Arch Linux-based Manjaro ARM 20.12 is here for Raspberry Pi 4, Pinebook, Odroid N2, and more

ARM is the future of desktop computing, and once again, Apple is leading the mainstream in this regard -- its new M1 Mac computers have been very well received. True, Microsoft had Windows on ARM first, but the reality is, consumers didn't care about that. Apple has made desktop computing on ARM popular.

With all of that said, Linux on ARM predates both Windows and macOS on ARM, and quite frankly, Linux is better equipped to scale to different architectures. The newest Raspberry Pi 4 computer, for instance, can run desktop Linux distros like a champ. And now, Arch Linux-based Manjaro ARM 20.12 is here for Raspberry Pi 4, Pinebook, Odroid N2, and more.

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"We are proud to announce the release of Manjaro ARM 20.12, which is now available through the new Manjaro ARM Flasher tool and will soon be available via manjaro.org. Currently we have download images for: Raspberry Pi 4, Rock Pi 4C, RockPro64, Khadas Vim 2, Khadas Vim 3, Odroid N2, Pinebook and the Pinebook Pro," says Dan Johansen of the Manjaro ARM Team.

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Johansen further says, "Manjaro ARM is proud to be the default installation on the Pinebook Pro from Pine64. We have put in a lot of work to get to this point and we are excited that we have been accepted by the creators of this laptop, as a great OS option."

The Manjaro ARM Team shares features of version 20.12 below.

• New packages from upstream and Manjaro ARM.
• Manjaro now uses a branch based repo structure. Meaning you can now switch between stable, testing and unstable branches by running this command: sudo pacman-mirrors -aS <branch>.
• Introducing the manjaro-arm-flasher tool, which can be used to download and flash an image to any drive.
• XFCE 4.14
• KDE Plasma 5.20
• The Raspberry Pi images can now also be booted from USB Sticks, if you have updated your EEPROM to the latest release.
• The AMLogic boards, like Khadas Vim 3 and Odroid N2/C4 now has HDMI audio.
• The Pinebook Pro got DP altmode support back, thanks to Ayufan for putting together working patches for that.
• The Odroid N2 images also work on the Odroid N2+.

You can download Manjaro 20.12 for ARM using the links below. Sadly, support for armv7h has been dropped. If you have one of those older devices, you will have to look elsewhere for an OS. Of course, you can always buy a new ARM computer, such as the 8GB Raspberry Pi 4, here now.

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