The Banana Pi supports many different operating systems. Because of its ARM v7 processor, it also runs operating systems such as Android. The list is actually quite long but currently there are several ported Raspberry Pi builds of Linux, which includes Kano and Raspbian as well as an optimized build called Bananian. There are also several ARM-based Linux builds targeted at the Banana Pi to choose from. These builds include OpenSUSE, Arch, Fedora, Lubuntu, and even Kali Linux. There are also two versions of Android available: 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and 4.4 KitKat.

The choice in operating systems is part of the reason the Banana Pi is so versatile. The operating system you choose may impact your project; something like Android would make a great media PC, whereas Arch or Debian would make a better file server. The choice is there though and all are available for free from the official website at http://www.bananapi.com/index.php/download.

The most common choice in operating systems for the Banana Pi is the Bananian port of Raspbian. This is due to the popularity of Raspbian for the Raspberry Pi. Basically every Raspbian-based project for the Raspberry Pi is directly compatible with the Banana Pi. This means that, by sticking with Bananian or Raspbian, you immediately have access to loads of tutorials and projects. Raspbian Linux is based on Debian Linux; this is one of the most popular distributions in the world.