The official Linux distribution for the Raspberry PI 5 is the Raspberry PI OS which is available in the Raspberry PI Imager. It is based on Debian Trixie.
You would think that any ARM distribution would run on the Raspberry PI 5 but you would be wrong. I tried downloading the ARM distribution of Ubuntu on Ubuntu.com. I was only able to get the images that are part of the Raspberry PI Imager to work. So I installed Ubuntu from the Raspberry PI Imager.
I had tried Ubuntu earlier with a Raspberry PI 4 with 4GB of RAM and it was so slow it was hard to navigate. I had hopes that with a Raspberry PI 5 with 8GB of RAM and also a 1 Terabyte M.2 on my Pironman 5 that I would achieve performance enough where I could take this glorious RGB lit computer with me to show off to my friends at work and also maybe use it as a media server.
I even made the Raspberry PI with Ubuntu look like Windows 11.
Windows 11 Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZqO0EY_yB8
I was let down with the performance. When I tried watching YouTube videos with my Bluetooth Headset on Chromium or Firefox under Ubuntu, the audio cut out several times during video playback. I also installed JetBrains Rider and attempted to compile and run unit tests for my open source project, Compare .NET Objects. I would consider that project a tiny one. The CPU pegged at 100% while building the project and then it crashed Rider. Sad.
So I went back to Raspberry PI OS for the Raspberry PI. I was able to watch YouTube videos without the audio cutting out. I did not try to compile my open source project again. In my opinion, the Raspberry PI OS doesn't look very good out of the box. The whole reason why I wanted Ubuntu to work was that it looked so much better.
Some Other Observations
- Brave Browser does not work. It has some crazy graphical glitches.
- The Print Screen button does not work for Screen Shots
- Libre Office Draw does not work. All the icons are missing.
- Beyond Compare does not work with Arm but it does work with AMD or X86
You can remote control VS Code on the PI. I did not do that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs-lfskyjt0
With the CPU being atrocious on performance for compiling, I am basically done with Raspberry PI. So I am off to testing Linux in x86 land. Tune in for the next exciting episode. Same bat channel, same bat time.
Reference Videos
Raspberry Pi 5 Operating Systems
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G6jZd4gHtM
5 Best Operating Systems for Raspberry Pi 5
The BEST Operating System for Raspberry Pi 5?
