Truth about Rasberry PI 4 is it's straight garbage

[NORD]

The raspberry PI has its high points but geezus it has more low points than an American democracy. I have given enough love to this piece of s**t and it's made me so pissed off that my keyboards now in piece's .
I'm done with the pie and I'm done with logitech .
I need to sell this before I break it in half.

 

[captain-sensible]

the thing is the raspberryPi was a bit of clever marketing hype and became a fashion. It was purported to be good for education and cheap. Well that depends; from the context of use in the 3rd world neither were true.

First what does the Reaspberry Pi have that an old Pentium IV doesn't ; well the GPIO ports; but are GPIO ports the holy grail ?

Well first in Ghana there were next to none hdmi screens in Ghana; oh but you can can an adapter I hear some fine fellows remark. Yeah last one i bought from maplin was 20 quid. Putting all parts togther the Pi is not cheap; capacity of the CPU was hopless last time i tried it and for me , old school I guess I could never take to ARM .

With an old Intel Pentium i installed a bunch of useful stuff and even at one point an offline wikipedia using apache , key words for topics in a database and php to search.

 

[SlowCoder]

Guess it depends how you use it? A guy in our local LUG uses PIs as controllers for his mobile robotics projects. He loves them.

The cost of PIs has shot up due to chip shortages, which probably makes them not so viable as a solution for desktop use. Why buy a PI when you can buy a used desktop with way better specs for the same price?

This probably puts PIs back into the niche markets as project boards, which is what they were originally designed for, anyway.

 

[craigevil]

The raspberry PI has its high points but geezus it has more low points than an American democracy. I have given enough love to this piece of shit and it's made me so pissed off that my keyboards now in piece's .
I'm done with the pie and I'm done with logitech .
I need to sell this before I break it in half.

Sorry to hear that. I have had my pi400 for over a year and I love it. Granted I am not a gamer, or a user that has dozens of browser tabs open. But for browsing the web with Firefox, using Ferdium for Discord, element and a few other apps it works great. Same goes for playing music or audiobooks.

You have to keep in mind none of the Raspberry Pi's are meant to replace a PC/Laptop.

pi@raspberrypi 
-------------- 
OS: Debian GNU/Linux bookworm/sid aarch64 
Host: Raspberry Pi 400 Rev 1.0 
Kernel: 5.15.48-v8+ 
Uptime: 52 mins 
Packages: 2893 (dpkg), 18 (flatpak) 
Shell: bash 5.1.16 
Resolution: 1920x1080 
DE: MATE 1.26.0 
WM: Metacity (Marco) 
Theme: Sweet-Dark [GTK2/3] 
Icons: Papirus-Dark [GTK2/3] 
Terminal: guake 
CPU: BCM2835 (4) @ 2.000GHz 
Memory: 1930MiB / 3793MiB

inxi output:

