Single-board computers used to earn a “yes, but” in every review. A recent XDA piece put it plainly: SBCs finally stopped feeling like compromises. A Raspberry Pi 5 with 8 GB of RAM, an NVMe hat, and a PCIe SSD now drives a 4K monitor, keeps a code project loaded, and juggles a browser with more than a dozen tabs. After running one as a secondary workstation for a month, we agree with the framing.
The best apps for turning a single-board computer into a desktop are the ones that ship as native ARM64 builds, respect the 8 GB memory ceiling, and behave under Wayland. We evaluated twenty candidates on a Pi 5 running Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm with labwc. Eight made the cut. This list is for anyone building a fanless second desk, a portable dev box, or a laptop replacement under $150.
What to look for in an SBC desktop app
Five criteria separated the picks from the also-rans.
- ARM64 native build. Emulation through box64 works, but native aarch64 binaries run three to five times faster and stay inside the RAM budget. Check the download page for an explicit “arm64” or “aarch64” file before installing anything.
- Idle memory under 500 MB. The Pi 5 tops out at 8 GB and Chromium alone eats around 1.5 GB with a modest tab count. Anything that idles above half a gigabyte steals room you need for real work.
- Wayland compatibility. Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm switched from X11 to Wayland via the labwc compositor. XWayland covers legacy apps, but native Wayland means smoother scrolling, no tearing on video, and correct fractional scaling on a 4K display.
- Hardware-accelerated video. The VideoCore VII on the Pi 5 decodes H.264 and H.265 in hardware. Apps that use the VA-API or V4L2 path stay under 30 percent CPU during 1080p playback. Software decoders pin all four cores and get hot fast.
- Available in apt or Pi-Apps. Sideloaded .deb files pulled from x86 sites break the Pi more often than they help. Prefer packages from the Raspberry Pi OS repository or a curated ARM store.
Quick comparison
| App | Best for | Platforms | Free plan | Starting price/mo | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chromium | Everyday web on an SBC | Linux, Windows, macOS | Free | Free | 4.4/5 |
| LibreOffice | Full office suite, offline | Linux, Windows, macOS | Free | Free | 4.5/5 |
| Visual Studio Code | Native ARM64 code editor | Linux, Windows, macOS | Free | Free | 4.7/5 |
| Pi-Apps | Curated Pi installer | Linux (Pi only) | Free | Free | 4.6/5 |
| Thunderbird | Email without the browser | Linux, Windows, macOS | Free | Free | 4.3/5 |
| VLC | Hardware-decoded media | Linux, Windows, macOS | Free | Free | 4.6/5 |
| GIMP | Image editing on ARM | Linux, Windows, macOS | Free | Free | 4.4/5 |
| Distrobox | Run any distro’s apps | Linux | Free | Free | 4.5/5 |
The apps
1. Chromium, best browser for a Pi desktop
Chromium is the default browser on Raspberry Pi OS and, once you enable hardware video acceleration in chrome://flags, it is the one to keep. The Pi Foundation ships a build with the V4L2 video decoder patched in, so YouTube at 1080p sits around 20 percent CPU instead of pegging all four cores. It is the fastest way to make an SBC feel like a normal computer.
Where it falls short: memory. A dozen tabs will push a Pi 5 with 4 GB into swap. On the 8 GB board it stays usable, but leave Slack and Google Meet running in the background and everything else slows down.
Pricing:
- Free: Full browser, no paid tier.
Platforms: Linux (ARM64 and x86), Windows, macOS.
Download: chromium.org
Bottom line: The right first install on any SBC desktop, especially the 8 GB Pi 5.
2. LibreOffice, best free office suite
LibreOffice ships in the Full image of Raspberry Pi OS and handles most of what people buy Microsoft 365 for: documents, spreadsheets with pivot tables, presentations, and a decent PDF export. On a Pi 5 it opens a blank Writer window in under two seconds and keeps a 300-page document responsive.
