Marc Haber wrote...
> I'd still consider the Raspberry Pi. It's unfortunate that the binary
> non-free blob is already needed to boot the box even if one doesn't
> need/use the GPU after booting, but it is reasonably common that
> people care about their software on the platform, and it's also
> affordable and has versions with enough RAM available.
Another point here: Since so many people use it, there's a good chance
even seldom-occurring hardware flaws will be found and eventually worked
around. An effect we saw some two decades ago with the cheap-but-
horrible rtl8139 network adapters.
For me, the biggest downside of the RPi4 is the need for an extra power
plug as they take up to three amps - while for example a BananaPi can be
powered using some unused USB (<= 3.0) port.
> Many of the options pointed out by Siji Sunny are a decade old and
> therfore do not fill your with for a "modern" platform. I am currently
> in the process of fading out the Banana Pis because the platform has
> never really taken off and a dual core 32 bit CPU with 1 GB RAM is
> running out of fun these days.
Depends on the planned use and the budget. I am slowly fading out the
DockStars who are really ten years old now - but mostly due to the
memory limit (128 Mbyte) and the architecture (armel) where I can expect
Debian will end support in a not-too-distant future. Otherwise they can
route 16 MBit without any problem.
For CPU-hungry tasks (package building) I've switched from a CubieTruck
to an RPi4 a few months ago and the performance boost was mindblowing.
(Aside, has anybody noticed aptitude from jessie and buster in an armel
chroot dies with SIGILL sometimes when running on the arm64 CPU of an
RPI4?)
So you if (OP) are basically want to build a console server - which is
how I read you question - almost any board will do it. With the year
2038 in mind (no kidding, this will arrive faster than you think), I'd
advise against armel and the pseudo-armhf used in the first two (or
three) RPi generations. For arm64 will can expect to have support after
that date, for armhf there's at least hope.
Christoph
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