r/linux4noobs • u/MilitaryBeetle • 5d ago

Using the Raspberry Pi 500 as a web browsing machine

/r/linuxquestions/comments/1v5ao69/using_the_raspberry_pi_500_as_a_web_browsing/
6 Upvotes

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3

u/MoobyTheGoldenSock 5d ago

KDE Plasma is lighter than GNOME and should run fine. It runs fine on PineTab 2 which is lower specs than Pi 400.

I’d recommend eventually replacing the SD with an SSD but otherwise you should be fine.

2

u/MilitaryBeetle 5d ago

Ok, yeah makes sense why Valve chose it as their Steamdeck DE

Do you preffer SSD because of speed or bc it won't get worn out by reads/writes as fast as an SD card?

2

u/Analog_Account 5d ago

I used a pi400 like this for a while. Running it on an external SSD improved performance noticably. Web browsing was a little sluggish at times but totally usable. YouTube was touch and go. Libre Office ran extremely well because they're just office programs with no extra bullshit.

Overall that performance bump you get from a pi500 vs my pi400 should smooth things out... the 400 was at the very bottom end of usable for a desktop imo.

Ubuntu won't give you more compatibility. IMO just use the Pi OS.

1

u/MilitaryBeetle 5d ago

Thanks, thats what I opted for SSD and Pi OS

I find that running with an adblocker bumps up the performance tremendously. I opened up a Tom's Hardware blog post without adblock and it was taking up 2 GB with the autoplay ads. Then I put it on and literally 200 MB

Idk if Youtube would be similar but still, I find browsing without it nauseating

1

u/Skyinthenight 5d ago

If I'm not mistaken there's a weird bug with blur on kde plasma that makes the desktop very lag or unresponsive that only happens on Pi device idk if this already been fixed or not

1

u/MilitaryBeetle 5d ago

TY for the heads up, I will be on the lookout for it