Re: At the risk of 'banging on' again and again...
Likewise. Up until a couple of weeks ago my two secondary-school age boys used a Pi 1 for most general purpose tasks, i.e. mainly Libre Office writing essays, laying out information sheets and (ugh) designing presentations. They were even able to bring Scratch homework home. Web browsing was a little slow and you did have to manage memory a little carefully, but honestly that isn't a problem and it's good to learn a little of that kind of discipline. Printing to our network printer took a little longer than from the "family" computer, but only a little, and except at five-minutes-to-bus in the morning, it was never an issue.
For those tasks (perhaps the use of some school mandated Flash-heavy web site) the Pi couldn't handle well, the family computer filled in.
The Pi 2 the Boys use now still can't use Flash, but everything else is a deal quicker, and the extra memory really helps with web browsing and not having to be quite so careful to close "large" files before starting another.
I'd say the Pi is a viable desktop computer, even if it was never really meant to be that!
M.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
