Best Operating System for Raspberyy Pi?

[skarora0290]

I have seen a poll (viewtopic.php?t=140565) on the best operating system for raspberry PI, But I want to know that what about Windows 10, Is not that much compatible as a comparison to raspbian.

[fruitoftheloom]

I have seen a poll (viewtopic.php?t=140565) on the best operating system for raspberry PI, But I want to know that what about Windows 10, Is not that much compatible as a comparison to raspbian.

That poll link is 4 years old:

https://elinux.org/RPi_Distributions


There is no official version of Windows 10 Desktop or WindowsonARM for the Raspberry Pi Single Board Computer released by Microsoft.


Raspbian has had 8+ years of development and is fully supported on all models of Raspberry Pi and Compute Module.

[Heater]

Windows 10 has never run on any kind of Pi.

You are probably confusing it with "Windows 10 for IoT". Which is totally different. A deliberate confusion my MS.

"Windows 10 for IoT" does not run on recent Pi models. Has not been updated for years. Basically not supported by MS anymore.

Neither Windows 10 or Windows 10 for IoT are anything like Raspbian.

If you don't know of a good reason otherwise use Raspbian. Then you will get the best documentation and support from the Foundation and the community.

[DougieLawson]

I have seen a poll (viewtopic.php?t=140565) on the best operating system for raspberry PI, But I want to know that what about Windows 10, Is not that much compatible as a comparison to raspbian.

You've bought the wrong small board computer. There's no part of Windows (of any version and any flavour) that can be licenced and run on a Raspberry.

[bomblord]

I have seen a poll (viewtopic.php?t=140565) on the best operating system for raspberry PI, But I want to know that what about Windows 10, Is not that much compatible as a comparison to raspbian.

You've bought the wrong small board computer. There's no part of Windows (of any version and any flavour) that can be licenced and run on a Raspberry.

There's a ""working"" port of Windows on arm to it by some hobbyists. The pi 4 is currently in extreme cutting edge alpha atm the USB ports don't even work and the performance is mediocre.

[fruitoftheloom]

I have seen a poll (viewtopic.php?t=140565) on the best operating system for raspberry PI, But I want to know that what about Windows 10, Is not that much compatible as a comparison to raspbian.

You've bought the wrong small board computer. There's no part of Windows (of any version and any flavour) that can be licenced and run on a Raspberry.

There's a ""working"" port of Windows on arm to it by some hobbyists. The pi 4 is currently in extreme cutting edge alpha atm the USB ports don't even work and the performance is mediocre.

WoA being totally at the behest of unknown developers is not ideal and still questions of Legalities.

In 8+ years about the best is WfW3.11 in DOSBOX, but who wants a 15+ year old Operating System ??

[DougieLawson]

There's a ""working"" port of Windows on arm to it by some hobbyists. The pi 4 is currently in extreme cutting edge alpha atm the USB ports don't even work and the performance is mediocre.

There is nothing that can licenced & legally run on a Raspberry.
Doing otherwise is software theft. Some of us rely on folks paying for software and software tech support for our day jobs. If you steal software - I don't get paid.

[jamesh]

The answer is Raspbian.

The answer is always Raspbian.

[jbudd]

There's a ""working"" port of Windows on arm to it by some hobbyists. The pi 4 is currently in extreme cutting edge alpha atm the USB ports don't even work and the performance is mediocre.

I have a "working" port of Windows 10 on my core i7. It's cutting edge alpha atm. The sd card reader doesn't work and the performance is mediocre. Oh and it cost me £70.

Raspberry Pi -> Raspbian!

[W. H. Heydt]

The short answer is always.. If you have to ask, the answer is Raspbian.

[bjtheone]

If you don't "know" the answer, it is absolutely and positively Raspbian.

If you have enough Linux based experience to have some burning reason to run another window manager, then it is Raspbian Lite + the one true window manager (as selected by you). In this case you get whatever eye candy and extra functionality that is important to you and it pretty much just works. You give up very little consistency and stability. Raspbian updates will continue to work.

If you have enough Linux experience and have some use case not supported by the second answer, then you likely have enough knowledge and experience to get whatever distro is the answer up and running. You also likely have the knowledge and experience to realize it is a really bad idea unless your use case truly requires it.

There is not that much difference at the basic use case level, between the different Linux distros you can get running on a Pi. Most of the visible stuff is in the GUI, so if you need something different, just change that. Be aware that the more graphically demanding will not run particularly well on the Pi. However when it comes to distros there is a huge difference in the ease of getting them running and maintaining them. Raspbian just works, it is tweaked and optimized to run on the Pi hardware by the nice folks that designed the Pi. They even provide support for the software. The vast majority of the documentation and how tos assume you are running Raspbian.

In all other cases, you are giving up the "it justs works" part, the simple install, the support by the folks that make the hardware, to use a distro that has a Pi port done most likely as an after though by the maintainers of that distro or by a very small group of enthusiasts. Personally I think that really truly needing 64 bit Linux is about the only rational case for running something other than Raspbian. Or if you know what you are doing something like embedding a Pi with a bare metal OS into a product. Plus if you think the hardware is broken, one the the first things the nice folks are going to ask is for you to install Raspbian and confirm that it is still broken.

[Heater]

Personally I think that really truly needing 64 bit Linux is about the only rational case for running something other than Raspbian.

Possibly true.

