Hi all ! Welcome to the last post of 31daysofraspberrypi400
All good things must come to an end and this is no exception. It was a fun month, with a lot of new experiences for me. Some frustrations, some successes but a lot of fun.
My apologies for the late post.
Everyday User
First and foremost, the Raspberry PI 400 is not for everyone. But you know this and they also know this and I know that was not intended. It's a great computer for those who have nothing or very old computers. It's a great computer for children that are learning and taking the first steps into computing - and nothing best than starting with Linux - and it also works very well for everyday Internet browsing.
From shopping, e-banking, writing blogs, reading newspapers, RSS and a lot more it works very well.
I didn't mention social networks and I have a very specific reason for not to - it's slow. Facebook can bring (depending on what you're doing on Facebook and the opened applications) the browser to almost a full stop and consequently slowing the Raspberry PI 400 down. Twitter is also a bit slow, but not like Facebook. I didn't try Instagram.
Firefox is not the latest version (we're stuck with a ESR version), but Chrome (or Chromium) is. I know that Chrome is a memory hog and there are other browsers that could work better.
For streaming services, fortunately, the last months have seen a development in this and you can finally have Netflix, Disney+ and probably others available (only tried those two) directly from the Chrome/Chromium browser. They work well.
Kodi is also available, but you need to increase the memory available for the GPU or it will be extremely slow.
I didn't connect it to another monitor. Unfortunately. I was really keen to see how would it behave with two monitors - and not even thinking of 4K - a full HD would suffice. There was times that it gave the sensation that the graphics wouldn't be capable of handling what I was asking of it.
Developing / Making / Security / Sysadmins / Networking
The Raspbery PI 400 can be a useful tool for developers/Makers/Networking Administrators/Security. You have a full Linux Desktop working, with Python/C/C++ support and a lot of applications and tools for specific uses.
You have a GPIO for making stuff and connecting to external sensors. Almost all the software available for the Raspbery PI 3/4 and Linux is here. There are exceptions, of course.
Cura is finally available if you like it. Slic3r is also a option.
Tinkercad works well, and you even have FreeCAD as an option, but you need to compile it from source - 3/4 hours. Despite that, it works fine. I'm not building a rocket engine, but for normal parts, not a bit of slowness.
Problems
Bluetooth
I had a struggle with the bluetooth, having to resort to an external dongle. I don't know if there's any issue with the Raspberry PI 400. The same headphones/audio speaker connected to a Raspberry PI 3B+ using the same buster version without any problem.
Slow
If you're in a rush, forget it. There are times were it can and will feel slow. Having more than 3 or 4 tabs open in the browser and it would start to lag. And I'm not talking about the browser , although that one to. This was my main issue with the Raspberry PI 400. It felt slow sometimes - a lot of times.
Switching from one app to another it would work smoothly, but if you had 4 or 5 applications opened and the browser - take a deep breath and wait a few seconds.
Probably the amount of memory I gave to the GPU - 320MB - could have been a bit much. Again, I know chrome(ium) is a memory hog, but still... 4GB should be more than enough.
Webcam
I did mention to have a bit of problems with my Webcam and Zoom. Chromium (Firefox was a no go, with the camera image all black) would freeze, also the image of the webcam for those who were watching. I realized later that the Webcam was connected to a USB 2.0 port and not 3.0 (Because of the bluetooth dongle I had to use an extra USB port and didn't realized that was a 3.0) and that could have contributed to the issue. This is a feature to be tested at a next opportunity and will update this post when that happens.
What did I took from this
Well, I know now what the Raspberry PI 400 can and cannot do.
I already knew what a Raspberry PI could do. Part of my job, as a sysadmin is find solutions for problems, not always software related, but sometimes hardware too. What's the best computer for some issue, How can we solve this problem in this area, etc.. etc...
For example, a few nurses need to have Youtube with some relaxing music always on to ease on the pain of patients waiting for consultation. My take ? A raspberry PI (not a smart TV) connected to the TV.
Need some zebra printers to work, but no more network wall outlets nearby. But we have WiFi. My take was a Raspberry PI Zero Ws with the Zebra Printers connected and cups. I have 5 already and they work very well. More so than having the printer connected to the windows computer and shared. Lots of problems.
I can now pursue my Administration to possibly buy a couple (or more) of Raspberry PI 400 to put in the Pediatrics for the kids to go on to the Internet and possibly talk to relatives over Facebook or Zoom (still thinking that the problems were because of USB2 instead of USB3 with the Webcam).
In my humble opinion I think the Raspberry PI 400 is a great personal computer and for the purpose that it was developed it is good. Far from thinking what the Raspberry PI Foundation could have done better or worse, and I believe that the choices that were made were made thinking on the final price of product, but they could have gone with more memory - at least enough to be split between the GPU and the CPU and not having some issues. We have now Raspberry PI's with 8GB. Probably they could do the same in a version 2.0 .
I'm not a reviewer or an expert in writing articles complaining or not about products. This was my experience, it is what it is.
Hope you learn something and if you can, give the Raspberry PI 400 a go !
