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I really wish these lists would talk about software support. If I buy these, do they have mainline Linux support? Will I have security patches in a year? Is the

I really wish these lists would talk about software support. If I buy these, do they have mainline Linux support? Will I have security patches in a year? Is there decent distro support, or am I stuck with the vendor's half broken default image?

sthlmb 8mo ago
Hey! Author of the post someone linked here. Fair comment, though this wasn't really meant to be a review, or "go buy this!" type of post, it was more to highlight what I tested from the boards released in 2025 and share the results to those benchmarks via sbc.compare Armbian do a great job of handling support for a whole host of boards (including most I included in this list), so you'll usually have Debian/Ubuntu-based flavours. Vendor kernels and vendor supplied images will be hit and miss. Mainline Linux support is a flag you filter by on the benchmark comparison site linked in the article, but it's a difficult one to keep up to date and define exactly. It could have some kind of support, but miss out on display functionality, or WiFi yada yada. What would we then class as having mainline support? All hardware etc functioning? If so, very, very few will meet that definition. I get the desire for the information, and perhaps I should have envisioned these types of questions, but all I initially meant for the post to be was a recap for people following me to see which boards I'd tested that were released last year :D
- fn-mote 8mo ago
  > All hardware etc functioning? If your standard is "supports suspend/resume", there's even plenty of laptops that won't meet it. That gave me a laugh.
  - robinsonb5 8mo ago
    Suspend / resume? I'll settle for "keyboard works". (From what I've learned so far, some magic incantation is required to convince Linux that a Lifebook E559 is a laptop not a tablet. I'm finding I have way less patience with these side-quests as I get older.)
    - voidmain0001 8mo ago
      That laptop has an 8th gen Intel processor which should make it completely compatible with the Linux kernel, yet surprisingly it’s not. https://linux-hardware.org/?probe=2ec391ffdc https://linux-hardware.org/?probe=2ec391ffdc Did Fujitsu choose an obscure component or interface?
      - yjftsjthsd-h 8mo ago
        Even on random ARM boards, it's not usually the CPU that's the problem. (It's generally drivers for everything else; eg. a sensor hub that should tell you when a laptop is in tablet mode)
        voidmain0001 8mo ago
        Yeah, my implication was that the 8th gen CPU's platform controller hub should be supported. I should have explicitly rather than implicitly stated that.
    - znpy 8mo ago
      > I'm finding I have way less patience with these side-quests as I get older. Yup, i’m in the same boat. I’m so tempted to get one of the new macbooks and call it a day.
- LargoLasskhyfv 8mo ago
  In addition to https://armbian.com https://armbian.com one could also cross check with Diet-Pi, which got resurrected from dormancy sometime in the last years. https://dietpi.com https://dietpi.com
- usr1106 8mo ago
  Interesting: Despite its name Armbian seems to support RISC-V. Disclaimer: I have never used any RISC-V board.
wojciii 8mo ago
Yes, software support is what kills projects for me. I have been burned on boards with terrible support before. No documentation and some Linux kernel patched by someone on crack. Usually the Chinese comments in the patches are a dead giveaway of where the software originated from.
ajsnigrutin 8mo ago
I've worked with many boards from many vendors for many years now... If you need software to be available in 2, 3, 5 years, get a raspberry pi. Some might have some software available, some might have patches, some may need manual compiling, some only support debian with 2.4 kernel, some have binary blobs that only work on that 2.4 kernel, some have working usb ports on 2.4 and no gpio, but working gpio with 2.6 kernel but no usb ports, etc. Just get a raspberry pi.
- shadowpho 8mo ago
  I’d go a step further and say get a mini pc unless you need gpio
  - GianFabien 8mo ago
    With a miniPC you can always use a Raspberry Pico (or Arduino that supports Device Mode) for your GPIOs.
- tomjuggler 8mo ago
  Same here. I really wanted Orange Pi to work, tried, but after getting my raspberry pi 4 it's night and day.
- sitzkrieg 8mo ago
  raspberry pi have some of the worst power management and usage of any SBCs. theyre a non starter for an entire class of projects (battery powered). so no. dont just get a pi. do 5 minutes of research. btw, i have inherited projects that used raspberry pis for the computing. every single one had to be reworked replacing the pi. additionally, if the pi doesnt fit your RF footprint needs in an enclosure, it is not possible to get the chips standalone. plus the schematic is not open source. fuck broadcom and fuck raspberry pi foundation. acceptable for light hobby use only
  - ajsnigrutin 8mo ago
    So what other board can I buy today, put in a drawer for 5 years, maybe 10, take it out then and still find a modern linux distro with a modern kernel for it? RPi 1 still has debian stable support.
pibaker 8mo ago
I frequently come across comments from people who think raspberry pis are overpriced and you are better off buying from one of the numerous Chinese SBCs with better bang for the buck. Your comment is why these people are often wrong. Most of those SBCs have very poor software support. You will often need to go on GitHub or the manufactuer's support website to hunt down an OS image that hopefully works. If you want to stay up to date, tough luck. You will be lucky if your board is still receiving updates two years after release. In the meanwhile in raspberry pi land, you can just go to download a reasonably new OS image from their website anytime you want and it will run on all their models. Even the Pi 1 model B+ which is over ten years old still receives updates, and will continue to do so until at least 2030. Unless reviewing and playing with random boards is your hobby or job, in which case more power to you and thank you for providing valuable information to the community, you are likely better off buying a boring raspi so you can just get things done.
- wybiral 8mo ago
  I would second this. For SBCs the software support is the biggest deal breaker for me these days. Being cheaper or more powerful isn't as much of a benefit without the software ecosystem and community to back it up. And then the construction quality/tolerance too. I've had Pis last for years and then cheap alternatives burn out after a few months of moderate use.
- Semaphor 8mo ago
  > Your comment is why these people are often wrong. Interestingly, it’s the opposite for me, and I almost exclusively see comments about software support & linux mainlaine. That said, I think 90% of the time it’s better to buy small x86 machine than a PI. Those have great software support, are more powerful, and can be cheaper (slightly larger & no GPIO, those two are the main reasons to go SBC)
  - noodlesUK 8mo ago
    The difference is between x64 machines and ARM machines. The no-name x64 machines have excellent software support because they all run EFI and have fairly ordinary hardware. The no-name ARM boards have cobbled together bootloaders and require specific U-Boot magic most of the time to even get them online.
pseudohadamard 8mo ago
Let me answer that for you: No, no, and yes (to the second part). Anything else?
green7ea 8mo ago
I'm really curious what will happen to this space when Valve releases great open source drivers for the Qualcomm chip they have in the Steam Frame. It might be one of the first, very powerful, GPU accelerated SoC you can buy that has mainline support. I can image having a very usable ARM linux laptop and tablet as a result of this — maybe even cellphone when the modems get mainlined or used via USB.

