Linux PC manufacturer System76 has made its Pop!_OS distribution available as a technical preview for Raspberry Pi computers.

Pop!_OS for Raspberry Pi

Pop!_OS 22.04 is available for Raspberry Pi users as a technical preview despite being labeled as an "LTS" or Long-Term Support release by the company, according to 9to5Linux. Pop!_OS is a customized version of Ubuntu that uses a special desktop and under-the-hood enhancements tuned for technical and creative work.

The company used the Pop!_OS Twitter feed to announce the technical preview:

While Pop!_OS is tailored to System76's line of preinstalled Linux PCs, the company has also made it available as a standalone release for anyone to download. System76 does not currently manufacture any version of the single-board Raspberry Pi. The release follows the release of the standard version 22.04 in April 2022, which System76 similarly teased with its own beta release beforehand.

Pop!_OS 22.04 Raspberry Pi System Requirements

The system requirements are hefty for the Raspberry Pi. Pop!_OS only supports the latest version, the Raspberry Pi 4. Users also must have four gigabytes of RAM, and at least 16 GB of storage space. System76 recommends that Raspberry Pi users use USB 3.0 storage, likely for performance reasons. The ISO download file weighs in at 2.23 GB for the Raspberry PI.

Interested users may acquire the Raspberry Pi technical preview from the official Pop!_OS page.

Why Raspberry Pi?

While the Raspberry Pi is popular among computer enthusiasts and hardware hackers, users may wonder why System76 would devote such effort to supporting a hardware platform it doesn't even manufacture. The Intel/AMD architecture and the ARM architecture that powers the Raspberry Pi are very different from each other.

The move appears to be a gesture of goodwill, even though such moves aren't taken completely out of charity in the tech world. While the company does make mini PCs, they run on the same Intel chips that power the company's other offerings. Linux-oriented companies like System76 may just prefer to make decisions that benefit the Linux ecosystem, even their apparent competitors, as a whole because they rely on it so much.

Pop!_OS' Growing Reputation

Pop!_OS has become one of the premier Linux desktops within a few short years of its introduction. As a customized version of Ubuntu, it's built on a solid foundation with System76's changes. Users may have a hard time choosing between Pop!OS and Ubuntu, but the choice boils down to personal preference.