Products · Product
Raspberry Pi
Raised as a usability problem by 98 people on Hacker News over 15 years (2012–2026), in 82 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Slow compiles, startup and disk writes make it unpleasantUnreviewed
20122026- Compiling, apt upgrades, and websites with animations feel very slow and laggy2025-12-01
- Opening a browser takes several seconds due to slow disk I/O2024-11-27
- Websites take about a second to fully load, making browsing feel sluggish2022-10-29
Video stutters and mouse clicks lag on heavy web pagesUnreviewed
20122026- Device feels laggy and slow to interact with2025-12-02
- Video playback stutters and mouse clicks lag, especially on heavy web pages2022-04-28
- Mouse pointer and everything lags badly at 4K resolution2021-11-29
SD card storage is unreliable for booting the systemUnreviewed
20122026- Booting from SD card is quirky and failures are extremely hard to debug2024-06-16
- SD card storage is unreliable and unstable for booting the system2024-06-16
- Flashing OS images to SD cards is tedious, slow and error-prone with existing tools2021-08-13
Identical-looking USB-C ports behave differently, unclear which to useUnreviewed
20122026- USB-C port is awful to solder, so builders must add a separate port or pay for assembly2026-05-30
- Micro HDMI ports are awkward to use compared with USB-C video2023-10-23
- Identical-looking USB-C ports behave differently, so users can't tell which to use2019-07-09
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Full-screen icon launcher lacks categories, making apps harder to find2026-09-16
- USB-C port is awful to solder, so builders must add a separate port or pay for assembly2026-05-30
- Setting up Raspberry Pi Zero 2W now requires an imager the commenter finds burdensome, unlike the old simple flash-and-SSH method2026-05-29
- Small 1080x480 screen can't pan to a virtual display, so it's too narrow to use2026-04-15
- Desktop model arrives unusable until user supplies an OS from another computer2026-01-07
- Device feels laggy and slow to interact with2025-12-02
- Compiling, apt upgrades, and websites with animations feel very slow and laggy2025-12-01
- Setting up Linux, Wi-Fi, and boot programs takes many confusing steps versus Arduino's simple upload2025-10-08
- Toolchain setup is so hard beginners give up before writing code2025-10-07
- No setup instructions included, unclear which image and HDMI port to use2025-09-29
- Things are in different places than on other devices, and updates move them around unpredictably2025-09-27
- Added keys beside Shift, Enter and Backspace make those keys harder to find by touch2025-09-25
- Pi GPUs are virtually impossible to use for general-purpose computing2025-09-19
- Lost physical switches, knobs and patch cables hurt fiddling and discovery2025-09-13
- Must fiddle with configs to reduce SD card writes and fix ARM issues2025-07-04
- Opening a browser takes several seconds due to slow disk I/O2024-11-27
- Web browsing becomes so slow on 1 GB of RAM that the device is nearly unusable2024-10-24
- Optional 15V power setting is confusing and annoying to deal with2024-06-17
- Booting from SD card is quirky and failures are extremely hard to debug2024-06-16
- SD card storage is unreliable and unstable for booting the system2024-06-16
- Micro USB port wears out and slight bumps cut power to the Pi2024-06-16
- Linux froze when selecting the 7.1 out plus line in mode on a USB audio device2024-06-16
- Finding an NVMe drive that works with the hat takes lots of trial and error2024-06-16
- Won't run on ordinary USB chargers; needs the official charger and adapters2024-05-17
- Too slow to use on an old Raspberry Pi 2 B+, with CPU and memory overloaded2024-05-14
- Office door controller often found turned off, despite labeling, because the switch sat by the door2023-12-25
- Constant fighting with small problems made the Pi hard to live with2023-11-06
- Micro HDMI ports are awkward to use compared with USB-C video2023-10-23
- Background I2C and SPI operations are buggy, so transactions get bumped and need retries2023-07-19
- Bloated Pi software makes debugging the system a nightmare and hard to port2023-03-22
- Installing libraries like python-opencv takes days of trial and error2023-02-21
- Advanced options were hidden behind an obscure keypress combo, hard to discover2023-02-21
- Most users won't find the manual focus adjust button2023-01-09
- Setup from scratch is unbearably slow, unusable even for simple tasks2022-12-17
- Raspberry Pi is impossible to use as a desktop computer2022-12-17
- Needs many add-on parts like power supplies and real storage to work at all2022-12-09
- Websites take about a second to fully load, making browsing feel sluggish2022-10-29
- Laggy browsing and slow compile, startup and disk writes make daily use frustrating2022-10-28
- Slow compiles, startup, disk writes and laggy browsers make it unpleasant to use2022-10-28
- Raspberry Pi boards are complex to assemble and use, so they sit unused2022-10-27
- Noticeable lag of seconds between keyboard entry and characters appearing2022-05-16
- Keys wobbly, odd positioning, and trackpad relatively poor, takes getting used to2022-04-28
- Getting certain libraries to work correctly took more effort than the actual work2022-04-28
- Video playback stutters and mouse clicks lag, especially on heavy web pages2022-04-28
- Shell felt too sluggish; typing and waiting for commands was frustrating2022-04-28
- System freezes completely and browser handles only one tab easily2022-04-28
- Keyboard shortcuts conflict and touch screen mouse emulation was hard to get used to2022-04-28
- Mouse is too twitchy and hard to move smoothly over desktop buttons2022-04-28
- Websites take several seconds to render, making browsing frustratingly slow2022-04-28
- Too many tabs make it CPU bound; Electron apps are unusable2022-04-28