pimox7 VS DietPi

Proxmox [1] will see a boost in popularity, good. I'm using the free version in combination with the backup server on both small (several RasPi 4's spread over several countres running the 'PiMox' [2] port) as well as medium (DL380) sized systems and find it to be a stable as well as practical platform.

[1] https://proxmox.com/en/

[2] https://github.com/pimox/pimox7

Starting with the https://github.com/pimox/pimox7 website I now have a four node HA environment (all on Pi4's, 4GB RAM each, 16GB SD card each) along with a 500GB slice of space on my home SSD Synology (for all VMs, etc). As of this moment all four are up, talking to each other, and I'm running a PiHole instance with high availability enabled (or at least that is what the instructions I followed tell me).

Same experience here, the PiMox repository on GitHub is I.m.o the official unofficial pve ARM-port. I really hope the pve team is going to either support or find a way to leverage the work already done by Tim & the rest, it would be a waste not to.

https://github.com/pimox/pimox7 Look at this

For anyone who wants proxmox on their ARM device, check out pimox

Not massively recommended but version called pimox works okay https://github.com/pimox/pimox7

I wonder if pimox (Proxmox hypervisor) will run on it.

DietPi is a lightweight Debian based Linux distribution for SBCs and server systems, with the option to install desktop environments, too. It ships as minimal image but allows to install complete and ready-to-use software stacks with a set of console based shell dialogs and scripts.

The source code is hosted on GitHub: https://github.com/MichaIng/DietPi

That's a good point, but the array of devices supported by the DietPi team is extensive: https://dietpi.com/

Before someone starts the usual yadda yadda about the RPi biger community, the OS not having long time support etc. I would repeat one more time: do not rely on board vendor supplied images; this is valid for pretty much all boards. Just go to Armbian or DietPi pages and you'll almost certainly find one or more images that work on your board and forums to discuss about them with very knowledgeable people.

https://www.armbian.com/download/

https://dietpi.com/#download

Those projects are well worth a contribution, as they don't have a giant like Broadcom behind them.

> bananapi do a lot of boards but their software story has been a bit poor

This is quite common with other board manufacturers too. I'd rather suggest to ignore completely their cobbled together distros, often also tainted by proprietary modifications, that become unmaintained in a few years, and see if they're among the many supported by Armbian or DietPi.

https://www.armbian.com/download/

https://dietpi.com/#download

The full release notes can be found at: https://dietpi.com/docs/releases/v8_25/

RPi OS = diet pi https://dietpi.com/ - initial config via text file - SDcard burning out partially mitigated as writes log files to ram then flushes to SDcard reducing write cycles

You could also try very minimalistic distros like TwisterUI or DietPi which are most known for their use in the RasprebbyPi / SBC computers but which also have editions for desktop / laptop.