Of course, you’re aware that jAlbum is available for both Windows and macOS, and you likely know it runs on Linux as well. But did you know jAlbum can operate virtually anywhere Java is supported? On a tiny $15 computer smaller than a credit card? Or on a handheld games console?
The Raspberry Pi single-board computer has been around since 2012. While earlier versions were relatively basic and best suited for simple tasks, the latest models1, Raspberry Pi 5 and Raspberry Pi 500, are powerful enough to function as full-fledged desktop computers. With up to 8GB of RAM, they run jAlbum just fine. Simply download the ARM version of the Debian package from our download page, and you’ll be ready to go. Making the Sample Project takes less than six seconds!
There’s also the compact Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, launched in 2021 and priced at just $15. However, with only 512MB of RAM, it struggles a lot when running jAlbum and requires plenty of swap space. But jAlbum works! We don’t recommend it though, since building the Sample Project takes 39 minutes… 😲
Some of us grew up with Game & Watch handheld games, powered by a modest 4-bit CPU with just 376 bytes of RAM running at 16kHz. Today’s kids, however, enjoy portable gaming consoles that are vastly more powerful. Devices like the Steam Deck even feature a desktop mode, allowing you to run Linux desktop applications—including jAlbum. With 16GB of RAM and a powerful GPU, jAlbum performs exceptionally well, often surpassing Macs and PCs just a few years old. In fact, doing a “Force Remake” of the Sample Project takes only 2.5 seconds!

We have Linux packages for Debian and RPM based distros, using either x86 (Intel) or ARM CPUs. But if you want to run jAlbum on something else, like the Steam Deck which is based on Arch Linux, simply follow these steps:
- Download the
jAlbum.zip
file from the “Other Unix platforms” section of our download page. - Download the appropriate Java JRE for x86 (Intel) or ARM.
- Unzip both the jAlbum and JRE archives to suitable locations.
- Edit the
startjalbum.sh
script inside the jAlbum folder to update the path for “java” to point to the Java executable in the unzipped JRE archive (e.g.,../jre-19-x64/jre64/bin/java
if both archives are unzipped to the same folder). - Run
startjalbum.sh
and start creating your album masterpiece!
“We don’t lock you in on the desktop platform you use for running jAlbum.”
No matter which desktop system you use—whether it’s one of the most common platforms like Windows or macOS, or a less common one like various Linux distributions—we at jAlbum work hard to make jAlbum available for your system. Just as we don’t restrict you to use a specific hosting provider for hosting your albums, we don’t lock you in on the desktop platform you use for running jAlbum. You can transfer your generated albums to any hosting provider, and run the jAlbum desktop software on almost any desktop system out there.
- As of December 2024. ↩︎