At Tue, 09 Sep 2025 00:46:15 -0700 "Rick Thomas" <[email protected]> wrote:
> > The RaspberryPI-5 now comes with enough RAM to make it a reasonable choice > for a desktop personal computer. It comes with a version of Raspbian OS that > works quite well. However, I would prefer to have a plain-vanilla Debian OS, > because that's what I'm most familiar with. Does such a thing exist? If so, > where can I download it? I don't know if a "stock" aarch64 Debian kernel would work. All of my (limited) experience with ARM Linux suggests that, unlike x86/x86_64 machines, ARM processors each have special (unique) system I/O SOC and need "custom" drivers compiled into the kernel in order to boot. There might also be system-specific firmware and boot overlays, needed. The RPi's also have their own "unique" boot rom logic, requiring a VFAT boot partition. (Other ARM systems use some sort of uboot system for booting.) That said, once you start talking about user-mode code, Raspberry Pi OS is pretty much valila Debian. Yes, there is some GUI "branding" and the pre-installed GUI desktop is not the "standard" one that comes with "vanilia" Debian, but any of the desktop environments (eg KDE, Gnome, Mate, etc.) are available to be installed (eg "sudo apt install gnome-desktop"). Aside from the kernel and a few other RPi specific utils, Raspberry Pi OS ises the standard Debian repositories, so anything there is fair game to be installed. *I* use my Raspberry Pi5 as my main desktop system. And I did change the GUI sub-system (I have my own "custom" desktop environment, probably unlike *any* of the "modern" desktop environment typically offered by "mainstream" Linux distros). I basically started with a "stock" uSD image from the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and used apt to install / uninstall things to get the set up that works for me. I believe one can just use apt to install any of the desktop environments "vanila" Debian normally offers. > > While I'm asking, I hear rumors that the RPi5 can run Windows. Does anybody > have experience with that? How does it work for you? Is it compatible enough > with PC-Windows for me to recommend it to my friends who are life-time > Windows users? As for running MS-Windows on a Raspberry Pi, there have always been rumors of running some version of MS-Windows on Raspberry Pis since the Rpi 1. I have no clue where you would get such a thing. I also am not sure what application software is actually available. Which it is possible to *emulate* x86_64 code on a aarch64 system, it is rather slow -- I use qemu-system-x86 to implement a Debian amd64 virtual machine -- I use this to compile code targeting i686 and x86_64 processors -- it is slow, but it gets the job done and is strictly command line / shell, no GUI -- eg start the build script and let it run in the background and check the build log (hours) later. While I suspect there is an aarch64 MS-Windows uSD impage out there someplace, getting an aarch64 version of commonly used MS-Windows application. might be harder. Although there are SnapDragon Laptops running MS-Windows currently for sale and being advertized on the boobtube -- SnapDragon is Qualcom's "desptop" / laptop ARM processor (basically a "PC" answer to Apple Silicon) and Qualcom has been working with Microsoft. The SnapDragon is Microsoft's answer to moving beyond Intel/AMD... On the other hand, Microsoft, Adobe, and Intuit are moving off the laptop/desktop to the cloud with web-based versions of their software. Gaming in general is also moving in that direction as well, so the O/S on one's desktop or laptop may become a non-issue before too long. *I'd* recomend RPi 5's with some sort of Linux install on them. I don't know if Linux Mint's Cinnamon desktop is available for aarch64 as installable debs. It is almost certian that it is possible to get the sources and build it on a RPi5. > > Thanks! > Rick > > > -- Robert Heller -- Cell: 413-658-7953 GV: 978-633-5364 Deepwoods Software -- Custom Software Services http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Linux Administration Services [email protected] -- Webhosting Services
