How do Raspberry Pi Desktop and Raspbian differ?

In this project we’re using two new Raspberry Pi-based technologies. The first is a live distro based on Debian 9 offering Raspberry Pi Desktop for x86 computers, while the second is an implementation of remote GPIO control over a network. Both are handy for those of us with spare computers and Raspberry Pi.

The Raspberry Pi Desktop experience is identical to that found on the Pi, with a few noticeable differences. First, there’s no Minecraft due to licensing. In the Raspberry Pi Configuration tool (the GUI and raspi-config) the Interfaces section only has SSH, which means no I2C, SPI, Camera and so on. This also means that any add-on boards that use these interfaces won’t work with this setup. For example, Pimoroni’s Explorer HAT, 4Tronix’s Picon Zero, PI Supply’s PiJuice won’t work because they rely on I2C/SPI. Boards that use the GPIO directly, either as a digital IO or using PWM (pulse width modulation) should work as expected, but testing is required before basing a project on it.

Right now Raspbian Desktop is more about the look and feel of the desktop experience. Our GPIO project uses remotely controlled pins, with code being written on the computer and then executed on the Pi Zero.

Check out The Raspberry Pi Foundation’s Ben Nuttall’s guide on his blog: http://bennuttall. com/raspberry-pi-zero-gpio-expander.