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Raspberry Pi App Store for Open Source Projects

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Top Related Projects

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FullPageOS

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A raspberrypi distro to display a full page browser on boot

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OctoPi

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Scripts to build OctoPi, a Raspberry PI distro for controlling 3D printers over the web

Quick Overview

Pi-Apps is a comprehensive app store for Raspberry Pi, offering a wide range of applications and tools specifically designed for the Raspberry Pi platform. It provides an easy-to-use interface for installing, updating, and managing various software packages, making it simpler for users to enhance their Raspberry Pi experience.

Pros

  • Extensive collection of curated apps tailored for Raspberry Pi
  • User-friendly interface for easy app installation and management
  • Regular updates and community-driven development
  • Supports multiple Raspberry Pi models and operating systems

Cons

  • May require some technical knowledge for advanced features
  • Some apps might not be compatible with all Raspberry Pi models
  • Occasional stability issues reported by some users
  • Limited support for non-Raspberry Pi ARM devices

Getting Started

To install Pi-Apps on your Raspberry Pi, follow these steps:

  1. Open a terminal on your Raspberry Pi
  2. Run the following command:
wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Botspot/pi-apps/master/install | bash
  1. Wait for the installation to complete
  2. Launch Pi-Apps from the main menu or by running pi-apps in the terminal

Once installed, you can browse and install apps through the Pi-Apps interface. To update Pi-Apps and installed applications, use the "Update Pi-Apps" option within the program or run pi-apps updater in the terminal.

Competitor Comparisons

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FullPageOS

4,025

A raspberrypi distro to display a full page browser on boot

Pros of FullPageOS

  • Focused on creating a full-screen kiosk-like experience for Raspberry Pi
  • Provides a streamlined, single-purpose operating system
  • Ideal for digital signage and information displays

Cons of FullPageOS

  • Limited in scope compared to the broader application ecosystem of pi-apps
  • Less flexibility for general-purpose Raspberry Pi usage
  • May require more technical knowledge to customize beyond its core functionality

Code Comparison

FullPageOS configuration (config.txt):

disable_overscan=1
overscan_left=0
overscan_right=0
overscan_top=0
overscan_bottom=0

pi-apps installation script (install):

#!/bin/bash
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y python3-pip
pip3 install pi-apps

While FullPageOS focuses on system-level configurations for a kiosk setup, pi-apps provides a more general-purpose application management system for Raspberry Pi. The code snippets reflect this difference, with FullPageOS emphasizing display settings and pi-apps showcasing a typical installation process for a package management tool.

guysoft logo

OctoPi

2,534

Scripts to build OctoPi, a Raspberry PI distro for controlling 3D printers over the web

Pros of OctoPi

  • Specialized for 3D printing, offering a complete solution for managing and monitoring 3D printers
  • Includes OctoPrint, a powerful web interface for printer control and management
  • Regularly updated with new features and improvements specific to 3D printing needs

Cons of OctoPi

  • Limited to 3D printing applications, lacking versatility for general Raspberry Pi use
  • Requires more setup and configuration for non-3D printing tasks
  • May consume more resources due to its specialized features

Code Comparison

OctoPi (setup.sh):

#!/bin/bash
set -x
set -e

export LC_ALL=C

source /common.sh
install_cleanup_trap

Pi-apps (install):

#!/bin/bash

version=2.5.0

"${DIRECTORY}/manage" install "Box86" || error "Box86 failed to install"
"${DIRECTORY}/manage" install "Box64" || error "Box64 failed to install"

While both projects use bash scripts, OctoPi's setup focuses on system-wide configuration, whereas Pi-apps' install script manages dependencies and versioning for individual applications.

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README

Pi-Apps logo

The most popular app store for Raspberry Pi computers. 100% free, open-source and written in shell scripts.

View changelog | Apps List | Report an error | Make a general suggestion | Suggest new app | Submit a new app

stars forks contributors prs license Join the Discord server

Made with ❤ by Botspot, theofficialgman, and contributors

Check out our website: pi-apps.io

Introduction

Let's be honest: Linux is harder to master than Windows. Sometimes it's not user-friendly, and following an outdated tutorial may break your Raspberry Pi's operating system.
There is no centralized software repository, except for the apt repositories which lack many desktop applications.
Surely there is a better way! There is.
Introducing Pi-Apps, a well-maintained collection of app installation-scripts that you can run with one click.

Pi-Apps now serves over 1,000,000 people and hosts over 200 apps.

Install Pi-Apps

Open a terminal and run this command:

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Botspot/pi-apps/master/install | bash

Supported systems:

Raspberry Pi (2/3/Zero 2 W/4/5)

  • Raspberry Pi OS (32-bit/64-bit) (Bullseye/Bookworm): fully supported
  • Ubuntu (Jammy/Noble): fully supported

Nintendo Switch <img src=https://pi-apps.io/img/other-icons/switch-icon.svg height="14">

Nvidia Jetson <img src=https://pi-apps.io/img/other-icons/nvidia-icon.svg height="14">

Apple Silicon Macs

  • Ubuntu Asahi (Ubuntu Noble): Not actively tested but all available apps should work

Pine64, Orange Pi, Radxa, Banana Pi, Khadas, Inovato, Libre Computer, and other ARMv7/ARMv8/ARMv9 Devices

  • Debian Bullseye/Bookworm (Official Releases from Debian ONLY): Not actively tested but all available apps should work
  • Ubuntu Focal/Jammy/Noble (Official Releases from Canonical ONLY): Not actively tested but all available apps should work

Unsupported systems:

