[eschneider]

Interesting article. For folks who need to put together their own distro, especially for embedded applications, Yocto and Buildroot both lower the barrier to rolling your own and getting exactly what you need to something quite reasonable.

[grepLeigh]

Agree, I'm using Yocto to roll an embedded distribution (PrintNanny OS). Combined with swupdate, I now have extraordinarily reliable upgrades using an A/B partition scheme.

The result is way more maintainable than previous iterations of PrintNanny OS images, which used a combination of Ansible and Packer to bake a "golden" image based on Raspberry Pi OS.

[nfriedly]

+1 for Buildroot!

I haven't done much with Yocto, but I had very good experiences with Buildroot, particularly with getting helpful answers to noob questions I posted on stack overflow. One was answered by Thomas Petazzoni who, I think, is one of the main people behind Buildroot.

[eschneider]

I've used both in commercial products and I find Yocto to be more flexible than Buildroot, but the learning curve is less with Buildroot. Still, both get the job done and are reasonably documented and supported, so pick your poison. :>

[voakbasda]

Yocto does not have a low barrier to entry, at least when it comes to making lots of customizations and then supporting them over time (e.g. upgrades). If you are willing to climb its learning curve, it definitely would be my recommendation for rolling a custom system.

[eschneider]

Yeah, it's a bit inscrutable when you're starting out, but once you finally 'get it', it all makes sense and stuff is easy to find in the docs. Buildroot seems easier to start out with, but I like the Yocto features more myself.