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PA R T II
B U I L DI N G A M E DI A C E N T R E , PRO D U C T I V I T Y M AC H I N E OR W E B S E R V E R
THE FLEXIBILITY OF the Raspberry Pi makes it a good choice as a low-power general-
purpose desktop computer. Although it will never reach the same levels of performance as a
standard desktop or laptop, its low cost and environmentally friendly power consumption
help to make up for any problems with occasionally sluggish performance.
Although the Raspberry Pi-specific Raspbian distribution provided on the official website
doesn’t include any of the usual productivity software you might expect of a general-purpose
PC—such as a word processor, spreadsheet or image editing—this software can be installed
via the
apt-get
command. You can also skip the local installation and use cloud-based soft-
ware through the web browser, which can offer improved performance over locally installed
packages at the cost of flexibility and advanced functionality.
Using either of the methods described in this chapter—locally installed applications or
cloud-based services—the Pi can be used as a day-to-day machine for office and school work,
while not harming its usability as a platform for programming and experimentation.
TIP
If you’re planning to use the Pi as a pure productivity machine, it’s a good idea to reserve more
of the memory for general-purpose use and less for the graphics processor. To learn how to
change this split, see Chapter 6, “The Raspberry Pi Software Configuration Tool”.
Using Cloud-Based Apps
If you use your Pi connected to the Internet the majority of the time, either through the Model
B’s integrated Ethernet port or a USB wired or wireless adapter on the Model A,
cloud-based
software offers a powerful yet lightweight means of using office-centric software on the Pi.
Cloud-based software is so called because it doesn’t live locally on your computer like a regu-
lar piece of software. Instead, it’s stored on powerful servers located in data centres through-
out the world and accessed over the Internet using a web browser. By tapping into the
processing and storage capabilities of a far more powerful remote server, it’s possible for the
Pi to work on more complicated documents and tasks without slowing down.
Cloud-based software has other advantages over locally installed applications, too. Any given
cloud-based application will look the same on any given device, and many of these applica-
tions include mobile-oriented versions designed for access from smartphones and tablets.
Files are also stored on the remote servers, making them accessible from any device without
taking up any room on the Pi’s SD card.
Cloud-based applications aren’t perfect, however. They typically lag behind their locally
installed counterparts in functionality, and often lack advanced features or support fewer file