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Is an old raspberry pi useful for anything based on Linux? (programming.dev)

submitted 2 days ago by vrek@programming.dev to c/linux@programming.dev

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I don't expect much but I found an old pi I bought probably 2016(may of been 2017). It was supposed to be a pi-hole but was never able to get the dns forwarding to work on my modem. It still works but wanted to somehow convert it to a regular distro(it's based on a micro-SD and I don't have any more microsd readers). I wanted to set it up as a basic system I could ssh into a terminal. Not expecting anything fancy or even graphic based. A lot of stuff I want to learn/practice "work" on windows but are native to Linux, like vim/neovim nmap gcc etc. Is this feasible? Am I under estimating what's possible with it?

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[–] wltr@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It’s not super powerful. There’s no much sense to run a desktop on it. Its strong side being underpowered, it barely sips electricity. If you need a cheap desktop, there’s plenty of used hardware to fill that place.

I run it headless, with an SSD attached for storage (perhaps my power supply was underpowered, the HDD wasn’t very stable, the SSD is stable for me). I’m running: syncthing, Pi-Hole and Unbound, web server with many small sites and services I made for myself, and a huge number of bash scripts for personal automations. They do render my static websites, the local versions. Also it runs Tailscale. Perhaps I have something else there, need to check, those came to my head first.

Overall, not that you can run everything under the sun with this board, but it’s quite capable, actually. I love it that it’s the most energy efficient (or one of the most) among Raspberry Pis, and it can do a lot. Another board worked with a TV having Kodi box (I installed LibreELEC for it), it was pretty capable too. It is able to play 1080P H264 content easily. It’s not that impressive these days, but ten years ago it was pretty impressive.

[–] vrek@programming.dev 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, I remember having a full desktop to show videos back in the day(like pre-2005ish). I knew it was more powerful than it seemed but it appears I underestimated it.

[–] wltr@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 days ago

Actually, modern Linux software not that much power hungry. In my opinion this computer is very valuable for the 24/7 use case. I have a laptop with broken screen, could be a decent server, but it looks like with the essential services that I have, Raspberry Pi is just ample. That’s not for everyone, I have a friend who needs much more, but this computer can run at least some basics. To me that’s (as I’ve mentioned the names already) network wide ad block, syncing my files, having some simple web services. I’m thinking of hosting Immich, I’d just dedicate a more powerful computer to that. Which I plan to turn off and on (perhaps even via Wake-on-LAN) when needed. Not that convenient, but manageable. So, I’d recommend to start with the services you think of essentials and see what it can handle.