Armbian
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 42 of 63 Linux distributions by recommenders
Free Linux distribution for ARM single-board computers, with broad board support. One critic notes it lacks support for some newer boards and is not designed to roll over like Debian.
Free Linux distribution for ARM single-board computers, with broad board support. One critic notes it lacks support for some newer boards and is not designed to roll over like Debian.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 91%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 10 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Default pragmatic choice for ARM boards
“the way to run ARM boards is e.g. https://armbian.com/ (or NetBSD, Debian, whatever you prefer)”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Linux support is coming to Snapdragon X2 series” “armbian (probably the pragmatic choice, but fsck systemd)”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “The Orange Pi 6 Plus” “the only savior is armbian”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “DIY NAS: 2026 Edition” Broad support for many ARM boards
“Armbian do a great job of handling support for a whole host of boards”
Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “Every Single Board Computer I Tested in 2025” “flash Linux (Armbian etc) onto a much better option”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “I Ported Mac OS X to the Nintendo Wii” Works well headless and in QEMU
“Armbian and Qemu worked well for me”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “Is it time for a new Embedded Linux build system?” “headless armbian works fine”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “RK3588 and RK3576 video decoders support merged in the upstream Linux Kernel”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Missing hardware support on some boards
“It's great on the RPi. On OPi5max, it didn't support the hardware.”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “The Orange Pi 6 Plus” Dislike of systemd
“armbian (probably the pragmatic choice, but fsck systemd)”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “The Orange Pi 6 Plus”
Other Linux distributions people recommend
The four most recommended other Linux distributions, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu | 560 | 493 | 53% | 12 | 10 yrs116 owners | — |
| Debian | 552 | 191 | 74% | 13 | 10 yrs62 owners | Approved |
| NixOS | 454 | 112 | 80% | 13 | 2 yrs69 owners | Approved |
| Fedora Linux | 437 | 131 | 77% | 12 | 2 yrs72 owners | Approved |
| ArmbianThis page | 10 | 1 | 91% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
11 of the 12 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“they do the Lord's work when it comes to making sure these alternatives aren't destined to be ewaste”
“the way to run ARM boards is e.g. https://armbian.com/ (or NetBSD, Debian, whatever you prefer)”
“Armbian and Qemu worked well for me”
“It's great on the RPi. On OPi5max, it didn't support the hardware.”
“armbian (probably the pragmatic choice, but fsck systemd)”
“flash Linux (Armbian etc) onto a much better option”
“using the edge kernel from Armbian”
“Armbian do a great job of handling support for a whole host of boards”
“headless armbian works fine”
“Armbian is not a good solution, because it's not designed to rollover like Debian”
“the only savior is armbian”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.