First TIme using Pi3

[Rookie_123]

Hello Everyone
I am using Raspberry Pi 3 for first time so do I need to have a separate keyboard mouse and monitor(of my personal computer.)
or I can connect it to laptop and use laptop's screen,keyboard and mouse.

Or I can just use my laptop's screen and connect separate keyboard and mouse.
Please note that I am using it for first time.I don't even have initial configuration that may be required.

There is lot of stuff available online that says I can use it with laptop but it is still ambiguous to me whether it can be used with laptop from first time itself or you have to configure it (by other means) and then use it with laptop then onwards.The content avaialable is also lot of confusing.

[B.Goode]

An RPi 3 is an item of hardware. It is useless until an Operating System has been installed and run.

The precise answers to some of your questions depend on the Operating System you choose.

It is possible to setup and control an RPi running Raspbian entirely from a laptop using a wired Ethernet connection between the two, or via your home lan. But it is far easier as a first time user to equip the RPi, if only temporarily, with its own keyboard mouse and display.

In the many previous discussions of this topic in these forums the conclusion seems to be that there is no known affordable consumer laptop whose display can be used as a separate monitor for some other system, so that is probably not a feasible option. (The VGA and HDMI ports on laptops are for Output from that laptop and cannot be reversed for use as an input.)

[Major Tom]

Hello Everyone
I am using Raspberry Pi 3 for first time so do I need to have a separate keyboard mouse and monitor(of my personal computer.)
or I can connect it to laptop and use laptop's screen,keyboard and mouse.

Or I can just use my laptop's screen and connect separate keyboard and mouse.
Please note that I am using it for first time.I don't even have initial configuration that may be required.

There is lot of stuff available online that says I can use it with laptop but it is still ambiguous to me whether it can be used with laptop from first time itself or you have to configure it (by other means) and then use it with laptop then onwards.The content avaialable is also lot of confusing.

You can configure your Pi to use your home network. Then, when you power it up you can use your laptop to log in to the Pi over the network. You can't connect your laptop's screen and keyboard to the Pi directly.

The question is, how to edit the wifi network configuration on the Pi (wifi network name, password, etc.) without having a keyboard and monitor on the Pi? Answer- you don't:
viewtopic.php?f=63&t=161202&p=1043681#p1043681

So, you can take your Pi SD card and insert it into your laptop. Open the boot partition and add a file called wpa_supplicant.conf, containing your network settings. Now when you boot the Pi it will use these settings and it will connect to your network. You can use PuTTY to connect to the Pi over the network from the laptop (I have conveniently left out how to find the Pi's IP address. This is left as an exercise for the reader).

[Rookie_123]

The precise answers to some of your questions depend on the Operating System you choose.

Yes I am going to use Raspbian

[Rookie_123]

But it is far easier as a first time user to equip the RPi, if only temporarily, with its own keyboard mouse and display.

So as a newbie I should go with seperate display of my PC,USB keyboard and mouse ?.
I initially dont want any complexities in it.Once I am used to it then I will shall move to use it from my laptop,which I found is bit complex

[B.Goode]

It is far easier as a first time user to equip the RPi, if only temporarily, with its own keyboard, mouse, and display.

Other than tidying up the punctuation as I have just done I don't see how to make this any clearer.

[tweak42]

Hello Everyone
I am using Raspberry Pi 3 for first time so do I need to have a separate keyboard mouse and monitor(of my personal computer.)
or I can connect it to laptop and use laptop's screen,keyboard and mouse.

Or I can just use my laptop's screen and connect separate keyboard and mouse.
Please note that I am using it for first time.I don't even have initial configuration that may be required.

There is lot of stuff available online that says I can use it with laptop but it is still ambiguous to me whether it can be used with laptop from first time itself or you have to configure it (by other means) and then use it with laptop then onwards.The content avaialable is also lot of confusing.

In a mater of terminology you need to distinguish the difference between remotely and directly connected. Unlike a desktop you can't unplug "borrow" your laptop's screen/keyboard/touchpad and connect them directly to the Pi. You can however use an application on your laptop to connect remotely over ethernet cable or wifi to the Pi provided it's booted and configured properly with an OS such as Raspbian.

Raspbian configured to be remotely accessible can be done to the micro SD card before inserting and booting the Pi, however if anything goes wrong, you have no screen to see any errors, hence it's simpler for beginners to connect a desktop keyboard/mouse/monitor the first time, setup the Pi, then disconnect and then run remotely after.

[HawaiianPi]

Setting up your Pi to be controlled and accessed remotely from your laptop can be done, but there are limitations. Not the least of which is poor performance. Controlling a computer over a network connection is slow. You can use SSH for command line stuff, and VNC for remote desktop, but if you want to watch videos or play games you will find it disappointing.

It really is not only easier to have a keyboard, mouse and display for the Pi, it works a lot better as well.

Many people already have a spare USB keyboard and mouse laying around. If you don't you could probably find a friend or family member with spares, or get them cheap at a thrift store. For a display, the Pi was designed to be used with a TV. The HDMI port will connect to high definition (HD) sets, and there is a composite video out for older standard definition (SD) televisions. Many computer monitors also have HDMI nowadays, and a DVI monitor can be converted to HDMI with a cheap adapter or cable.

VGA can also be converted to HDMI, but the adapters are more expensive and are often troublesome (you need an active adapter because the Pi does not output a VGA signal).

You will also need a Micro SD card to hold the operating system (which can be downloaded for free from https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/). And you will need a Micro SD card reader or built-in SD card port on your main computer to write the downloaded image to the Micro SD card. Almost all laptops have an SD card slot, so at most you will just need a Micro SD to full sized SD card adapter, and many Micro SD cards come with that included. I recommend the Samsung EVO+ (EVO Plus) Micro SD cards because they offer superior performance, and are not too expensive.