Jenny's Near-Daily Tools: Raspberry Pi Version 1

Taking a Nostalgic Stroll with an Old Favorite

Remember the Raspberry Pi? That ubiquitous little device that burst onto the scene back in 2012? It's been a global sensation ever since, with various speedier successors, but what about the original board? Is it still a worthy piece of hardware in 2025, or has it been left in the dust? Let's get reacquainted with the Raspberry Pi Model B!

Reconnecting with an Old Friend

There's no doubt that the Raspberry Pi has never been the speed demon or the top dog in terms of specs. But what it lacks in sheer power, it makes up for in its rock-solid, well-supported operating system - Raspberry Pi OS. And that's something that none of its competitors can match. So, dusting off my Model B, I headed to the Raspberry Pi downloads page and snagged a Debian Bookworm image for its 32-bit processor. A minimalist "lite" version was the wiser choice; while the Model B could technically run a desktop, the lag would make for an agitating user experience.

My goal for this reunion is to use the Pi to run language analysis software. Aside from playing with vintage cameras and writing about tech, I have a profound history in language processing, and I've recently made my news trend analysis code open-source. It's an project whose roots date back nearly two decades, so there's been an added challenge of making sense of my younger self's code. This project builds and processes a corpus of news data over time, draws valuable insights, and presents a web-based analysis client.

Getting the Model B up and running is an easy process; it's just a matter of writing the image to an SD card, connecting it to peripherals, and booting it up. Raspberry Pi OS, as always, is easy-peasy to set up, and after rebooting and logging in, I had a shell ready for action.

Looking Back, Progressing Forward

There's no sugarcoating it: my main workhorse, a Thinkpad laptop with a Core i7, 32 GB of memory, a lightning-fast SSD, and an ample cache, is an absolute beast of a machine by any measure from the past. This powerful laptop has spoiled me, giving me expectations of near-instantaneous tasks in the shell. Sitting at the Pi, it quickly became evident that I would have to rein in my expectations. With its antiquated 700 MHz ARM11 CPU and 256 MB of RAM, the Pi is clearly outclassed, not just by my Thinkpad, but by today's standards in general. That said, with the unnecessary services and GUI clutter stripped away, I was still enjoying all the Linux power the Pi had to offer in the terminal - just at a slower pace.

So, my faithful Pi 1 Model B now resides once more, hooked up to my router with a hefty USB drive, waking up every couple of hours to crunch numbers and analyze the world's news. I've grown accustomed to its patient pace, and to getting things done with it. It's a nifty little computer for the task at hand, consuming only a couple of watts, and as long as the Raspberry Pi team keeps making the Pi Zero, its future as my language analysis machine is secure.

The purpose of this piece is to remind us all not to forget about our trusty, older hardware. Yes, Raspberry Pi would love to sell us a Pi 5, and why not? It is a fantastic piece of technology. But if your task isn't too power-hungry and you still have the earlier model lying around, don't forget that it's still a capable little Linux board that you paid a pretty penny for. In essence, don't throw it in the dustbin just yet. After all, in the wise words of Nick Lane, "The past is a source of endless conversation."

It's worth noting that the Model B's CPU and RAM aren't up to the task of handling modern, complex language analysis tasks. Although it can be overclocked, its performance pales in comparison to that of the latest Raspberry Pi models. Running modern operating systems and heavy language analysis tools on the Model B might also be challenging due to its limited resources. For serious language analysis work, it is highly recommended to upgrade to a more recent Raspberry Pi model, or optimize software for the Model B's capabilities.

Despite being outclassed by modern technology, the Raspberry Pi Model B, with its Linux operating system, still demonstrates its value in running language analysis software, such as the Debian Bookworm image on its 32-bit processor.
The Raspberry Pi, a gadget like no other, serves as a reminder that even older hardware, like the Model B, can still be a worthy piece of hardware in 2025, especially for less power-intensive tasks, showing that it's not always necessary to replace with the latest hardware such as the Pi 5.