I currently have a Pi3 running Raspbian mainly for Pi-hole.
I’m ordering a Pi5 w/ 16GB and an NVME SSD (Argon ONE V3 M.2 NVME case). I’m going to move my PiHole over (or start over clean) and I want to start experimenting with Docker which is why I want 16GM RAM.
I’ve always read DietPi was a great OS … lightweight and optimized so it uses less resources. I’m just curious on a Pi5 w/ 16GB RAM and an NVME SSD where I don’t necessary need my OS to run lightweight, is DietPi still the best choice, or should I be running Raspberry Pi OS?
Thanks.
Dietpi and Raspberry Pi OS are both based upon debian…just different scripting
I recommend a webgui for docker called portainer , or a docker webgui manager of your choosing
Heck there are even specific OS’s catered to and built specifically for lightweight personal cloud/storage servers like CasaOS these are all purpose built distro’s and webgui overlays by a community…DietPi is the BASE OS specifically designed to work out of the box…then you manually go in and tweak/build it to your liking…there is a learning curve..but DietPi is the lightest and the most efficient.
It’s not about resource consumption only. DietPi offers a lot of software titles which can be easily installed and will be working ootb without the need for users to do a configuration. For complex apps like Nextcloud quite a help. The benefit of DietPi is the end to end automation.
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Some months ago I did a basic install test of one or two of the “fancy” personal servers vs dietpi and similar. I did the test using an older SBC to have a better feeling of the base OS’s impact on resources and the fancy ones not only used 2 or 3 times DietPi’s memory, but they also loaded the CPU considerably more (by comparison), when DietPi kept mostly idle.
Granted, having more resources in a Pi 5 means this will be less relevant, but personally I like to keep the system as light as possible.
So I went with DietPi + DietPi native apps + Portainer.
Can´t comment on Raspberry Pi OS as I haven’t actually used for more than one or two quick glances at it as it stikes me as a “desktop replacement” which is not what I look for in a SBC OS…
There are few OS’s out there as streamlined or efficient as DietPi…and with a little legwork and knowhow (less with the very ingenious scripting) it can become a VERY powerful little home server…the devs do ALOT of work and deserve kudo’s for days!