What's the current status of the mainline kernel? What kind of practical restrictions are there? I've seen on the Sunxi wiki that Ethernet is still WIP. So no Ethernet?

 

I use my Orangepi PC as a "NAS/media server/download server".

https://forum.armbian.com/index.php/topic/3267-eth0-stuck-at-half-duplex-orange-pi-zero/

So, for now it's better to still use the old 3.x kernel?

So, for now it's better to still use the old 3.x kernel?

 

Now it depends of the use scenario. Old kernel is also not perfect, has bugs and ... it's old, general support is fading.

 

Mainline kernel is still considered development with H3 chips ... so I would not stand on neither side, while I would recommend mainline kernel for older Allwinner chips, A10 and A20. There, it's clearly a better choice in most use cases, instead of old stock kernel. Soon, here (H3, H5, A64, ...) it will be the same.