SparkyLinux developers have released the SparkyLinux 4.7 operating system for ARMhf hardware architectures supported on Raspberry Pi single-board computers.

This is the first release of the Debian-based SparkyLinux operating system to come to the tiny Raspberry Pi SBCs, most probably supporting both Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3 single-board computers. The ARMhf port of SparkyLinux was in development for the last couple of months.

Based on the latest Debian GNU/Linux 9 "Stretch" operating system, SparkyLinux 4.7 for ARMhf includes all the Raspberry Pi scripts and packages, and it's distributed in two flavors, a graphical version using the lightweight Openbox window manager and a text-based Lite edition that lets you customize the OS as you see fit.

Here's what's included in SparkyLinux 4.7 for Raspberry Pi

The SparkyLinux 4.7 for Raspberry Pi operating system received a bunch of improvements since the last development release, and it's now powered by the long-term supported Linux 4.4 kernel series. For example, Thunar is now used as default file manager instead of PCManFM, as well as Aria2 as default download manager instead of uGet.

The devs also fixed all known issues reported by users, changed "volumeicon" with "pnmixer" for better compatibility with the default sound server and to allow users to use mouse wheel scroll to change the volume level via the panel icon, and switched to NetSurf as default web browser.

"Web browser changed to NetSurf. It’s very, very lightweight browser which did not freeze down during my heavy tests," said one of the SparkyLinux developers in the release announcement. "Install your favorite web browsers via the package manager or Sparky’s web browser installer tool, if you wish."

Other than that, GNOME MPlayer is used as default movie player and ALSA Player as default music player. There's also support for automatically mount attached external drives. You can download SpakyLinux 4.7 for Raspberry Pi right now from our website, and please note that the default username is "pi" with password "sparky" and "toor" is the root password.