Raspberry Pi 4 Desktop Kit

[vryni]

I just discovered this Raspberry Pi 4 Desktop Kit
https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/ra ... sktop-kit/

Is this a real alternative to my aging (2012 bios version) Intel core i3 PC
for ordinary home use (browsing, watching youtube etc) ?

Can i install the latest Debian on it ?

Anything particular about dealing with privacy, security aspects ?

I'm not looking for challenges, just open minded to adopt a useful, inexpensive hardware solution

i'd appreciate informed feedback

[ruwolf]

If you can give there (to your current old computer) 8 GiB RAM, it is not alternative, in my opinion.
It is not libre hardware.

[Dai_trying]

I like the New Pi4 board mainly for it's two hdmi outputs to enable dual screen, but I would not be too sure about replacing my desktop with it, I do think it is powerful enough for browsing/YouTube etc, but obviously there are some things you would likely want a bit more power to do, and then you would likely regret the replacement.

I would say try it out and if it does suit your needs then all good and well, if not it is not a lot of expense to be worried about. And I would definitely go for the 4Gb model as any less would impact on performance especially if you are using dual screens.

And it doesn't run "proper" Debian, it generally uses Raspbian although there are more choices which can be found at the Raspberry website download section

[Segfault]

First, look at power consumption. It is low. There has not been any breakthroughs in CPU technology, thus, low power consumption means low computing power.
I'd look at RPi-4 as an ASIC, it has the hardware to decode H.264 and H.265 and it is good at it. I'm not sure it is good enough for general computing. I'm sure you can run a DE on it, the question is will you be happy with it?
But then again, as mentioned above, the cost is low, why don't you try it out and tell us?

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Can i install the latest Debian on it ?

Apparently not:

The new (June 2019) Raspberry Pi 4 is not yet supported (the kernel does not yet have a Device Tree for it)

https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi3

Anything particular about dealing with privacy, security aspects ?

It needs a blob to boot so it is not to be trusted.

[tynman]

Can i install the latest Debian on it ?

In the link you gave, it says the kit comes with

16GB NOOBS with Raspbian microSD card

So out of box, you can just install the supplied copy of Raspbian. (And thus you don't need to try to install Debian.)

[binaryhermit]

It almost certainly significantly lags behind your PC when it comes to cpu grunt, it probably lags behind even a refurb core2duo. If you're planning to take advantage of dual display or 4k this might also be a plus for the pi.
If it has more RAM than your desktop, it might work better for desktop use, though, I find within certain parameters RAM matters more than CPU grunt for basic web browsing.
And the official case is horrible for cooling to the point where it's likely you'd end up throttling, you might want to invest in a case that doubles as a big heatsink (FLIRC case for example) or uses a fan. Or at least is a little less airtight.

[kevinthefixer]

From what I've seen of it so far, this RPi version sits somewhere between a Pentium 3 and P4 as regards CPU performance. Graphics are much better than anything available 20 years ago IF YOU HAVE THE CORRECT SOFTWARE to use it; remember this is a cell-phone SOC here, not just any media player can access the graphics section. The latest Raspian (required to run the Pi4) is based on Debian Buster LXDE. Raspian Stretch running on my RPi3B boots quickly and, for the most part, feels quite responsive while doing light browsing (with Chromium, its default, didn't see any reason to change it). I built a tablet out of it and it works well for that. But I wouldn't dream of trying anything hairy like editing video with a Raspberry Pi, just not enough horsepower. And of course my better half couldn't use it because Facebook games are such RAM hogs!

[pylkko]

I just had time to read up on the new RPi 4 and hear are some of my thoughts with respect to this thread in particular order

Is this a real alternative to my aging (2012 bios version) Intel core i3 PC
for ordinary home use (browsing, watching youtube etc) ?

Probably. What it can replace depends on the usage. I think basic browsing and youtube were already possible on the previous
versions, and now that there is better video stack and codecs, more cpu and RAM, it should be able to manage.

Can i install the latest Debian on it ?

most likely not with ease, however, you would also definitely not want to do that since Raspbian is essentially Debian customized
to work optimally on RPi. And you can install Raspbian Buster.

It is not libre hardware.

there is no such thing, so not much to worry

It needs a blob to boot so it is not to be trusted.

yes, because the machine that I'm using now doesn't need unfree closed-source firmware to boot In case someone doesn't get it, that was sarcasm.

Yes, things that you cannot/don't want to do: host virtual machines, edit video, transcode video, train machine learning models,
play games (save for some retro gaming), compile large things. Things that will work easily: email, browsing, streaming music/videos,
calendars, keeping files, running servers (DNS, MPD, web, DLNA, VPN whatever). But as today you can easily rent computational power,
if you'd need to train a CNN a couple times a year, you could still manage with a low power computer and just offload the hard work
to a pay-per-use service, I suppose.