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So you want to build an embedded Linux system?

Screenshot of jaycarlson.net captured 2026-07-20
Page preview · captured 2026-07-20

Resurfaced independently across 4 calendar years, with breakout response in 3 of them.

submissions
5
submitters
5
observed span
2020–2024
peak thread · 111 comments
535 pts
latest 20+ return · 2024-08-20
127 pts

Submission timeline

2007–2026

One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.

First comments on top threads

HN comment order

> Yocto is totally the opposite. Buildroot was created as a scrappy project by the BusyBox/uClibc folks. Yocto is a giant industry-sponsored project with tons of different moving parts. You will see this build system referred to as Yocto, OpenEmbedded, and Poky, and I did some reading before publishing this article because I never really understood the relationship. I think the first is the overall head project, the second is the set of base packages, and the third is the……

Previous thread, 2020: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24800037 This article is awesome and has a ton of great knowledge, but it’s a little dismissive of openembedded, and if you click through to the previous thread you’ll see a lot of people come to it’s defense.

Since an embedded Linux system will likely require use of either Buildroot or Yocto, I'd like to ask the following slightly off-topic question: Which SoM product line would you say has the best vendor support? I'm talking about quality of the BSP (board support package). (A meta-layer, in Yocto terms.) Raspberry Pi has quite a community behind it, so meta-raspberrypi has a number of contributors. (None of which payed by the Raspberry Pi foundation, though.) My latest project involved a…

The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.

Breakout years
3

100+ points or 50+ comments

Total points
903

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Total comments
227

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Every submission

DateTitle as submittedByPointsComments
2020-10-16So you want to build an embedded Linux system?lukeboi50
2020-10-16So you want to build an embedded Linux system?First breakout · Best threadcushychicken535111
2022-02-09So you want to build an embedded Linux system? (2020)sebg23376
2023-11-01So you want to build an embedded Linux system?maxekman30
2024-08-20So you want to build an embedded Linux system?Hall induction · Latest 20+ point returnolalonde12740