Where it falls short: Impress cannot open every PowerPoint animation cleanly, and the Calc macro engine (Basic) is not compatible with Excel VBA. If your workflow depends on macro-heavy .xlsm files, expect to rewrite them.
Pricing:
- Free: Full suite, no paid tier.
Platforms: Linux, Windows, macOS.
Download: libreoffice.org
Bottom line: The one app that turns a Pi into a laptop replacement for students and writers.
3. Visual Studio Code, best code editor on ARM
Visual Studio Code publishes an official ARM64 build that runs at native speed on the Pi 5. Extensions load in seconds, the built-in terminal handles a full dev stack, and Remote-SSH works in the other direction too: use the Pi as the code host and edit from a laptop.
Where it falls short: Electron is heavy. A cold VS Code start eats 400 MB before you open a file, and one large TypeScript project with the language server on adds another 800 MB. On a 4 GB board this is uncomfortable.
Pricing:
- Free: Full editor, all extensions.
Platforms: Linux (ARM64, ARMhf, x86-64), Windows, macOS.
Download: code.visualstudio.com
Bottom line: The best desktop-grade editor with a real ARM build. Pair with an 8 GB Pi 5 and it stops feeling like an SBC.
4. Pi-Apps, best curated installer
Pi-Apps is a community-maintained store that fills the gap between apt and manually chasing GitHub releases. It ships one-click installers for around two hundred apps that have been tested on the Pi, including Firefox nightly, Zoom’s ARM build via box64, Godot, and Sublime Text. The install script picks the right architecture and pins working versions, so you avoid the sideloaded-.deb trap.
Where it falls short: it only runs on Raspberry Pi hardware and a few close cousins. Radxa and Orange Pi users need a different curated source.
Pricing:
- Free: Full catalogue, no paid tier.
Platforms: Linux (Raspberry Pi hardware).
Download: pi-apps.io or GitHub (Botspot/pi-apps)
Bottom line: Install this second, right after Chromium. It saves an evening of hunting down broken ARM builds.
5. Thunderbird, best email client
Thunderbird on a Pi is the argument for a native mail app in 2026. Gmail in a browser tab is fine until you have five accounts and the browser is already at 3 GB. Thunderbird handles IMAP, Exchange, and CalDAV, syncs offline, and idles under 250 MB with two accounts open. The 128 release refreshed the UI and made keyboard navigation actually reliable.
Where it falls short: the calendar side is functional but stiff; if you live in Google Calendar’s UI, expect to miss it. Push mail on IMAP still relies on IDLE and is not instant.
Pricing:
- Free: Full app, no paid tier.
Platforms: Linux, Windows, macOS.
Download: thunderbird.net
Bottom line: The app that reclaims two gigabytes of Chromium RAM for something more useful.
6. VLC, best media player
VLC plays every file you throw at it, and on the Pi 5 it finally uses hardware decode. The libplacebo renderer went stable in the 4.x line, so a 1080p H.265 rip sits around 25 percent CPU on the Pi 5’s VideoCore VII. It doubles as a network stream client for a media server, a webcam viewer, and a rudimentary audio editor.
Where it falls short: the interface still shows its 2001 design philosophy; some third-party subtitle formats need manual encoding tweaks.
Pricing:
- Free: Full app, no paid tier.
Platforms: Linux, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android.
Download: videolan.org
Bottom line: The one video app that respects the Pi’s hardware decoder and does not get in the way.
7. GIMP, best image editor for ARM
GIMP has a native ARM64 build, opens 24-megapixel photos on the Pi 5 without swapping, and covers most of what people used to open Photoshop for: layers, masks, curves, RAW via the darktable plugin, and export presets. The 3.0 release finally introduced non-destructive editing, which fixes a long-standing complaint.
Where it falls short: the brush engine still lags Photoshop on a graphics tablet; some scripts written for older 2.10 versions need porting to the 3.x API.
Pricing:
- Free: Full app, no paid tier.
Platforms: Linux, Windows, macOS.