 inxi -Ffxxxz
System:
  Kernel: 5.15.48-v8+ arch: aarch64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A Desktop: MATE
    v: 1.26.0 info: mate-panel, plank wm: marco v: 1.26.0 vt: 7 dm: LightDM
    v: 1.26.0 Distro: Raspberry Pi OS base: Debian GNU/Linux bookworm/sid
Machine:
  Type: ARM System: Raspberry Pi 400 Rev 1.0 details: BCM2835 rev: c03130
    serial: <filter>
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: N/A variant: cortex-a72 bits: 64 type: MCP
    arch: ARMv8 rev: 3 cache: L1: 320 KiB L2: 1024 KiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2000 min/max: 600/2000 cores: 1: 2000 2: 2000 3: 2000
    4: 2000 bogomips: 432
  Features: asimd cpuid crc32 evtstrm fp
Graphics:
  Device-1: bcm2711-hdmi0 driver: vc4_hdmi v: N/A bus-ID: N/A
    chip-ID: brcm:fef00700 class-ID: hdmi
  Device-2: bcm2711-hdmi1 driver: vc4_hdmi v: N/A bus-ID: N/A
    chip-ID: brcm:fef05700 class-ID: hdmi
  Device-3: bcm2711-vc5 driver: vc4_drm v: N/A bus-ID: N/A
    chip-ID: brcm:gpu class-ID: gpu
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 compositor: marco v: 1.26.0
    driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev
    gpu: vc4-drm,vc4_crtc,vc4_dpi,vc4_dsi,vc4_firmware_kms,vc4_hdmi,vc4_hvs,vc4_txp,vc4_v3d,vc4_vec
    display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.00x11.22")
    s-diag: 582mm (22.93")
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-1 model: Sceptre T27 res: 1920x1080
    hz: 60 dpi: 81 size: 600x330mm (23.62x12.99") diag: 685mm (27") modes:
    max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
  OpenGL: renderer: V3D 4.2 v: 2.1 Mesa 22.0.5 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: bcm2711-hdmi0 driver: vc4_hdmi bus-ID: N/A bus-ID: 1-1.2.2:6
    chip-ID: brcm:fef00700 chip-ID: 046d:0a8f class-ID: hdmi class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: bcm2711-hdmi1 driver: vc4_hdmi bus-ID: N/A
    chip-ID: brcm:fef05700 class-ID: hdmi
  Device-3: bcm2835-audio driver: bcm2835_audio bus-ID: N/A
    chip-ID: brcm:bcm2835_audio class-ID: bcm2835_audio
  Device-4: Logitech H390 headset with microphone type: USB
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.48-v8+ running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: no
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.52 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: bcm2835-mmc driver: mmc_bcm2835 v: N/A port: N/A bus-ID: N/A
    chip-ID: brcm:fe300000 class-ID: mmcnr
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
  Device-2: bcm2711-genet-v5 driver: bcmgenet v: N/A port: N/A bus-ID: N/A
    chip-ID: brcm:fd580000 class-ID: ethernet
  IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: proton0 state: unknown speed: 10 Mbps duplex: full mac: N/A
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: pl011 driver: uart_pl011 bus-ID: N/A chip-ID: arm:fe201000
    class-ID: serial
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter>
    bt-v: 3.0 lmp-v: 5.0 sub-v: 6606 hci-v: 5.0 rev: 36
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 936.93 GiB used: 338.45 GiB (36.1%)
  ID-1: /dev/mmcblk0 model: SD256 size: 238.3 GiB type: SSD
    serial: <filter> scheme: MBR
  ID-2: /dev/sda type: USB vendor: Samsung model: PSSD T7 size: 465.76 GiB
    type: SSD serial: <filter> scheme: MBR
  ID-3: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: USB 3.2Gen1
    size: 232.88 GiB type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: 1.00 scheme: MBR
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 457.13 GiB used: 139.87 GiB (30.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-2: /boot size: 252 MiB used: 49.3 MiB (19.6%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 4 GiB used: 10.8 MiB (0.3%) priority: 100
    dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 47.7 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 242 Uptime: 54m Memory: 3.78 GiB used: 2.08 GiB (55.1%)
  gpu: 76 MiB Init: systemd v: 251 target: graphical (5) default: graphical
  Compilers: gcc: 11.3.0 alt: 10/11/12 clang: 13.0.1-6 Packages: 2911
  apt: 2893 flatpak: 18 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.16 running-in: guake inxi: 3.3.19

 

[NORD]

had mine for almost 2 i think some days it works good some not so much running m.2 on it and I think i'm just gonna turn it into a retro gamer after i find a real pc

 

[NORD]

and don't get me started on the Pi zero 2 w lol

 

[VP9KS]

The raspberry PI has its high points but geezus it has more low points than an American democracy. I have given enough love to this piece of shit and it's made me so pissed off that my keyboards now in piece's .
I'm done with the pie and I'm done with logitech .
I need to sell this before I break it in half.

