
So, I don’t think it will be your main choice. Performances will vary a lot depending on your Raspberry Pi model, settings and interface tweaks. I haven’t done any benchmarks for the desktop environments, but I’ll give you my first impression for each of them. However, you’ll see that other desktop environments have better interfaces to adjust the system configuration. It isn’t the end of the world anyway, you’ll quickly find the important settings.

I suppose there is a logic behind it, but I don’t get it. I don’t really understand why they haven’t simplified this. Raspi-config (the command line configuration tool) also have options that are not available via the interface. Change your wallpaper? Another place again. Want to change the screen resolution? That’s another tool. But what is misleading is that there are other tools that you’ll also need to use for the system configuration. Password, time zone, keyboard layout, etc. Basic design, apps sorted by category, nothing fancy or complicated: So, the interface needs to be simple to use, with easy access to the basic settings and that’s all.
Best os for raspberry pi 4 how to#
Their goal is to help young students to learn how to code. They are not looking to create the best desktop experience or the most beautiful system. It always comes down to the goal of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. PiXeL doesn’t have a fancy interface at all, and that’s not the goal. How to say it well? Minimalist? Yes, maybe. So, I will keep this part short, but it’s important to start from there to explain the limits of it, and why I’m looking for another desktop environment in the first place. You already know everything about it, even with the new Raspberry Pi OS version there are not many changes in the interface overall. I’m starting with PiXeL which is the reference, and then the other ones are basically my favorites in order.

Keep reading if you are looking for your next desktop environment, it’ll save you time as I tested them all, provide screenshots, and list the pros and cons of each one.

But the goal is to give you a general idea of what you can expect by default.
Best os for raspberry pi 4 install#
I know that you can always improve the interface look, or install apps to make your life easier with settings etc. So, my opinion is based on the default settings. I didn’t change anything to the appearance or default apps that come when you install the meta-package. I installed the most popular ones on my Raspberry Pi, and will share my impressions with you in this article.įor each operating system, I started with Raspberry Pi OS Lite and installed the desktop environment with apt and the default repository. It comes with the PiXeL desktop environment, which is a modified version of LXDE. Raspberry Pi OS is the default operating system we use in almost every project.
