The Armbian project is nearing its 10-year anniversary, and we’re excited to announce that our upcoming release Armbian 23.05, codename “Suni”, will be the biggest one yet! It’s a significant milestone as it marks the first release based on our completely refactored build framework! The new framework has been in development for around 3 years, during which we combined our decades long experience with Linux and embedded systems with the latest technologies that have emerged in recent years. We’ve taken all that knowledge and expertise to create something truly exceptional for our users and Linux community at large.
Continue reading to learn more about the project and our latest news and updates!
Our Focus
Armbian delivers four point releases each year, representing our team’s dedicated efforts to stabilize this complex and ever-changing system.
We release updates every 4 months, with weekly meetings for both our developers and community. Our team consists of individuals with varying levels of experience/interaction, including full-time contributors, part-time contributors, and helpful volunteers. Armbian serves as a foundational project that brings immense value to the entire Linux community. Even if you opt for a different Linux distribution on your single board computer, there’s a possibility that you’re still benefiting from Armbian or utilizing some of its components.
Our primary focus is to provide optimized images tailored to specific hardware. Additionally, we offer a generic aarch64 image that works seamlessly on compatible UEFI hardware like Ampere Altra. However, only a few single board computers support this standard, and it is currently in the early alpha phase, lacking certain important features for these devices. Hence, we adhere to existing boot scenarios and provide specific images for each hardware. Our entire ecosystem is designed to handle the generation of numerous images efficiently when the need arises.
Another significant aspect driving our efforts is addressing the diversity in single board computers. We strive to simplify the process to a point where anyone can create OS images from sources. Our technology outshines major players in the field such as LFS, Gentoo, Yocto, and Buildroot. Interestingly, many ARM-focused Linux distributions are essentially Armbian under a different name! We are committed to streamlining complexity and offering an exceptional solution for the community.
For Users
Users have not been left behind! Check out what’s new.
Improvements and enhancements
We are pleased to announce several improvements and enhancements at the user level:
- Armbian Bookworm based images: We are introducing Armbian Bookworm-based images, providing the latest features and updates from Debian community.
- i3 supported: i3 has been added as the fourth officially supported desktop environment, expanding the options available to our users.
- Fixes and Enhancements: We have addressed issues in key tools such as armbian-installer, armbian-config, and armbian-firstrun, ensuring a smoother user experience.
- Streamlined Packages: We have optimized our package base, making it nearly identical across different underlying package bases and desktop choices. This standardization improves predictability and enhances security.
- Consistent Application Packages: Regardless of the chosen package base or desktop environment, the application packages remain the same. This ensures consistent functionality and ease of use.
- Improved Ubuntu-Based Assemblies: We have successfully removed the unnecessary “Ubuntu advantage” services from our Ubuntu-based assemblies, as they do not provide any advantages in this specific hardware segment. Internet browsers are installed without snap technology, and we directly host many 3rd party applications in our repositories.
- Fast and Safe Updates: Our streamlined system allows for fast and safe updates, ensuring that users can easily stay up to date with the latest improvements and security patches.
Gaming
Armbian is also gaming-friendly. Thanks to the community-maintained script, armbian-gaming, you can easily turn your ordinary Linux device into a gaming platform. You’ll have the opportunity to play games specifically developed for x86 architecture using Wine. The emulation feature works seamlessly on both 32-bit and 64-bit hardware. Additionally, Armbian provides support for popular gaming platforms such as Steam, PlayStation, Android emulation, and even PS2 games. Get ready for an immersive gaming experience on your Armbian-powered system! Special thanks to @NicoD-SBC, @ptitSeb, @rpardini, and @monkaBlyat
These enhancements aim to provide a seamless, secure and fun user experience, further establishing Armbian as a reliable choice for single board computer users!
Remarkable Contributors and Supporters
We would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to the exceptional individuals who have poured their time and expertise into making this release possible. A big “Thank You” goes out to the following contributors (listed in alphabetical order): @150balbes @AGM1968 @EvilOlaf @Heisath @PanderMusubi @SteeManMI, @TheLinuxBug @Tonymac32 @adeepn @ahoneybun @amazingfate @belegdol @brentr @clee @efectn @fraz0815 @hzyitc @iav @igorpecovnik @lanefu @littlecxm @matthijskooijman @mhoffrog @monkaBlyat @paolosabatino @pyavitz @radoslavv @rpardini @schwar3kat @teknoid
Special thanks to Armbian users, supporters, greater Linux community and project partners who recognize the importance of our work and generously contribute their time, financial support, hardware, and expertise. Your support plays a crucial role in the progress of the project, and we are deeply grateful for your contributions.
Join Us
Excited about being a part of the project? Join us at https://www.armbian.com/participate/
Best regards,
The Armbian Team