I’ve been using ARM SBCs for ages now (mostly Pis, but also Hardkernel and a few “alternatives”), and _all_ of them except the Pi have absolutely dismal softwar

I’ve been using ARM SBCs for ages now (mostly Pis, but also Hardkernel and a few “alternatives”), and _all_ of them except the Pi have absolutely dismal software support. Armbian does a pretty good job on some alternatives, but until manufacturers ship with _at least as good_ software as the Pi their value proposition is essentially negative unless you have a lot of free time. And now that the power envelope is closer to a gen 4 Intel (which is trounced by modern Celerons like the n6xxx and n50xx series), the functionality gap is more obvious. To be fair, though, I think that most people have unrealistic expectations of what low-end SBCs can do as far as “desktop computing” is concerned. I do use a Pi as a very nice, utterly silent and fast thin client (backed by an i7 in a closet), but if I wanted to run local apps (browser, light office, etc.) I’d just go and get a NUC or an $150 refurbished small form factor desktop (there are great Ryzen boxes with modern mobile APUs from Minisforum and Beelink, but I am extremely wary of their quality control, and the really interesting ones are too expensive to risk it).