sthlmb 8mo ago

Hey! Author of the post someone linked here. Fair comment, though this wasn't really meant to be a review, or "go buy this!" type of post, it was more to highlight what I tested from the boards released in 2025 and share the results to those benchmarks via sbc.compare Armbian do a great job of handling support for a whole host of boards (including most I included in this list), so you'll usually have Debian/Ubuntu-based flavours. Vendor kernels and vendor supplied images will be hit and miss. Mainline Linux support is a flag you filter by on the benchmark comparison site linked in the article, but it's a difficult one to keep up to date and define exactly. It could have some kind of support, but miss out on display functionality, or WiFi yada yada. What would we then class as having mainline support? All hardware etc functioning? If so, very, very few will meet that definition. I get the desire for the information, and perhaps I should have envisioned these types of questions, but all I initially meant for the post to be was a recap for people following me to see which boards I'd tested that were released last year :D

fn-mote 8mo ago
> All hardware etc functioning? If your standard is "supports suspend/resume", there's even plenty of laptops that won't meet it. That gave me a laugh.
- robinsonb5 8mo ago
  Suspend / resume? I'll settle for "keyboard works". (From what I've learned so far, some magic incantation is required to convince Linux that a Lifebook E559 is a laptop not a tablet. I'm finding I have way less patience with these side-quests as I get older.)
  - voidmain0001 8mo ago
    That laptop has an 8th gen Intel processor which should make it completely compatible with the Linux kernel, yet surprisingly it’s not. https://linux-hardware.org/?probe=2ec391ffdc https://linux-hardware.org/?probe=2ec391ffdc Did Fujitsu choose an obscure component or interface?
    - yjftsjthsd-h 8mo ago
      Even on random ARM boards, it's not usually the CPU that's the problem. (It's generally drivers for everything else; eg. a sensor hub that should tell you when a laptop is in tablet mode)
      - voidmain0001 8mo ago
        Yeah, my implication was that the 8th gen CPU's platform controller hub should be supported. I should have explicitly rather than implicitly stated that.
  - znpy 8mo ago
    > I'm finding I have way less patience with these side-quests as I get older. Yup, i’m in the same boat. I’m so tempted to get one of the new macbooks and call it a day.
LargoLasskhyfv 8mo ago
In addition to https://armbian.com https://armbian.com one could also cross check with Diet-Pi, which got resurrected from dormancy sometime in the last years. https://dietpi.com https://dietpi.com
usr1106 8mo ago
Interesting: Despite its name Armbian seems to support RISC-V. Disclaimer: I have never used any RISC-V board.

