Raspberry Pi OS

Raspberry Pi OSis aUnix-likeoperating systembased on theDebianLinux distributionfor theRaspberry Pifamily of compactsingle-board computers.Raspbianwas developed independently in 2012, became the primary operating system for these boards since 2013, was originally optimized for the Raspberry Pi 1 and distributed by theRaspberry Pi Foundation.In 2020, the Raspberry Pi Foundation renamed Raspbian to Raspberry Pi OS.
Raspberry Pi OS runs on every Raspberry Pi except the Pico microcontroller. Raspberry Pi OS uses a modifiedLXDEdesktop environment with theOpenboxstacking window manager, along with a unique theme. The default distribution is shipped with a copy of the computer algebra systemWolfram Mathematica,VLC, and a lightweight version of theChromiumweb browser.
Raspberry Pi OS was first developed by Mike Thompson and Peter Green as Raspbian, an independent and unofficial port of Debian to the Raspberry Pi.The first build was released on July 15, 2012.As the Raspberry Pi had no officially provided operating system at the time, the Raspberry Pi Foundation built on the work by the Raspbian project and began producing and releasing their own version of the software.The Foundation's first release of Raspbian, which now referred both to the community project as well as the official operating system, was announced on September 10, 2013.
On May 28, 2020, the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced a beta64-bitversion. However, this version was not based on Raspbian, instead taking itsuser spacesoftware from Debian GNU/Linux.When the Foundation did not want to use the name Raspbian to refer to software that was not based on the Raspbian project, the name of the officially provided operating system was changed to Raspberry Pi OS.This change was also carried over to the32-bitversion, though it continued to be based on Raspbian.The 64-bit version of Raspberry Pi OS was officially released on February 2, 2022.
Raspberry Pi OS has a desktop environment, PIXEL (short forPiImprovedXwindowsEnvironment,Lightweight),based onLXDE,which looks similar to many common desktops, such asmacOSandMicrosoft Windows. The desktop has a background image. Amenu baris positioned at the top and contains an application menu and shortcuts to a web browser (Chromium), file manager, andterminal. The other end of the menu bar shows aBluetoothmenu, Wi-Fi menu, volume control, and clock. The desktop can also be changed from its default appearance, such as repositioning the menu bar.
Packages can be installed viaAPT, theRecommended Softwareapp, and by using theAdd/Remove Softwaretool, aGUIwrapper for APT.
PCManFMis a file browser allowing quick access to all areas of the computer, and was redesigned in the first Raspberry Pi OS Buster release (2019-06-20).
Raspberry Pi OS originally distributed the web browserEpiphany, but switched toChromiumwith the launch of its redesigned desktop.The built-in browser comes preinstalled withuBlock Originand h264ify.
Raspberry Pi OS comes with many beginnerIDEs, such asThonny Python IDE,Mu Editor, andGreenfoot. It also ships with educational software, such asScratchand Bookshelf.
The download statistics from the Raspberry Pi Imager indicate that Raspberry Pi OS is by far the most used operating system on the Raspberry Pi, accounting for 68.44% of all OS downloads in the month preceding 24 February 2022.It is also the choice of distro used byKen Thompson, one of the original developers of theUNIXoperating system.
Jesse Smith fromDistroWatchreviewed Raspbian in 2015:
In late January 2021, the Raspberry Pi OS packageraspberrypi-sys-modsadded a trustedGPGkey and configuration entry in theAPTpackage manager.This addition made it easier to installVisual Studio Code, asource code editordeveloped byMicrosoft. This change initiated a query to Microsoft's package servers every time the system checked for updates.Given Microsoft'sonce-adversarial historywith Linux, this form oftelemetryupset some users.The changes were later removed.
Raspberry Pi OS is produced in three installation versions:
Two legacy versions are recognized:
Raspberry Pi OS Lite is the smallest version, and does not include a desktop environment. The desktop version includes the Pixel desktop environment. Raspberry Pi OS with desktop and recommended software comes pre-installed with additional productivity software, such as Libre Office.
On December 2, 2021, the Raspberry Pi Foundation released Raspberry Pi OS (Legacy), a branch of the operating system that continued to receive security and hardware compatibility updates but was based onBuster, an older version of Debian.
All versions are distributed as disk image files, having the file extensionimg, intended to be flashed tomicroSD cardsfrom which Raspberry Pi OS is booted. In March 2020, the Raspberry Pi Foundation published the Raspberry Pi Imager,a custom disk installer for Raspberry Pi OS, as well as other operating systems designed for the Raspberry Pi, including RetroPie,andKodi OS,
The Raspberry Pi documentation recommends at least a 4 GiBmicroSD cardfor Raspberry Pi OS Lite, and at least an 8 GiB microSD card for all other versions.