Raspberry Pi OS • Faster desktop os for an old raspberry pi 1B (512mb)

Hello,

I already have a raspberry pi 3 and 2 running Bookworm( debian 12) but my raspberry pi 1B is painfully slow on this os.
I also want to use a TFT SPI display with the older model, so because of driver (waveshare) compability, I only can get raspberry pi os bullseye(debian 11 (still supported)).
Earlier today, I realised that the raspberry pi camera v1.3 doesn’t work on that os with the display drivers (I don’t know why). I also did try Jessie(debian 8 (NOT SUPPORTED)) and I fond it snapier. (Maybe because at the time the board where way less powerfull than today?) I don’t bother with security as I connect it to the internet only for downloading files.
I want to use my pi for basic programming (arduino IDE, and python) and use the gpio and camera for my projects. I also connected it to a homemade power bank to use it on the go.

Is there any downsides of using and outdated raspberry pi os (except security issues)? Will it make it actually snapier? Will I still acces the older Jessie’s apt library? Could it run cooler and use less curent extending its autonomy(power bank)?

Thank you very much for your answers !

Statistics: Posted by Codlife — Sun Mar 23, 2025 9:30 pm

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