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EDLIU

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 20, 2015
222
8
Just saw the news that the Raspberry Pi 4 is released. Does anyone want to share with us the experience with using Raspberry Pi?

Thanks.
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,137
15,602
California
I have an older Pi 3 I run headless as a Pi-Hole adblocker and it works great. But I think it is pretty under powered to use as your main computer. Now from what I have seen in tests of the new Pi 4, it looks like it could be used as your main computer if your needs were not great.

I've seen a complete kit with a KB and mouse for $79. Heck get that and attach an old monitor and you would have a nice little computer.

The new one has much better USB and ethernet throughput also, so I think that makes it a much better candidate for running as a server than the older ones.
 
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EDLIU

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 20, 2015
222
8
I googled for Pi-hole but have no idea how it works. Do you use it in your home network?

Thanks.
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,489
43,413
I googled for Pi-hole but have no idea how it works. Do you use it in your home network?

Thanks.
I do, it works as a defacto DNS server, so that all requests go through the pi-hole and thus its able to strip out all ads and malware. It uses a series of black and white lists to function and given what its doing you won't need a raspberry pi 4, I'm running a raspberry pi 2 for my pi-hole. Except for some youtube video adds, it works great
 
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EDLIU

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 20, 2015
222
8
I do, it works as a defacto DNS server, so that all requests go through the pi-hole and thus its able to strip out all ads and malware.

So you get a Raspberry Pi, and it runs Raspbian. (Does it need to download other software to make the Pi-hole work?) How do you link the Raspberry Pi to your home network? I use Ubuntu, and how can I set it up if I run Ubuntu on the Raspberry Pi?

Thanks.
 

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,520
7,045

MrRabuf

macrumors regular
Jan 2, 2019
105
106
Just saw the news that the Raspberry Pi 4 is released. Does anyone want to share with us the experience with using Raspberry Pi?

I have a 3B+ that I use to run retropie (retro video game emulation). It's one of the more popular uses of a raspi and works great for 8 and 16 bit emulation. Hopefully, the Pi 4 will open up more systems, like better N64 emulation.

As mentioned, Pi-Hole is another popular use for it. It's just a DNS sinkhole. It keeps track of a list of ad-serving domain names and redirects them to a bogus IP address so you don't see the ads. While I don't use Pi-Hole, I have a similar service (pfblockerng) running on my pfsense router that does the same thing and it works great. I know people who use pihole and they all really like it. I highly recommend running this kind of thing on your home network as ads have gotten out of hand and browser-based ad blockers aren't a good enough solution nor do they work in all cases (e.g. when using an iOS app that won't allow you to run such a blocker).
 
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Partron22

macrumors 68030
Apr 13, 2011
2,655
808
Yes
I use a Pi 3b as a video server under Raspian using Kodi or VLC.
Works better than my Roku, and doesn't choke when I hook up a 2TB drive (1TB partitions, NTSF).
Synkron lets me sync across disk formats.
I've had a pi 2 hooked up to my Mac as a barometer for 6 years. No troubles.
Alone, the 2 is nice for web surfing, Libre office. It's fast enough for light work.
3b+ is a bit faster.
4 will have USB 3.
 

fancybid

macrumors newbie
Jul 2, 2019
6
0
Put the Pi 4 aside. I just want to know, what are some of the best games that work on Raspbian?
I've played Teeworlds and smashed its mobile version from apknite to find out how cool it is. So I'm finding a "Cool" game like that.
I am mostly looking for Racing and Sci-Fi action games.
 

Strider64

macrumors 65816
Dec 1, 2015
1,370
10,920
Suburb of Detroit
I sometimes use the raspberry pi 3 b+ with a small camera attached to it as a security device and using an iMac to connect wirelessly to the π is very easy to do.
 

2984839

Cancelled
Apr 19, 2014
2,114
2,239
They've come a long way in a couple years. If they made a dual NIC version, I would be all over that thing.
 

Roxy.music

macrumors 6502a
Jun 9, 2019
852
90
uk
Do you own one yourself, and what do you think of them?. Certainly, it is a good way to learn about Linux which I am interested in.:) And what game Controller,s
could you recommend for gaming on one I have an Argon One, the maximum price would be 25 pounds.i have a Raspberry pi3b plus. i like this guys videos they are very education :)
Raspberry Pi: Multi-boot with BerryBoot
 

JamesMike

macrumors 603
Nov 3, 2014
6,473
6,102
Oregon
I bought two of them when they first came on the market, one for my grandson and one for me. They are fun to explore and play with.
 

EDLIU

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 20, 2015
222
8
I'm thinking about getting a Raspberry Pi 4(and run the Pi-Hole). What else can I do with the Raspberry Pi?

BTW, can Raspberry Pi 4 run Windows, or macOS, or Linux?

Thanks.
 

SandboxGeneral

Moderator emeritus
Sep 8, 2010
26,482
10,051
Detroit
I'm thinking about getting a Raspberry Pi 4(and run the Pi-Hole). What else can I do with the Raspberry Pi?

BTW, can Raspberry Pi 4 run Windows, or macOS, or Linux?

Thanks.
Raspberry Pi's can run Linux. I'm not sure about Windows as I've never looked or cared to look. But essentially if the OS can run on ARM, it can probably run on a Pi.

Try exploring the Raspberry Pi website for numerous things you can do with them.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/

Also explore r/raspberry_pi to see cool stuff others are doing as well.

https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/

You can also make a Magic Mirror with them.

https://www.magicmirrorcentral.com/complete-raspberry-pi-magic-mirror-tutorial/
 

Roxy.music

macrumors 6502a
Jun 9, 2019
852
90
uk
I'm thinking about getting a Raspberry Pi 4(and run the Pi-Hole). What else can I do with the Raspberry Pi?

BTW, can Raspberry Pi 4 run Windows, or macOS, or Linux?

Thanks.
[doublepost=1566762379][/doublepost]Yes you can but it takes a bit of work to do it even for expert like this guy.
but it want be a good
Experience:(
 
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