  • Raspberry Pi Pico: These devices are microcontrollers and cannot run linux.
  • All UNOFFICIAL Debian and Ubuntu based releases (unless mentioned above): Expect many apps to have issues.
    • Examples: Orange Pi OS, Pop_OS!, Kali Linux, and ChromeOS Crostini Debian Container
  • Anything Non-Debian and Non-Ubuntu: Expect the majority of apps and the appstore to be broken.
    • Examples: Slackware, RHEL, Fedora, SUSE, Arch Linux, Gentoo, Void Linux, NixOS
  • Anything not already mentioned: Expect nothing to work.
    • Examples: Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Android, and ChromeOS
To install Pi-Apps manually if you prefer to see what happens under the hood 
git clone https://github.com/Botspot/pi-apps
~/pi-apps/install
To uninstall Pi-Apps This will not uninstall any apps that you installed through Pi-Apps. 
~/pi-apps/uninstall

To run Pi-Apps

  • From the start menu: Accessories -> Pi-Apps
  • Use the terminal command: pi-apps
  • Run Pi-Apps from its directory: ~/pi-apps/gui

To update Pi-Apps

  • Pi-apps will automatically check for updates on boot and display a notification to update.
  • To manually run the updater, use this command: ~/pi-apps/updater gui
  • It also supports a cli interface: ~/pi-apps/updater cli

What do others say about Pi-Apps?

Message from a pi-top employee: "Happy to say that I recommend pi-apps to almost every school I work with when they start using Raspberry Pi"

Video by ETA Prime: "It's an awesome Raspberry Pi app store and it works really well and there's lots of great stuff in here and it's super easy to install. I want to give the devs of Pi-Apps a big shout-out."

Video by leepspvideo: "Thanks so much to Botspot for creating this; it's a great program."

Video by Novaspirit Tech: "This is an awesome application for your Pi to install applications like WoR-flasher."

Email from a Raspberry Pi employee: "I gave Pi-Apps a go a while back and have suggested it to others quite a few times. We can't provide all the options people may want, so it helps a lot that there are people like you who can help bridge the gap. Thank you Botspot!"

ShiftPlusOne (Raspberry Pi forum moderator): "Thanks for the great work making it all simple for everybody."

Email from Sakaki (legendary RPi developer): "Good luck with your projects, Botspot, you're really making waves!"

Message from one of our many satisfied users: "Thank you for making pi-apps, it has helped me a ton (no more searching hours to find how to install etcher) and I cannot thank you enough."

Basic usage

Pi-Apps is very easy to use.

  • This is the main window.
    main window

    • icon Search for apps.
    • icon Open pi-apps settings.
    • Click on a category to open it.

  • Opening a category will reveal a list of apps:
    app list

    • icon Go back to the main list of categories.
    • Click on an App name to see its details (see details window below)

  • On the right is the app details window:
    details

    • icon View the shell-scripts responsible for installing or uninstalling the selected app.
    • icon Modify the app's description, icons, or scripts. (This button is hidden unless you enable it in Settings)
    • icon Install the selected app.
    • icon Uninstall the selected app.

  • If you install/uninstall an app, you will see the progress window, keep installing/uninstalling apps to add them to the queue:
    details

  • Pi-Apps Settings can be configured by launching Menu -> Preferences -> Pi-Apps Settings.
    settings
    In addition to changeable settings, this window also gives access to these tools:

    • icon Does that one app seem to be in the wrong category? With this button, you can change it.
    • icon Create a new app with a wizard-style set of dialogs. We recommend reading the tutorial.
    • icon View the past weeks-worth of installation logs. This is useful if you ever encounter an app that won't install and want to see the terminal output after you closed the terminal.
    • icon This allows you to easily import a 3rd-party app from elsewhere. It helps Pi-Apps developers test upcoming apps for reliability on a variety of systems.

To learn more about Pi-Apps, read the documentation and the wiki.

:raised_hands: Contributing

You don't need to be a programmer to help!

  • The easiest way to help is by "Starring" our repository - it helps more people find Pi-Apps. (Scroll to the top of this page and on the right there is a "Star" button)
  • If you know somebody else who has a Raspberry Pi, feel free to tell them about Pi-Apps. We would offer you a referral discount, but Pi-Apps is free, so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • You can make suggestions, report bugs, or suggest apps.
  • You can create and submit an app. Don't worry, it's about as easy as using the terminal (and it's even easier if you're submitting a simple apt-package)!
  • You can also join our cheerful community: Join the Discord server

Badge

If your application is on Pi-Apps, please consider adding this pretty badge/hyperlink to your README (dark and light modes available):

badge badge

Embed code (Dark):

[![badge](https://github.com/Botspot/pi-apps/blob/master/icons/badge.png?raw=true)](https://github.com/Botspot/pi-apps)

Embed code (Light):

[![badge](https://github.com/Botspot/pi-apps/blob/master/icons/badge-light.png?raw=true)](https://github.com/Botspot/pi-apps)

Q&A with Botspot

  • Why did you make Pi-Apps?

For a long time I have been saddened by how difficult it is to install software on Linux. In that regard, nearly all other operating systems put us to shame.
How will people discover useful, free software?
Most people don't.
One day I realized: Why not make a collection of scripts to install popular apps? This would save so much time, and makes it much easier to use a Raspberry Pi as a daily, desktop computer solution.

  • How long did it take to program this?

Why would you think it's not still under development? 🤪
Pi-Apps took around 14 days to lay the groundwork, and ever since then it has been continually, and exponentially, improved. I (Botspot) am not the sole programmer anymore - others have stepped in and made improvements too.

  • Is Pi-Apps free?

Absolutely! Donations are welcome, but Pi-Apps itself will always be free and open-source.