Raspberry Pi Linux OS Review

Being one of the few Linux users at RS towers I have had the enviable task of taking home one of our Raspberry Pi's to put it through it's paces and I am absolutely amazed. This is everything you would expect and more...

There has been plenty already written about the boards features so I am not going to go into those. What I will update you on is the user experience with each of the Linux OS flavours available. If you have access to a Linux PC it is easy to image the SD cards and read the file system. I am using an Eee netbook running Ubuntu Natty as this has an SD card reader built in. dd works nicely for both the Debian and Arch Linux Arm images and I used the Python based installer for the new Fedora Remix. I am using ScanDisk 4GB type 4 SDHC cards.

Already there is a great choice of Distros, with more on the way and each one has it's pros and cons:

Debian

This is my preferred Distro as it is the only one that is rock solid, stable and configured ready to run. Boot up is fairly slow as you have to wait for timer errors to time out before ending up at the login prompt. The image is configured with both a root and user account pre-installed. All the hardware is discovered automatically including Ethernet using DHCP, full marks here. Desktop is LXDE with a basic set of applications installed and they all seem to work without much extra configuration. Opening applications is quite fast, browsing web pages is a little slow but it is ideal for referencing the online Python manual when you are programming. There is also an amazing number of prebuilt packages available in the Debian repository just an apt-get away.

Arch Linux ARM

This is by far the fastest of the Distros I tested and would be my choice if you are already familiar with the command line. Boot speed is an amazing 10 seconds to the login prompt. A bit more work to do at first boot, as the Arch Way gives you a minimal installation that you can customise to your own requirements. If you want to run a desktop you need to update the package manager and then download LXDE etc. I had a few problems getting a clean install but nothing too onerous. Once loaded, LXDE is really fast and responsive. It is incredible that such a low cost device can give this performance. The more I use Arch the more I have come to enjoy this minimalist approach. You need to read the excellent online documentation to configure your system but the rewards are easily worth it and pacman has a good selection of pre-compiled packages available.

Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix

This was only recently released but at the moment it is very slow, too slow to be really usable, with the processor maxed out a lot of the time. The installation was made difficult by interrupts displayed on the startup screen and I suffered regular lock-ups at the desktop login. On the plus side it has a good set of apps installed and is bound to get better very quickly once the community gets behind it.

OpenELEC for Raspberry Pi

This OS is dedicated to running XBMC for attaching to your TV for use as a media centre controller but it is not ready for download yet.  

In summary I have not had so much fun installing Linux in a long time.

The Raspberry Pi has amazed me with is stability, speed and choice of Distros even at this early stage in its development. I have been browsing the net, running the rotating logo, displaying photos, programming in Python, playing games and brushing up my command line skills. Switching OS is simply a mater of inserting another SD card and rebooting. I can't wait to see what applications people put it to once it is widely available.