Sunday, October 11, 2026

Raspberry Pi OS: The operating system gets new features for the desktop

Date:

The free Linux distribution Raspberry PiOS – formerly Raspbian – for mini PCs, manufacturers and single board computers such as Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 400, is based on the stable Debian 11 (“Bullseye”) and now offers new features for the internal PIXEL desktop, which in turn is based on the easy LXDE established.

The focus this time is on the desktop.

Raspberry Pi OS, the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s in-house free operating system, which only switched from Linux 5.10 LTS to Linux 5.15 LTS in April, has numerous improvements for PIXEL, the open source project’s desktop environment, as well as for the latest version receives an OS kernel updated back to Linux 5.15.61 LTS; support until October 2023 included.

Raspberry Pi OS with LXDE-based PIXEL Desktop
Raspberry Pi OS with LXDE-based PIXEL Desktop (Image: Raspberry Pi Foundation)

The focus is on the new main menu plugin, which for the first time also offers integrated text input with a search function and a network plugin that comes with the package. NetworkManagera Linux network connection management application originally developed by Red Hat.

The official release notes List the following highlights for the latest system image:

Raspberry Pi OS Highlights
  • Updated operating system kernel Linux 5.15.61 LTS
  • New main menu plugin with text input and integrated search function
  • New network plugin for NetworkManager
  • New notification area audio plugin

Added to this is the new camera interface. Picámera 2 (PDF) based on piton and revised keyboard shortcuts to make it easier to open the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth plugin.

Raspberry Pi OS – Innovations (Image: Raspberry Pi Foundation)

Also, initial still experimental backend support for the display server protocol Waylandthe user via the command line and the package raspi-config it can be activated in the advanced options, further improve and the free operating system should be free of already known bugs.

New software packages

On the software side, VLC Media Player 3.0.17, Openbox 3.6.1 as an alternative user interface and LibreOffice 7.0.4 are already on board “out of the box”. If you wish, more than 35,000 software packages can be downloaded from the Debian sources.

Three system images are available

In addition to the great image of the system Raspberry Pi OS with desktop and software (IMG) support Raspberry Pi Operating System with Desktop (IMG) What Raspberry Pi OS Lite (IMG) more compact images ready to download. If you want, the easy to use will help raspberry pi image generator when creating installations for Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Quick update using the console

Users who want to upgrade their existing installation can do so quickly and easily using the console.

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

More information will be provided by the officer. placethe Forum as well as the extensive documentation the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison was a celebrated American author whose novels earned worldwide recognition for their depth, artistry, and cultural significance. Her influential works continue to inspire readers and writers across generations.

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