Dude! What happened? I am using mine more than I use "the lab". I have had no issues as yet. What gives?

 

[VP9KS]

and don't get me started on the Pi zero 2 w lol

Well, after all, the pi zero 2 W was not designed to be used as a personal computer. But it does have its place in the grand scheme of things. It was designed to be embedded into a project, to provide utility. Expecting it to function as a personal computer is not sane. It would not be much better than trying to use a BS2SX or a SX28AC. (Well, maybe a tiny bit better! MUCH better than a BS1 anyway! ) They are just not meant for that.

 

[VP9KS]

the thing is the raspberryPi was a bit of clever marketing hype and became a fashion. It was purported to be good for education and cheap. Well that depends; from the context of use in the 3rd world neither were true.

First what does the Reaspberry Pi have that an old Pentium IV doesn't ; well the GPIO ports; but are GPIO ports the holy grail ?

Well first in Ghana there were next to none hdmi screens in Ghana; oh but you can can an adapter I hear some fine fellows remark. Yeah last one i bought from maplin was 20 quid. Putting all parts togther the Pi is not cheap; capacity of the CPU was hopless last time i tried it and for me , old school I guess I could never take to ARM .

With an old Intel Pentium i installed a bunch of useful stuff and even at one point an offline wikipedia using apache , key words for topics in a database and php to search.

Well, if you do emergency communications from a battery supply, your batteries last much longer with a pi running FLDIGI and a small touch screen, than using that old power hungry pentium 4, so yes it does have its place. If you always wanted to experiment with distributed computing, like the heavy metal super computers, buying a fist full of pi4s is MUCH cheaper than buying a CRAY! nyuk, nyuk.

 

[APTI]

I have been selling pi4's until the shortage. now on wait list to get more. I have one in my kitchen mounted on the back of a 20 inch monitor which is mounted to an articulated arm and it works great as a workstation to show recipes or go online and find some other recipes. My girlfriend has one in her kitchen, uses it for the same thing plus watches movies while in the kitchen cooking. I have one in the store which controls a monitor in the window showing ads or anything else I want. Another 3b that is strictly for downloading. They are quite amazing little boards and when purchased properly (not from a scalper) they are great inexpensive ways of having a computer where you normally wouldn't.
I run Fedora on them and been happy as have those that purchase from me.

 

[Thunderpants]

Never regretted buying PIs myself. A Pi4B is capable of replacing a desktop PC for office use, watching movies or listening to music. Even an old Pi2B can be reused for running 'pi-hole' as a sentinel for blocking ads and tracking by simply plugging it into a spare router port. Sips electricity so can be left running 24/7.

The World’s Greatest Pi-hole (and Unbound) Tutorial 2023 | Crosstalk Solutions

www.crosstalksolutions.com

 

[Condobloke]

That link supplied by @Thunderpants , is extraordinarily good.

Very clear explanations....Invaluable.

Thanks.

 

[Zev]

Thank you for the link, Thunderpants! I will be bookmarking it for future use.

 

[CptKrf]

I have used, and use, a lot of Pi's over the years, starting with a couple of 2's, which didn't impress me. My current stable has a 3, a trio of 4's and a box full of Zeros's. My use is for controlling stuff, so working with the GPIO is my emphasis. For controllers they work fine - my PCB drill press uses only a Zero for auto drill, my local model railroad club uses a 4 as a signal controller, and can access up to 4096 individual input/output lines over a single I2C pair. (Not that anywhere that many are hooked up, but the capability of the add-on HAT is there). I control cameras, a small router (metal, not Internet), gate and mailbox signals, Arduinos, etc.

However, even a Pi-4 is not an M1 Studio or an I9 PC by a very long shot. I stay in command line mode all the time on any Pi and I will agree that trying to use a GUI can be frustrating, especially after daily use of a modern desktop. For the right use, i.e controller or specific application driver, a PI almost cannot be beat - as a desktop replacement, not so much.