Alpine Linux vs postmarketOS
| Alpine Linux | postmarketOS | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | No | No |
| Free trial | No | No |
| Paid from | — | — |
| Open source | No | No |
| Platforms | Linux | Linux |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Device types | Physical computers, Raspberry Pi, routers, servers, virtual machines, cloud images, containers and chroots | phones, tablets, laptops, Chromebooks, single-board computers, x86_64 EFI systems |
| CPU architectures | aarch64, armhf, armv7, loongarch64, ppc64le, riscv64, s390x, x86, x86_64 | aarch64, armv7, x86_64, riscv64 |
| Support lifecycle | Main repository typically supported for 2 years; community repository until the next stable release | No fixed duration stated; stable kernel packages are kept up to date while the release is supported; device support depends on category and maintainers. |
| Deployment models | Physical installation images, cloud images, virtual-system images, container and chroot root filesystems, netboot, Raspberry Pi and Xen Dom0 | Physical device installation; Duranium also uses standard GPT partitions on compatible laptops |
| Built-in management | — | Stable and edge release channels; kernel and system package upgrades; automatic kernel upgrades required for community-category devices |
| App compatibility | — | Alpine apk packages; Flatpak is primary application distribution for Duranium |
Both are listed in Best Operating Systems. On Specifiction, postmarketOS scores higher on our published basis.