
Ask HN: Simple Linux Machine - gorgoiler
Is there an SBC that <i>just works</i> and <i>works well</i> with the Linux kernel?<p>I’m looking for something low in price ($100-$200) with mainline kernel support.  I hope for stable and accelerated X11 with video and sound playback.  I’d like to be able to drag windows around at full frame rate.<p>Architecture doesn’t matter.<p>I’ve been trying really hard to get Pine64’s RockPro64 to work as a nice little dev &#x2F; office-work machine.  It just doesn’t seem to be working out.  Manjaro (Arch) Linux on multi core ARM, even at 1080p on a ARM’s Mali T860 GPU, is just not smooth at all.
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benologist
AMD Ryzen 4000 desktops are coming soon, using the mobile APUs rather than the
desktop line of 4000 processors. They are a little bit over budget at $300+
but they are going to perform excellently ranging from 4 cores / 4 threads up
to 8 cores / 16 threads and very decent iGPU. If necessary this could be
repurposed to suit a number of uses like a modest workstation or 1080p gaming
or some virtual machines or a media PC etc.

[https://www.cnx-software.com/2020/06/16/asus-pn50-the-
worlds...](https://www.cnx-software.com/2020/06/16/asus-pn50-the-worlds-first-
amd-ryzen-4000u-mini-pc/)

There are a lot of older, competent dual core machines available on Amazon
very cheaply too. These are much cheaper but if you ever needed even one
virtual machine it would be quite taxing. These machines are 4 or 5 years old
so linux support is likely excellent.

[https://www.amazon.com/s?k=small+form+factor+pc&ref=nb_sb_no...](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=small+form+factor+pc&ref=nb_sb_noss_2)

These aren't strictly "SBC" but they're very similar. Basically laptop
motherboards and soldered chips with potentially upgradeable storage/ram.

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gorgoiler
The thin client corporate PC idea is a good one.

What would be fantastic would be to have a recommendation where someone has a
really good existing setup.

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benologist
You might like asking on this subreddit, they use everything from little
raspberry pis to large rack servers, often acquired at a very low cost:

[https://old.reddit.com/r/homelab](https://old.reddit.com/r/homelab)

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rman666
I probably don’t know what I’m talking about, but maybe a high-end Raspberry
Pi?

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gorgoiler
These platforms work in theory. In practice I think it’s still only been a few
months since OpenGL ES 3 worked in RPi4. Things like this make me worry it’s
not the best platform for a performant workstation.

I’m fussy. I want my windows to drag / resize / scroll at 60 FPS.

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als0
Does that include open or closed GPU drivers?

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gorgoiler
Closed would be fine

The real sweet spot I’m looking for is a platform that’s supported entirely in
the mainline kernel because this just seems to make life so much easier.

