A new version of Armbian, a Debian-based Linux distro built for ARM and RISC-V hardware, is available to download.

Armbian 23.05 “Suni” is based on the (soon to be released) Debian 12 “Bookworm”. This foundational uplift offers a ton of package updates, plus a newer Linux kernel offering improved hardware support and security.

Additionally, the Armbian 23.05 release release is the first to be based on a “completely refactored build framework” Armbian developers have been working on for the past 3 years, and there’s now an officially supported i3 build.

Debian 12 and a new build framework are pretty substantial upgrades alone but Armbian 23.05 also includes a slew of fixes and enhancements across many of its key tools, and streamlines and optimizes its underlying package base across builds.

Yes, that’s builds plural for, unlike a traditional Linux distro that issues a single ISO aimed at all hardware, Armbian issue optimized images tailored to an array single-board computers (SBCs), including Raspberry Pi, Orange Pi, Banana Pi, and others.

New hardware supported by this release includes the FriendlyElec NanoPi R4SE and the NanoPi R6S/R6C.

Armbian also provide an Ubuntu-based desktop image for traditional AMD/Intel computers. This is something akin to a de-Ubuntu’d distro as it removes Ubuntu Pro integration, and doesn’t ship with snap.

You can glance over the detailed release notes to learn more, read the release announcement, or head to the Armbian download page to download Armbian 23.05 for hardware you own.

This month I’ll finally get my mitts on a Raspberry Pi 4 so chances are I’ll be writing more often about the various Linux distros tailored to it, including Armbian — so stay tuned!