Download: gimp.org
Bottom line: The reason a Pi can now be a hobby photographer’s second machine.
8. Distrobox, most useful unusual pick
Distrobox runs any Linux distribution’s userland inside a container that shares your home directory, so you can install an app from Fedora’s or Arch’s repo when the Debian one is stale. On a Pi 5 this is how you get a modern Godot, the newest OBS Studio ARM build, or a pinned older toolchain without wrecking the base install. It uses Podman under the hood and works with rootless containers.
Where it falls short: the storage cost adds up (a distro image is 400 MB to 2 GB), and GUI apps launched from inside a container need one extra bridge command the first time. Not every Pi hat driver survives a container boundary.
Pricing:
- Free: Full app, no paid tier.
Platforms: Linux (ARM64 and x86).
Download: distrobox.it or GitHub (89luca89/distrobox)
Bottom line: The unlock for anyone who has ever wanted a specific version of a Linux app the Debian repo does not carry.
How to pick the right one
If you want a Pi to feel like a normal desktop the fastest: install Chromium, LibreOffice, and Pi-Apps in the first hour and stop there for a week.
If you write code on the Pi: pair Visual Studio Code with an 8 GB Pi 5 and an NVMe drive. Nothing else on ARM comes close to native VS Code with the C++ or Rust extensions loaded.
If you need email off the browser: Thunderbird is the RAM saver. Two accounts, offline sync, done.
If you watch a lot of video: VLC with hardware decode on. Kodi is also good if you want a TV-style front end, but VLC is the flexible pick.
If you edit photos or graphics: GIMP for raster work, and Inkscape (installable via apt) for vectors. Both have real ARM builds; do not try to run Photoshop through Wine.
If the Debian repo is missing a version you need: Distrobox with a Fedora or Arch container. Faster than compiling from source, safer than adding random third-party apt repos.
If you tried the Pi years ago and it felt slow: return with a Pi 5, an NVMe hat, and this list. The compromise is gone.
FAQ
Can a Raspberry Pi really replace a laptop as a daily driver?
For students, writers, developers who mostly SSH into remote servers, and anyone whose day is a browser plus an editor: yes, the Pi 5 with 8 GB of RAM handles it. For heavy Adobe or Windows-only enterprise software: no. The real gap is battery, since a Pi needs an external power bank in a portable setup.
Which Linux distro is best for using a Pi as a desktop?
Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm is the safe answer. Kernel patches for the Pi 5’s PCIe controller and VideoCore VII land there first, driver support is upstream, and most Pi accessories assume it. Ubuntu 24.04 for ARM is a close second if you want newer packages.
Do apps really run natively on ARM in 2026, or is most of it emulation?
Most of the apps in this list ship real ARM64 binaries: Chromium, LibreOffice, VS Code, Thunderbird, VLC, and GIMP all publish aarch64 builds directly. Emulation via box64 is still needed for a handful of proprietary tools (Zoom, some Steam titles, older game engines), and Pi-Apps handles those cases transparently.
What is the minimum Pi model for a usable desktop experience?
Pi 5 with 8 GB is the sweet spot. Pi 4 with 8 GB works but feels older and cannot decode H.265 in hardware. Anything below 4 GB will swap constantly the moment you open a modern browser. Zero 2 W is not a desktop; it is a Linux appliance.
Is it worth buying an NVMe hat for a Pi 5?
Yes. The move from microSD to NVMe cuts application launch times roughly in half and eliminates the write-endurance failures that killed SD-based Pi installs. A Pi 5 with a 256 GB NVMe drive costs about the same as a low-end Chromebook and outlasts one.
Do I need Wayland or can I stay on X11?
You can stay on X11, and a few older screen-sharing tools still need it. But Wayland with the labwc compositor is the default in Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm and it fixes screen tearing, fractional scaling, and touchscreen input in ways that never worked cleanly under X11 on a Pi. Try Wayland first; fall back only if a specific app breaks.
