Read the statement by Michael Teeuw here.
SBC boards that work well besides Raspberry pi 3, 4 or 5
-
@plainbroke I have not the latest Zorin. But tried the prior releases in a vm.
Different ui, but same oh otherwise
-
@sdetweil
Just played with Zorin, It is faster by far than windows 11.
I think in time I could make it a daily useful OS.
We will see in time.
Caved, and bought a Pi4 4gb to play with these different modules… -
I feel like I am a fairly non-standard person when it comes to SBCs/mini PCs/cheap platforms, but I have run MM on a variety of hardware without issues (other than common things like issues with SD cards, OSes, etc).
It might also be useful to ask the inverse question: has anyone run across any SBCs that do NOT work with MM? For example, I believe that it will not run on the original Pi, and I think it takes heroic efforts to run MM on the Pi Zero I cannot recall if I ever tried to run MM on my Pi 2. Apart from those, I am not aware of any specific SBCs it will not run on.
I have to say, a traditional Pi 3/4/5 is a good choice for power-limited or space-limited installs. For me, I often get cheap or free old laptops with broken screens, decade-old mini PCs, etc. I take an old laptop, plug it into an old monitor, and set it on a shelf (with the laptop attached to the back of the monitor). A bit of trim around the monitor to make it look a little like a picture frame, and it passes muster. Or, an old thin client that cannot run modern windows can often be found with a behind-monitor mount (like they have at banks and such).
Still, it would be good to have people mention if they have had success with alternatives. Knowing that the LePotato, 35% cheaper than a Pi 4, works is great for example. If I ever wanted to build an MM for a family member, buying a new SBC would probably be a safer choice than what I do for my own stuff…
(I enjoy the beautiful pictures of people who get 50-inch televisions and wood frames with proper 1-way mirror glass, but my projects tend to have a budget of “how many coins did I find in the couch?”)
-
@joey
Had not thought about using laptop with dead screen to run MM or other OS on.
I have one I could work with, to try out different OS’s. -
I read these replies a while back and I want to re-ask the question but with more detailed specs. I looked at @sdetweil comments about mini-PC’s and while Amazon is not necessarily reflective of what is out in the market, the mini-PC’s advertised on Amazon using the search term mini-PC are pretty pricy.
I don’t know enough about Linux to know whether this business with Wayland was or is a Raspberry Pi thing or a Linux thing but it did make me wonder whether using just Pi OS AND Pi SBC’s can be a trap.I can buy Pi 4’s that will run MM all day long for around $50.00 or thereabouts but are there other brand SBC’s out there that will run MM or can install a desktop environment OS.
MM’s make popular gifts that can be tailored to a specific user.
