Board suggestion (split from Ethernet config issues)

[sniffyjaay]

@tkaiser  I'm looking for advice, I'm looking to use a single board computer of some sorts, to run a lightweight linux distro as a watered-down PC. Standard things like Webbrowsing, Netflix (Youtube, etc...), LibreOffice, etc.. can run on. Additionally I've seen some interesting videos of people running Python and I don't really understand the limitations of these boards. Are one of these boards equivalent to a circa 2000 PC? circa 2005? circa 1990s? Ideally I'd like to run a small standalone PC for day to day tasks and maybe some basic python or other coding environments. There's TON's of info online..which I've tried to go through myself, but again there TONs of info online. Would you have time to let me ask you a few questions, or help point me to threads for exactly what I'm looking for? Basically I want some sort of comparison and advice on what boards I should be using and WHY...your review on the banana pi M3 was awesome and I'm looking for information in that kind of detail except more on the OS side of it rather than the core functionality (i.e. read and write speed, clocking, etc..) I know while core functionality is where I need to start, I know efficient SW can make the most out of poor hardware and rather than reinvent the wheel by buying a bunch and testing them, I figure expect like you and another in the community might be able to help. I can't send private messages, but it being in a format of a forum doesn't bother me at all either  

[tkaiser]

39 minutes ago, sniffyjaay said:

Standard things like Webbrowsing, Netflix (Youtube, etc...), LibreOffice

 

...is nothing I ever did with Linux especially on a SBC (sorry, macOS user here). I've really no idea about this 'Desktop Linux' stuff so hopefully others join in.

[lanefu]

1 hour ago, sniffyjaay said:

@tkaiser  I'm looking for advice, I'm looking to use a single board computer of some sorts, to run a lightweight linux distro as a watered-down PC. Standard things like Webbrowsing, Netflix (Youtube, etc...), LibreOffice, etc.. can run on. Additionally I've seen some interesting videos of people running Python and I don't really understand the limitations of these boards. Are one of these boards equivalent to a circa 2000 PC? circa 2005? circa 1990s? Ideally I'd like to run a small standalone PC for day to day tasks and maybe some basic python or other coding environments. There's TON's of info online..which I've tried to go through myself, but again there TONs of info online. Would you have time to let me ask you a few questions, or help point me to threads for exactly what I'm looking for? Basically I want some sort of comparison and advice on what boards I should be using and WHY...your review on the banana pi M3 was awesome and I'm looking for information in that kind of detail except more on the OS side of it rather than the core functionality (i.e. read and write speed, clocking, etc..) I know while core functionality is where I need to start, I know efficient SW can make the most out of poor hardware and rather than reinvent the wheel by buying a bunch and testing them, I figure expect like you and another in the community might be able to help. I can't send private messages, but it being in a format of a forum doesn't bother me at all either  

 

 

lol are you trying to write a magazine article?     Break out your questions so they're a little clearer and maybe some folks will respond.

 

so all the SBCs make a mediocre linux desktop experience because of the video support etc.    Using the SBCs as an Android Desktop would probably yield the best general experience.

 

Comparison.. uhmm how about better than a pentium III but not as good as a Core 2 Duo?

 

[gnasch]

Hi sniffyjaay

 

i have several opipcplus working in a "lean desktop" mode. They run armbian 5.25 jessie with the legacy kernel. I have tried to cut back on the insane writing of cache and state data by firefox, have installed qpdfview, the complete libreoffice, xfce4-power-manager and lightdm instead of nodm.

They are always on and run reliably over ethernet or wlan connected by the user's mount to a samba server with the data.

As surfing station and Office PC they run reasonably fast, especially when you consider that you don't have to wait for endless windows starts and -updates. When a user is logged in but not active, the OpiPcPlus falls asleep after selected half hour, and stays ready consuming only a few mA until the button is pressed, then it is back within a second. I did not bother with cases, but mounted the pi's vertically with 5mm distance on a little wood plate fixed to the desk. This plate also holds the wifi antenna on its top. The natural airflow before and behind the board is easily sufficient for cooling with a simple Al heat-spreader.

 

Until now I failed to have them fall asleep when unused without user login, although I edited logind.conf.

I would like to achieve this not only to save the little energy, but also to save writing to the SD card and to stop burning an image into the monitor.

 

hth,

gnasch

 

 

[rodolfo]

19 hours ago, sniffyjaay said:

...to run a lightweight linux distro as a watered-down PC. Standard things like Webbrowsing, Netflix (Youtube, etc...), LibreOffice, etc.. can run on.

 

Hi sniffyjaay,

 

SBCs are not really the right choice for the "Standard things" ( kind of a WIN-$ type desktop with office, multimedia and some python stuff ) you'd like to run on them. A decent desktop experience depends on snappy processing, fast storage, networking, quality display and keyboard/pointerdevice. As the common web experience goes up in sheer bloat smoke, SBCs are just overwhelmed with all the nonproductive bull. A cheap used laptop upgraded with SSD and an ultrafast LXDE-Debian, MACOS or WIN desktop is hard to match when trying to mimick it by turbo-charging an SBC. SBCs are just wonderful gadgets when their strenghts are used. Desktop use stresses their weaknesses. I personally employ them successfully as thin clients and remote desktop servers ( think visualizing IOT )  but mostly use them as specialiced servers, routers, secure cloud etc... Use cases like POS, simple kiosk solutions, low energy stuff all profit from SBC designs, but not the data-gathering slavery tools of big data abusers. Best of luck.