It started as a joke. "How little computer do I actually need?" I'd been complaining about my $2000 MacBook's battery life, and a friend said "just use a Pi."
So I did. For 30 days. Raspberry Pi 4 (8GB), $75, running Raspberry Pi OS.
Here's the good, the bad, and the "I can't believe this actually works."
Day 1-3: The Setup Hell
Nothing worked out of the box. The Pi doesn't come with a power supply, case, or SD card. I had to order those separately. Then the SD card got corrupted on first boot. Then the wireless keyboard I bought had lag. Then the HDMI cable was the wrong type.
By day 3, I'd spent $120 and 6 hours just getting a desktop to appear.
Not a great start.
Day 4-7: The Browser Shock
Chromium on Pi 4 is... slow. Not unusable, but noticeably slower than my laptop. YouTube at 720p works. 1080p stutters. 4K is a slideshow.
But here's the thing: I mostly code. And for coding, it's fine. VS Code (the ARM version) runs acceptably. Terminal is instant. Git works. Python runs.
The Trading Bot Test
Here's the real test. Could I run my trading bot on a Pi?
Answer: surprisingly yes. The bot itself is just API calls and simple logic. Python runs fine. The websockets work. It's been running 24/7 for 3 weeks without issues.
The Pi uses 5W of power. My laptop uses 50W. The Pi is silent. For a always-on bot? The Pi is actually better.
Week 3: The Productivity Surprises
Something weird happened. I got more done. Not because the Pi is faster — it's definitely not. But because it's slower at distractions. Opening 20 browser tabs? Painful. So I stopped.
The Pi forced focus. One thing at a time. It was annoying, but also... effective?
Week 4: The Breaking Point
Video editing was impossible. Kdenlive crashed. FFmpeg took forever. What would've been 30 minutes on my laptop became 3 hours of frustration.
On day 28, I opened my MacBook for "just this one thing." I didn't close it again.
What I Kept
I'm not going full Pi. But I did keep one thing: my trading bot now runs on a dedicated Pi. $75 computer, 5W power, completely silent, running for months without issues.
For that specific use case? It's perfect. Better than my laptop was.