wojciii 8mo ago

Yes, software support is what kills projects for me. I have been burned on boards with terrible support before. No documentation and some Linux kernel patched by someone on crack. Usually the Chinese comments in the patches are a dead giveaway of where the software originated from.

ajsnigrutin 8mo ago

I've worked with many boards from many vendors for many years now... If you need software to be available in 2, 3, 5 years, get a raspberry pi. Some might have some software available, some might have patches, some may need manual compiling, some only support debian with 2.4 kernel, some have binary blobs that only work on that 2.4 kernel, some have working usb ports on 2.4 and no gpio, but working gpio with 2.6 kernel but no usb ports, etc. Just get a raspberry pi.

shadowpho 8mo ago
I’d go a step further and say get a mini pc unless you need gpio
- GianFabien 8mo ago
  With a miniPC you can always use a Raspberry Pico (or Arduino that supports Device Mode) for your GPIOs.
tomjuggler 8mo ago
Same here. I really wanted Orange Pi to work, tried, but after getting my raspberry pi 4 it's night and day.
sitzkrieg 8mo ago
raspberry pi have some of the worst power management and usage of any SBCs. theyre a non starter for an entire class of projects (battery powered). so no. dont just get a pi. do 5 minutes of research. btw, i have inherited projects that used raspberry pis for the computing. every single one had to be reworked replacing the pi. additionally, if the pi doesnt fit your RF footprint needs in an enclosure, it is not possible to get the chips standalone. plus the schematic is not open source. fuck broadcom and fuck raspberry pi foundation. acceptable for light hobby use only
- ajsnigrutin 8mo ago
  So what other board can I buy today, put in a drawer for 5 years, maybe 10, take it out then and still find a modern linux distro with a modern kernel for it? RPi 1 still has debian stable support.

pibaker 8mo ago

I frequently come across comments from people who think raspberry pis are overpriced and you are better off buying from one of the numerous Chinese SBCs with better bang for the buck. Your comment is why these people are often wrong. Most of those SBCs have very poor software support. You will often need to go on GitHub or the manufactuer's support website to hunt down an OS image that hopefully works. If you want to stay up to date, tough luck. You will be lucky if your board is still receiving updates two years after release. In the meanwhile in raspberry pi land, you can just go to download a reasonably new OS image from their website anytime you want and it will run on all their models. Even the Pi 1 model B+ which is over ten years old still receives updates, and will continue to do so until at least 2030. Unless reviewing and playing with random boards is your hobby or job, in which case more power to you and thank you for providing valuable information to the community, you are likely better off buying a boring raspi so you can just get things done.

wybiral 8mo ago
I would second this. For SBCs the software support is the biggest deal breaker for me these days. Being cheaper or more powerful isn't as much of a benefit without the software ecosystem and community to back it up. And then the construction quality/tolerance too. I've had Pis last for years and then cheap alternatives burn out after a few months of moderate use.
Semaphor 8mo ago
> Your comment is why these people are often wrong. Interestingly, it’s the opposite for me, and I almost exclusively see comments about software support & linux mainlaine. That said, I think 90% of the time it’s better to buy small x86 machine than a PI. Those have great software support, are more powerful, and can be cheaper (slightly larger & no GPIO, those two are the main reasons to go SBC)
- noodlesUK 8mo ago
  The difference is between x64 machines and ARM machines. The no-name x64 machines have excellent software support because they all run EFI and have fairly ordinary hardware. The no-name ARM boards have cobbled together bootloaders and require specific U-Boot magic most of the time to even get them online.

pseudohadamard 8mo ago

Let me answer that for you: No, no, and yes (to the second part). Anything else?

green7ea 8mo ago

I'm really curious what will happen to this space when Valve releases great open source drivers for the Qualcomm chip they have in the Steam Frame. It might be one of the first, very powerful, GPU accelerated SoC you can buy that has mainline support. I can image having a very usable ARM linux laptop and tablet as a result of this — maybe even cellphone when the modems get mainlined or used via USB.