Running v9.4.2 - an insanely fast minimalist distro. Works great on arm64 devices.
Pros
Extreme speed and minimal resource usage. Doesn't waste your chiplet's time cycling everything to the memory card.
DietPi-Survey shares trustworthy performance data on many SBCs -- really helps pick one for the next project
Decent support for many arm-based SBCs
It's still debian if you need it to be
Neutral
Learning curve for ubuntu/debian users. htop not top. dropbear not OpenSSH
Backport script can frankendebian from other .deb distros instead of flashing. Chew up your memory card a little at first to get the speed later!
Cons
Not really focused on security, default settings need to be improved
Limited mirrors for dietpi packages, especially in North America
Default wait for network to come online is just ridiculously long
Once you taste the speed, going back to mainline distros for the features you miss still feels like molasses in winter
- very small and very quick and flexible
- Desktops can be installed later
- multiplatform (arm/x_86_X64)
- good support from forum community
- Less suitable for beginners
- Unfortunately there are no fancy VMs available for ARM, you have to create them yourself
- Installation via images or ISO with bare metal installer (Native PC x86-X64)
- Installation also via Convertierunsscrpit (convert installed Debian to Dietpi)
Too good to only run on SBCs, runs well on native PCs and VMs.
Version: 8.2 Rating: 9 Date: 2023-01-18 Votes: 14
Pros - Easy to use once you understand which files to modify for Raspberry Pi usage this is simple.
Does have the ability to install apps using dietpi-software which allows you to set up various things which may be useful.
Cons - If you are not aware of how to use Linux or have not looked over the DietPi Docs this is tough to set up and use properly.
Overall, if you READ the docs and understand how to cut the sd card and set up the wifi, the process becomes simpler.
Been using this for years and it does the job!
Version: 6.25 Rating: 3 Date: 2021-06-07 Votes: 0
I was hoping for a solid armbian alternative, but this is really immature.
Activating hardware features for example takes more than (as opposed to armbian) one step, as for they arbitrarily mask those features with their config-tool, while the "work" of writing down the device identifier in /boot/armbianEnv.txt (yes it's not more than a layer on top of armbian) has to be manually done.
For my board, serial communication was unusable buggy (while it works fine with armbian), with no culprits to be found at the usual set screws (said config, dtb, dietpi-config, ...). Whatever they did to achieve this behavior, they now don't care to fix it (my bugreport not even being acknowledged, not even them saying that they don't support my older board anymore but listing it on their website).
The head of the team has an alarmingly unprofessional way of praising their script collection as advanced in all regards. Noticed this afterwards, would have made me suspicious earlier.
I'm sorry for developers who put hard work into it, on the other hand it became a big time sink for me and appears not be done correctly. With the "trying-to-be-cool" factor, makes me personally quite antipathetical.
Would not recommend!
If you do find it working and have a good time, great, otherwise don't waste your time!
Running v9.4.2 - an insanely fast minimalist distro. Works great on arm64 devices.
Pros
Extreme speed and minimal resource usage. Doesn't waste your chiplet's time cycling everything to the memory card.
DietPi-Survey shares trustworthy performance data on many SBCs -- really helps pick one for the next project
Decent support for many arm-based SBCs
It's still debian if you need it to be
Neutral
Learning curve for ubuntu/debian users. htop not top. dropbear not OpenSSH
Backport script can frankendebian from other .deb distros instead of flashing. Chew up your memory card a little at first to get the speed later!
Cons
Not really focused on security, default settings need to be improved
Limited mirrors for dietpi packages, especially in North America
Default wait for network to come online is just ridiculously long
Once you taste the speed, going back to mainline distros for the features you miss still feels like molasses in winter
- very small and very quick and flexible
- Desktops can be installed later
- multiplatform (arm/x_86_X64)
- good support from forum community
- Less suitable for beginners
- Unfortunately there are no fancy VMs available for ARM, you have to create them yourself
- Installation via images or ISO with bare metal installer (Native PC x86-X64)
- Installation also via Convertierunsscrpit (convert installed Debian to Dietpi)
Too good to only run on SBCs, runs well on native PCs and VMs.
Pros - Easy to use once you understand which files to modify for Raspberry Pi usage this is simple.
Does have the ability to install apps using dietpi-software which allows you to set up various things which may be useful.
Cons - If you are not aware of how to use Linux or have not looked over the DietPi Docs this is tough to set up and use properly.
Overall, if you READ the docs and understand how to cut the sd card and set up the wifi, the process becomes simpler.
I was hoping for a solid armbian alternative, but this is really immature.
Activating hardware features for example takes more than (as opposed to armbian) one step, as for they arbitrarily mask those features with their config-tool, while the "work" of writing down the device identifier in /boot/armbianEnv.txt (yes it's not more than a layer on top of armbian) has to be manually done.
For my board, serial communication was unusable buggy (while it works fine with armbian), with no culprits to be found at the usual set screws (said config, dtb, dietpi-config, ...). Whatever they did to achieve this behavior, they now don't care to fix it (my bugreport not even being acknowledged, not even them saying that they don't support my older board anymore but listing it on their website).
The head of the team has an alarmingly unprofessional way of praising their script collection as advanced in all regards. Noticed this afterwards, would have made me suspicious earlier.
I'm sorry for developers who put hard work into it, on the other hand it became a big time sink for me and appears not be done correctly. With the "trying-to-be-cool" factor, makes me personally quite antipathetical.
Would not recommend!
If you do find it working and have a good time, great, otherwise don't waste your time!
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