Okay, this has been asked before, but existing answers are likely not current.

I just got a Raspberry Pi B with 4GB memory.  The starter kit, to my dismay and ignorance, did not include a micro sd card with an OS.  I have a 64GB card.

Being a Raspberry newbie, I thought I'd ask:

1.  Which distribution to install and where do I get it?

2.  Where to get Gambas (At least 13.3.0)?  I don't want to have to compile my own.  I am used to synaptic package manager using a PPA.

Thanks in advance,

Ced

Cedron said

… I thought I'd ask:

1.  Which distribution to install and where do I get it?

2.  Where to get Gambas (At least 13.3.0)?  I don't want to have to compile my own.  I am used to synaptic package manager using a PPA.

Go to: https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/ and download Raspbian.

I suggest you install 'synaptic' and then use it to download Gambas3…I don't know which version they have in the repository, but it should be pretty recent.

If you go for Arch (or an Arch based distro), compiling is not that hard.

I believe just need to edit the platform from arch=('x86_64') to arch=('armxxx')

• •  https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PKGBUILD#arch

in the PKGBUILD-file
Explore groups · GitLab

I did it some years ago with and I believe it was a success.

Cedron said

2.  Where to get Gambas (At least 13.3.0)?  I don't want to have to compile my own….

From this package list, it looks like the current Raspbian (based upon Debian Buster) has Gambas3 v3.12.2
Raspberry Connect - Development Packages

jornmo said

If you go for Arch…

https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-install-arch-linux-on-raspberry-pi/

A bit easier with this one:

Arch Linux ARM

Why do you need Gambas 13.x. Just download Noobs, copy it to your SD Card and install Raspbian. You can then install Gambas 12.2.

Is there something special in 13 that wont work in 12?

 Thanks for the answers.

I've installed Raspbian for now and will stick with it if it remains adequate.  I figured out how to get Synaptic installed, but ended up doing a apt-get on Gambas3 and got version 3.12.2.  Someday, somebody is going to have to explain to me whose responsibility it is to keep the various repositories up to date.  For what I need right now, 12 is adequate.

So far, I'm impressed with the Pi4.  I've got other stuff I need to get working, Gambas stuff needs to wait.  

The ArchLinux I'm not that keen on based on earlier exploration.  There is aslo Ubuntu-Mate apparently as a contender I might try.