on which to mount that card to see what's wrong.

If only one Pi computer is available, then temporarily booting from an already formatted rescue SD card is almost as good, except what if you can't find the rescue card and need to make another? Then it is useful to have a second working computer available to download another SD card image.

People definitely have different requirements for storing data. However, if you are used to multiple terabytes of storage available on your desktop, then 16GB suddenly seems very small.

[Musketeer]

I used Pi 2 old ver with 1 GFLOPS for like 6-7 months. Some crappy PHP or Wordpress online editor systems were sortta slow, but still usable even on 1 GB DDR2, so... There is nothing to worry IMHO now with such a beast. It is on par with Core 2 Duo.

I recommend definitely use two same SD cards and one backup regularly to other... You can then just simply witch and continue on any other Pi.