Looking for a decent OS for rpi 3

[steelo]

Hi guys,

 

I've been using Raspberry pi OS (formerly knows as Raspbian) pretty much exclusively for the past 5 years or so. It works fine, however I'm looking for something that looks a bit nicer but also includes a package installer. Recently, I've tried out Gentoo and the desktop looks beautiful. However, I could not find a way to install software on it...no package installer (that I was able to find) Nothing. Also, terminal didn't recognize sudo apt-get install...etc. If you couldn't tell, I'm not terribly familiar with Linux. I know the basic syntax to update the repositories and install software from them, but I am far from a seasoned user.

 

Are there any other linux based OS' that would run on this and still have a package installer (I'm looking to install a python 3 IDE) and have the same command line syntax as Raspberry pi OS? I'd love to try Ubuntu, but it looks like at this point it will only run on the rpi4.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Raspberry pi os should have a package manage with apt, have you tried using that? 

 

You should be able to change the DE if you want by installing different ones with apt.

[steelo]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Raspberry pi os should have a package manage with apt, have you tried using that? 

 

You should be able to change the DE if you want by installing different ones with apt.

 I apologize for my ignorance...do you mean I can install different desktops on top of Raspberry pi OS? I'm fairly familiar with the package installer within this OS, I run into issues when I try a different Linux OS and the syntax and everything is completely different.

[steelo]

1 minute ago, James Evens said:

Raspbian recently got the visual studio code repository per default.

For the desktop: just install a different one. 

Okay, thanks. I'll look into this! I wasn't aware raspbian had different desktops

[Electronics Wizardy]

5 minutes ago, steelo said:

 I apologize for my ignorance...do you mean I can install different desktops on top of Raspberry pi OS? I'm fairly familiar with the package installer within this OS, I run into issues when I try a different Linux OS and the syntax and everything is completely different.

Yea, its pretty close to debian under the hood, so all the debian desktops should work. They just didn't put a gui with many animations by default cause the pi is slow.

[steelo]

3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Yea, its pretty close to debian under the hood, so all the debian desktops should work. They just didn't put a gui with many animations by default cause the pi is slow.

So, any OS using debian should be close to raspberry pi OS?

 

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, steelo said:

So, any OS using debian should be close to raspberry pi OS?

Yea the stuff under the hood is raspberry pi OS is simmilar to debian. So same apt package manage, and simmilar config files for things like networking.

[steelo]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Yea the stuff under the hood is raspberry pi OS is simmilar to debian. So same apt package manage, and simmilar config files for things like networking.

That makes sense. I'm also working with an outdated ARM CPU and 1 gb of slow RAM...I'm probably asking for too much. LOL

[steelo]

On 2/24/2021 at 2:16 PM, Electronics Wizardy said:

Yea the stuff under the hood is raspberry pi OS is simmilar to debian. So same apt package manage, and simmilar config files for things like networking.

I tried Twister OS even though it highly recommends running with a rpi 4. So far, very impressed...it looks very polished, seems to run relatively snappy (this is a rpi 3 after all) and is loaded with applications right out of the box.

 

I think the biggest issue with the rpi3 is the lack of memory and the constant need to create swap files. Swap files are especially painful on a rpi because they are stored on a sd card that is as slow as molasses. I know the CPU is pretty limited, but it's enough for youtube videos, email, web surfing and python programming when its not running out of memory. This means 1 tab open at a time and don't plan to be able to do anything else if a youtube video is running in the background. Nobody expects to be able to AAA game on it. I kind of wish they made a 2 gb variant of it.