Which raspberry pi should I get for linux?

[mrchow19910319]

I've been leaning back and forth about how to run linux.

Finally I decided to get a raspberry pi for it, since I have a old dell monitor laying around. 

 

Which model should I get? Raspberry pi 3? Or? 

I know nothing about this... Please link me some image or something. 

 

Is this the model I should get? 

 

[mrchow19910319]

Also one noob question: can I use it as a mini pc? Like watch youtube  / web browsing and such?  

[Billy_Mays]

yes and its completely fine doesnt matter which distro theres tons and I am trying mint for the first time and it seems to be like windows so far

[JakeNTech]

You could get any raspberry pi, the only advantage the 3 has over the 2 is built in Wifi and bluetooth, which save the need for an adapter. (And slightly better specs)

I have a 2b and its fine for everything I have tried to do on it.

You can get a lots of versions of linux:

ubuntu,with is a great all rounder if you want something thats good as a full desktop

XMBC, for a HTPC

RetroPie, to emulate classic consoles

MotionPi, So you can make your own CCTV system, to find out who is eating your food

Raspbiren,which is the one that will take advantage of the pi, it comes with Minecraft too, but has all the IDE's for code and is the most common. 

Windows 10 IOT core, I have no idea what thats about, lol. 

When you go to buy your pie you may see some that advertise an SD card with NOOBS on it, it will give you an easy way to install lots of os's 

There is also a thing called BerryBoot, It allows you to have more then on operating system on your pi. I have this with XMBC, RetroPi. 

 

[mrchow19910319]

2 minutes ago, fixitnow said:

 

I will try to install ubuntu or arch on it. 

Preparing for lots of headache.. 

 

 

<3 

[JakeNTech]

Just now, mrchow19910319 said:

I will try to install ubuntu or arch on it. 

Preparing for lots of headache.. 

 

 

<3 

There shouldn't be too many with ubuntu but I can't speak for arch, but there is a big community out there to help you.  Have fun!

[noahdvs]

RPi 3 model b is the most powerful, but still only 35 USD. Try Rasbian 1st since that distro is made for the RPi by the organization that makes it. The latest version is based on Debian 9 (Stretch).

[mrchow19910319]

1. @fixitnow wait... I only have a MacBook now on my hands... how am I gonna put the OS on the micro SD card?  =.= 

[mrchow19910319]

@Lurick @Droidbot @manikyath @KenjiUmino @SCHISCHKA@Sauron

@noahdvs

[noahdvs]

6 hours ago, mrchow19910319 said:

1. @fixitnow wait... I only have a MacBook now on my hands... how am I gonna put the OS on the micro SD card?  =.= 

There are instructions on the RPi website: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/README.md

[elkenrod]

For what it's worth, I highly recommend berryboot as the boot loader to install on your SD card.  It will give you lots of distros to choose from.  Just make sure you connect an ethernet cable at boot. 

 

 

[noahdvs]

17 minutes ago, elkenrod said:

For what it's worth, I highly recommend berryboot as the boot loader to install on your SD card.  It will give you lots of distros to choose from.  Just make sure you connect an ethernet cable at boot. 

 

 

I don't really see the point of these OS installers. You're going to have to reformat your SD card if you want to try another OS anyway, aren't you? Might as well just pick an OS and install it directly.

[elkenrod]

Just now, noahdvs said:

I don't really see the point of these OS installers. You're going to have to reformat your SD if you want to try another OS anyway, aren't you? Might as well just pick an OS and install it directly.

 

You can install as many OS's as your SD card will hold.  No reformatting required.  It allows you the chance to try out different OS's at your leisure without the commitment.

[JakeNTech]

9 hours ago, mrchow19910319 said:

1. @fixitnow wait... I only have a MacBook now on my hands... how am I gonna put the OS on the micro SD card?  =.= 

Get the Distro you want to use into the download folder or wherever 

Get an sd card reader

Get a program called apple pi baker

Then open the program and press prepair for noobs

Then you will see someting to select the distro and put it on the card. 

[JakeNTech]

1 hour ago, noahdvs said:

I don't really see the point of these OS installers. You're going to have to reformat your SD card if you want to try another OS anyway, aren't you? Might as well just pick an OS and install it directly.

It's so that people  that don't have all the money to keep buying sd cards just to try out an new os they probably won't use.  And because a Distro like XMBC dosent use a tonne of space you can have something like retro pie on there too. 

[mrchow19910319]

@fixitnow What if I don't want to use noobs? I want to manually install arch on it. 

*At least I wanna try. That's the fun part right?

[JakeNTech]

4 minutes ago, mrchow19910319 said:

@fixitnow What if I don't want to use noobs? I want to manually install arch on it. 

*At least I wanna try. That's the fun part right?

All the prepair for nooks button does is format it to fat32 I believe. Macs can't write to that format. 

Yout can format the SD card into exFAT and then copy the files across but some people have issues with that. I can't say I have but there you go. 

And yes the raspberry pi is all about fun. 

[mrchow19910319]

25 minutes ago, fixitnow said:

 

Also I saw at Linix Arch wiki and they recommend using a pro class microSD card to avoid lags, and I bought this, do you think it is overkill? 

 

[JakeNTech]

7 minutes ago, mrchow19910319 said:

Also I saw at Linix Arch wiki and they recommend using a pro class microSD card to avoid lags, and I bought this, do you think it is overkill? 

 

Should be fine. I use a SanDisk 32GB card, and have no issue. I know my uncle bought a 128GB job of eBay anD it's fine and I don't imagine it's that good on quality. 

[mrchow19910319]

2 minutes ago, fixitnow said:

Should be fine. I use a SanDisk 32GB card, and have no issue. I know my uncle bought a 128GB job of eBay anD it's fine and I don't imagine it's that good on quality. 

KK. never mind I'm just gonna keep it... 

[JakeNTech]

13 minutes ago, mrchow19910319 said:

KK. never mind I'm just gonna keep it... 

Fair enough. If it's not what you want you could alway put it in your phone and use that card out of that. 

[mrchow19910319]

14 minutes ago, fixitnow said:

Fair enough. If it's not what you want you could alway put it in your phone and use that card out of that. 

I have an iPhone ...  <3 

[JakeNTech]

2 hours ago, mrchow19910319 said:

I have an iPhone ...  <3 

Oh. Scrap that then. You will have the best raspberry pi storage ever then lol. 

[manikyath]

its not like there's many options to choose from

 

i'd recommend you get a pi 3b, a 16GB SD card (you're not gonna need anything more) at least class 10 from either sandisk or adata (those are the ones i have the best experience with, note i cant comment on samsung ones because i cant find any locally), and put just bone stock raspbian on it. cant go wrong with an OS specificly tailored for the device.

 

21 hours ago, fixitnow said:

You could get any raspberry pi, the only advantage the 3 has over the 2 is built in Wifi and bluetooth, which save the need for an adapter. (And slightly better specs)

the pi3's specs dont *look* much better on paper, but they're actually a pretty notable bump.

5 hours ago, mrchow19910319 said:

manually install arch

bad idea.

4 hours ago, mrchow19910319 said:

Also I saw at Linix Arch wiki and they recommend using a pro class microSD card to avoid lags, and I bought this, do you think it is overkill? 

any class 10 or better SD card will do. some brands seem to do better than others in a pi, but there's not much hard data on that.

[mrchow19910319]

32 minutes ago, manikyath said:

bad idea.

Hmm I think I will go with this : Snappy ubuntu core. 

It is recommended on the raspberry pi official page. 

Thanks for the microSD card recommendation. I almost go for a 32GB one.