DietPi
DietPi is an extremely lightweight Debian-based operating system, highly optimized for minimal CPU and RAM usage, ensuring that low-resource single-board computers (SBCs) always run at their full potential.
History
The DietPi project was founded by Daniel Knight in July 2014 as a minimal image based on Raspbian, with the goal of simplifying and automating server setup on the Raspberry Pi through shell scripts. As the project grew, hardware support expanded to include additional single-board computers and virtualization platforms. In early 2015, the source code was published on GitHub, opening the project up to community contributions.
Since 2019, project leadership has passed from Daniel Knight to MichaIng, who has since authored the majority of the codebase and continues to drive its development.
Hardware Support
Today, DietPi supports a wide range of SBCs, including the Raspberry Pi, Orange Pi, ASUS Tinker Board, NanoPi, Odroid, Pine64, Radxa, and several others, as well as generic x86_64 systems and virtual machines.
Adoption
In 2023, over 124,000 active DietPi installations were recorded, with the Raspberry Pi 4 standing out as the most widely used device — reflecting the project's continued relevance within the SBC and home-server community.
Key Features
- Minimal footprint: Stripped-down Debian base with only essential packages installed
- DietPi-Software: A simple, menu-driven tool for installing and configuring popular software (web servers, media servers, cloud storage, VPNs, and more) with optimized default settings
- DietPi-Config: Centralized system configuration tool for managing performance, networking, and hardware settings
- Automated setup: First-boot scripts handle initial configuration, updates, and optimizations automatically
- Active community: Ongoing development and support through GitHub and community forums
Stats on Raspberry Pi 2 32-bit
- Ram usage = 26mo
- Running process = 10
- Disk usage = 596.2M
https://github.com/Fourdee
https://github.com/MichaIng