what os would you recommend?
raspberry pi os (32 bit)
 25%  [ 1 ]
raspberry pi os full
 50%  [ 2 ]
some other general purpose os
 25%  [ 1 ]
media player -Kodi OS
 0%  [ 0 ]
emulation and games OS
 0%  [ 0 ]
Total Votes : 4

I just got a raspberry pi 4, and inserted a 32 gig sandisk micro sd. I have the PI Imager app for mac, and how would I go about installing an os on the PI? Also, what os would you recommend? I will be chiefly using the pi for learning C, learning Python, acquiring a grasp of electronic circuits, and interacting with my ti 84 Plus CE. Also, can I send the os over the usbc charging port or do I have to use one of the regular usb ports?
You have to flash the SD card itself from a computer using the PI Imager app. Then you can insert the SD card into the PI and when it boots it will load the OS from the SD card.

You probably want the Raspberry PI Full OS for your use cases.
would i be able to plug the sd card into the adapter straight into the side of my mac 2021? there is a port of similar size to the adapter.
Edit:
I say! That is absolutely amazing! i plugged it in and it immediately appeared on my desktop!
To load the OS on the SD card, you have to insert the SD card into an already working computer and flash your desired OS .img or .iso using something like win32diskimager, Rufus, balenaEtcher, or whatever. Once the SD card is imaged with the OS .img or .iso, then you can put into the Raspi and boot it up.

So, image the SD card outside of the Raspi, then put the card into the Raspi for it to boot.

The USB-C power port on the pi is not a data port (someone correct me if I'm wrong), but even if it was, you would not be able to flash an OS through it.

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Edit, did not see the earlier reply.

Yes, you can just plug the SD card directly into your Mac.

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Edit2: Just saw your edit.

Yeah! SD cards are basically just a different physical version of a thumbdrive.
In your poll, you differentiate between raspberry pi os (32 bit) and raspberry pi os full. It should be known that the RPi OS that the Pi Fd distributes does not have a stable 64-bit kernel yet. The image they provide is 32-bit. For most purposes that isn't a problem as the kernel can handle addressing higher memory addresses than the 4G limit, but for other programs that don't handle that, you will have issues allocating more RAM than 3-4G. I ran into this problem while setting up a Pi 4B to run a development minecraft server, and with java unable to allocate above like 2.7G of RAM because it's 32-bit java.

That being said there is a beta of a 64-bit RPi OS you can download and play with. However, if you want a "stable" OS that is 64-bit, you will have to use something else.

The others in this thread have adequately explained the process of flashing the OS to the SD card.
I might be buying a Rasberry pi soon as well. Should I get the Pi 400, the one that is all built into a keyboard, or should I get the Pi 4 model B?
  
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