The newest ESP32 can actually run Linux, and it’s getting close to a Raspberry Pi
Espressif’s ESP32-S31 pairs a microcontroller-scale power profile with a real RISC-V Sv32 MMU and supervisor/user modes, plus Gigabit Ethernet, USB host, camera/display interfaces, and up to 64 MB of PSRAM. That makes Linux feasible in a way it wasn’t on earlier ESP32 parts—but this is still an experimental, memory-constrained device, not a Raspberry Pi replacement.
Espressif’s Buildroot/U-Boot BSP is explicitly not production-ready, and community ports are early. XDA readers liked the unusual tinkering potential, while also asking about practical trade-offs such as PoE and whether the chip’s value is really in its Zigbee-capable radio rather than Linux.