But note, current Raspbian comes with the option to run a 64 bit kernel. It also has packages that can be installed with apt that allow for the running of 64 bit programs and developing 64 bit software: viewtopic.php?p=1621085#p1621085

Raspbian has it all!

[skarora0290]

I have seen a poll (viewtopic.php?t=140565) on the best operating system for raspberry PI, But I want to know that what about Windows 10, Is not that much compatible as a comparison to raspbian.

That poll link is 4 years old:

https://elinux.org/RPi_Distributions


There is no official version of Windows 10 Desktop or WindowsonARM for the Raspberry Pi Single Board Computer released by Microsoft.


Raspbian has had 8+ years of development and is fully supported on all models of Raspberry Pi and Compute Module.

Thanks this clear's me all the important information about the raspbian.

[skarora0290]

If you don't "know" the answer, it is absolutely and positively Raspbian.

If you have enough Linux based experience to have some burning reason to run another window manager, then it is Raspbian Lite + the one true window manager (as selected by you). In this case you get whatever eye candy and extra functionality that is important to you and it pretty much just works. You give up very little consistency and stability. Raspbian updates will continue to work.

If you have enough Linux experience and have some use case not supported by the second answer, then you likely have enough knowledge and experience to get whatever distro is the answer up and running. You also likely have the knowledge and experience to realize it is a really bad idea unless your use case truly requires it.

There is not that much difference at the basic use case level, between the different Linux distros you can get running on a Pi. Most of the visible stuff is in the GUI, so if you need something different, just change that. Be aware that the more graphically demanding will not run particularly well on the Pi. However, when it comes to distros there is a huge difference in the ease of getting them running and maintaining them. Raspbian just works, it is tweaked and optimized to run on the Pi hardware by the nice folks that designed the Pi. They even provide support for the software. The vast majority of the documentation and how-tos assume you are running Raspbian.

In all other cases, you are giving up the "it justs works" part, the simple install, the support by the folks that make the hardware, to use a distro that has a Pi port done most likely as an after thought by the maintainers of that distro or by a very small group of enthusiasts. Personally I think that really truly needing 64 bit Linux is about the only rational case for running something other than Raspbian. Or if you know what you are doing something like embedding a Pi with a bare-metal OS into a product. Plus if you think the hardware is broken, one the first things the nice folks are going to ask is for you to install Raspbian and confirm that it is still broken.

Thanks for your answer, It's clear my a lot of doubts.

[hansotten]

The answer of course depends on what you want to do with the Raspberry Pi, what application/purpose.
There is no 'best' without this question.

Start with that question and you may get a better answer than 'Raspbian'

Raspbian is the easy answer since it covers most purposes. runs on all Pi's and is well supported.

But even then, do you need a GUI, or command line or embedded? Lite if no GUI gives more resources to the application.

An example would be a desktop computer, Raspbian full on a Pi 4.

Another example at the other end of the spectrum may be a dedicated embedded I/O and no user interface with real time demands on a Zero.
Then one may have a look at extreme light Linux distributions such as TinyCore etc with all code in RAM. Ultibo is an example where even lower demands are required and the booting is very fast and clean, much faster than Raspbian.

And if you really need real-time it may be barebone/dedicated. Have a look at the work by people like Hoglet on the BBC interfaces, extreme high performance on a Zero. Anotehr example is the console app for the RC2014, pigfx. Very fast boot also

So ask the question first: what goal do you want to achieve? Then find the right tools to get there, and look also how the tools are supported now and long term. Making a choice for hardware first before you ask this basic question is already a step too fast taken.

Windows 10, if you need that answering your demands, a Raspberry Pi is the wrong hardware choice already. Get an Intel/AMD CPU based machine.

[bigbadrobbo]

If you don't "know" the answer, it is absolutely and positively Raspbian.

If you have enough Linux based experience to have some burning reason to run another window manager, then it is Raspbian Lite + the one true window manager (as selected by you). In this case you get whatever eye candy and extra functionality that is important to you and it pretty much just works. You give up very little consistency and stability. Raspbian updates will continue to work.

If you have enough Linux experience and have some use case not supported by the second answer, then you likely have enough knowledge and experience to get whatever distro is the answer up and running. You also likely have the knowledge and experience to realize it is a really bad idea unless your use case truly requires it.

There is not that much difference at the basic use case level, between the different Linux distros you can get running on a Pi. Most of the visible stuff is in the GUI, so if you need something different, just change that. Be aware that the more graphically demanding will not run particularly well on the Pi. However when it comes to distros there is a huge difference in the ease of getting them running and maintaining them. Raspbian just works, it is tweaked and optimized to run on the Pi hardware by the nice folks that designed the Pi. They even provide support for the software. The vast majority of the documentation and how tos assume you are running Raspbian.

In all other cases, you are giving up the "it justs works" part, the simple install, the support by the folks that make the hardware, to use a distro that has a Pi port done most likely as an after though by the maintainers of that distro or by a very small group of enthusiasts. Personally I think that really truly needing 64 bit Linux is about the only rational case for running something other than Raspbian. Or if you know what you are doing something like embedding a Pi with a bare metal OS into a product. Plus if you think the hardware is broken, one the the first things the nice folks are going to ask is for you to install Raspbian and confirm that it is still broken.

Thanks for this! I'm new to Raspberry Pi, and I was getting confused by all the possible options. It's nice to know that I'm on the correct OS.