cruster wrote: ↑Tue Oct 01, 2019 9:27 pm
Oh! Just to add. One other drawback. (Over a Win desktop) is - you will have to learn the command line crpytology that is Linux.
Why?? I grew up with Unix. Moved to cp/m then MS/Dos and eventually Windows, OS/2 and Windows95. When Linux became available I played with it and in 1998 I began moving all my computers ( and over the next few years, my clients' business computers) to Linux.
And I'm no expert. I'm still learning that I don;t know as much as I should.
But since 1998, which was probably when I got a commercial set of Red Hat Linux, I have rarely 'had to use' the command line unless I wanted to. Not suggesting I don;t use it, just that I can get by without using it unless something breaks, Which is pretty rare these days.
About the only time I actually use the command line regularly on the Pi 4, is for apt commands. Even that hardly ever happens now, because I have a one click update script.
Why do people still insist that new Linux users 'have to learn the command line' And worse, call it 'cryptology'.
Almost everything in Linux these days is available to a beginner using GUI. If you are do need to use the command line, you can use a GUI (web browser) and ask someone (on a forum like this for example) And a heap of people will probably be lined up offering step by step guidance. Provided you 'asked' rather than demanding assistance.
The world seems to have forgotten that before Windows there was Dos, which as entirely command line based. And before that - other command line operating systems. We had no alternative other than learning it. But Linux, like windows, Mac etc., are now GUI based with the command line available for anyone who WANTS to learn to get the 'most' out of their computing.
But on a day to day desktop 'ordinary use basis, the command line can almost be ignored. For the purists, I'd better make it clear that I'm not advocating that people should not learn anything about the command line. Just that an in depth knowledge of it is not really necessary and should not be waved around as a reason for beginners in computing to avoid Linux!
As for the Pi 4 as a primary desktop computer. Out of my half dozen or so computers in this room at the moment, the only one that is now booted daily is my Pi 4. The three most powerful have not been booted for a month. The Pi 3B+ hasn;t been booted since I got the Pi 4 set up, and the little Gigabyte Brix that was my favourite work horse is now booted only if I need to print something, or if there is some task that the Pi won't complete without a hassle.
Since I go t the Pi 4 running on the SSD, Openshot and Kdenlive work almost as well on the Pi as on the Brix, although the Brix and Pi 4 are both considerably slower than on the AMD system I used to use for editing. GIMP workes perfectly now. Unlike some others I like PulseAudio because it was the simplest way I could find to get my volume levels high enough to drive my analogue sound system. For some reason 100% on ALSA is just not good enough for some videos and audio files, but 120% to190% on Pulse is perfect. So I haven't bothered messing with other audio stuff.
When I booted the Brix the other day to print something, I was surprised that a system I used to think was fairly well optimised, felt so slow and sluggish compare to the snappy performance of the Pi 4. This by the way is comparing the computers literally side by side, and they are about a metre apart in front of me.
While there are some daily 'primary desktop' tasks not suited to the Pi 4, it all depends on what your primary desktop is used for. Conversely, there are some tasks suited to a Pi that one would probably never consider doing with a bigger computer.
It's really about fruit and ponies...