I think there is no good or bad solution. It depends mostly of your own skills with a Unix system. If you're a beginner, or just coming from the Windows world, then an "all-in-one" solution like Stellarmate or Astroberry is probably perfect for you. On the opposite, if you are familiar with networks, bash, vi, git, and compiling your own version (eventually your own branch) then you'll certainly prefer to have a "true" server/client architecture with an indi server ( one or several ) on the mount and multiple clients on your laptop. Personally, I think the best advantage of Indi/Ekos/Kstars **IS** this full server/client architecture which gives you almost infinite possibilities, only limited by your own imagination. Besides, I personally love the Unix philosophy which is "One tool for one purpose", opposite to the "Swiss army knife" solution "à la Windows". Plus, having the sources on my own git tree is something that provides me with incomparable confidence. The best point overall is that there is a solution for everybody, from beginner to advanced, and a community of nice persons always ready to help you doing your first steps.
-- Marc

Marc, I agree with you 100% and that's the way I would do it if I had a permanent observatory but I like to go mobile. Batteries have finite charge and after a six hour session electrons are in short supply. I would rather not have a laptop running Ekos that entire time. Much more efficient to let the Raspberry Pi handle it all and then occasionally wake-up my laptop to check progress.

Hello, and welcome Dean,
First of all, if you intend to install an Indi server on a Raspi, you don't need any remote desktop solution. No VNC. So yes, a simple server distro will do. As for your 32/64 bits problem, you need to install a 64bits version of Ubuntu Server. That said, I'm not sure you'll get much better performance from a 64bits arch with an indiserver But I'm sure you'll need much more RAM for the same service. Frankly, a raspi3 under a 32bits distro is largely enough to run an indiserver.
-- Marc

(Kamisan)
I understand your point, but one remark (generally speaking, nothing personal.) Why are you, mobile people, so attached to batteries ? For the price of a good battery (say 200 bucks) you can buy a 1200W inverter that will never let you down wherever you are in the field. Considering a mount needs 60W and a laptop 100W, I let you do the math to see how much gear you can power up with 1200W. If you put the inverter behind a rock (or behind your car) you won't even hear it. And if your car is not a diesel, a simple hose will help refuel from your tank should you need it (6 hours autonomy for a 12Kg gen) Seriously ... ???
-- Marc

Does anyone remember the link to that document that lists all of the possible configurations? You know the one that lists the pros and cons, novice vs expert, mobile vs permanent?

so far I have ubuntu mate 64 bit OS ( rpi 3b+ supported) running and the parts I want from
setupAstro64.sh ( shared at github.com/rlancaste/AstroPi3 ) configured / installed, just
need that weather to co-op so I can field test the gear. Nice part of open source is you can strip it
all away and start anew with something different,: a headless server solution is always an option.
kudos to github.com/rlancaste/AstroPi3