I wouldn't recommend just unplugging it. I have corrupted more than one RPi sd card this way. Do the latter, it will save you a lot of time in the long run, especially after you spend all the time to download software and set it up -- do you really want to do that again.
This is a fun post. I've been using both technologies recently -- I'm thinking of ways I could practically apply this...hmmm
And you are good to go, worth it regardless of how you shut down.
The challenge of getting "monster" software onto them is an interesting exercise in part because it reveals a lot about the software when you see how it acts on machines that are constrained and slow by modern standards.
I feel I still learn far more from working on platforms with severe resource constraints than elsewhere, because a lot of issues that still affect larger systems but that are masked suddenly become massive in-your-face challenges.
And of course it can simply be just fun.
RTFA
