To support Raspberry Pi 4, we are shipping a radically overhauled operating system, based on the forthcoming Debian 10 'Buster' release. This brings numerous behind-the-scenes technical improvements, along with an extensively modernised user interface, and updated applications including the Chromium 74 web browser. ... Some advice for those who are keen to get going with Raspbian Buster right away: we strongly recommend you download a new image, rather than upgrading an existing card. This ensures that you’re starting with a clean, working Buster system. If you really, really want to try upgrading, make a backup first.

Recent Related News and Releases

Distribution Release: Raspbian 2020-02-05 Simon Long has announced the release of Raspbian 2020-02-05, an updated build of the specialist, Debian-based distribution designed for the Raspberry Pi single-board computers. The latest release delivers a number of interesting changes, including some modifications to the PCmanFM file manager: " We previously made some significant changes to the PCmanFM file manager included as part of the Raspberry Pi Desktop; we added a cutdown mode which excludes a lot of the less commonly used functionalities, and we set this as the default mode. One of the things we removed for this mode is the Places view, an optional view for the left-hand pane of the window which provides direct access to a few specific locations in the file system. We felt that the directory browser was more useful, so we chose to show that instead. But one useful feature of Places is that it displays external devices, such as USB drives, and these are somewhat awkward to find in the file manager otherwise. " Read the detailed release announcement for further information. Download: 2020-02-05-raspbian-buster.zip (1,137MB, SHA256, signature, torrent, pkglist), 2020-02-05-raspbian-buster-lite.zip (433MB, signature, SHA256, torrent).

Distribution Release: Raspbian 2018-11-13 Simon Long has announced the availability of a new release of Raspbian, a Debian-based distribution for the Raspberry Pi single-board computers. One major change in this release is the addition of the VLC media player: " When I first joined Raspberry Pi, back in the dim and distant past (in reality 2014, but it does seem a long time ago now) and I started looking at Raspbian, I made a list of the additional features and applications that I thought it needed to be a 'complete' modern desktop operating system. Over the years, we've managed to tick off most of the items on that list, but one glaring omission has been nagging at me all this time: a decent media player. Windows has Windows Media Player, MacOS has QuickTime Player and iTunes, but we've had a big hole where something similar ought to be for Raspbian. It has been a common request on the forums and while we've had bits and pieces that do some of the job, we really wanted a nice GUI-based media player. " See the release announcement for more details and screenshots. Download links: 2018-11-13-raspbian-stretch.zip (1,035MB, SHA256, signature, torrent, pkglist), 2018-11-13-raspbian-stretch-lite.zip (351MB, signature, SHA256, torrent).

Distribution Release: Raspbian 2018-06-27 Simon Long has announced the availability of a new build of Raspbian, a Debian-based distribution for the Raspberry Pi single-board computers. The 2018-06-27 version brings a brand-new setup wizard, a Recommended Software utility and a much improved PDF viewer called qpdfView: " It's time to release another update to the Raspberry Pi desktop with a few new bits and a bunch of bug fixes (hopefully more fixes than new bugs, anyway). So, what's changed this time around? One of the things about Raspbian that has always been a bit unhelpful is that when a new user first boots up a new Pi, they see a nice desktop picture, but they might not have much of an idea what they ought to do next. With the new update, whenever a new Raspbian image is booted for the first time, a simple setup wizard runs automatically to walk you through the basic setup operations. " Read the full release announcement for further information and screenshots. Download either the standard build or the "lite" edition: 2018-06-27-raspbian-stretch.zip (1,667MB, SHA256, signature, torrent, pkglist), 2018-06-27-raspbian-stretch-lite.zip (350MB, signature, SHA256, torrent).

Distribution Release: Raspbian 2018-03-13 Simon Long has announced the release of an updated build of Raspbian, a Debian-based distribution for the Raspberry Pi single-board computers. This new version improves compatibility with large monitors and provides a way to set a default screen option depending on the size of the monitor: " You may have noticed that we released a updated Raspbian software image yesterday. While the main reason for the new image was to provide support for the new Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+, the image also includes, alongside the usual set of bug fixes and minor tweaks, one significant chunk of new functionality that is worth pointing out. ... The Appearance Settings application was a good place to start regarding support of different screen sizes. One of the features I originally included was a button to set everything to a default value. Now, there is no longer a single defaults button, but a new Defaults tab with multiple options. " Read the full release announcement for further information and screenshots. Download either the standard build or the "lite" edition: 2018-03-13-raspbian-stretch.zip (1,694MB, SHA256, signature, torrent, pkglist), 2018-03-13-raspbian-stretch-lite.zip (349MB, signature, SHA256, torrent).

Distribution Release: Raspbian 2017-11-29 Simon Long has announced the release of an updated build of Raspbian, a Debian-based distribution designed for the Raspberry Pi single-board computers: " We're pleased to announce that we are releasing the latest version of Raspbian 'Stretch' for your Pi today. This new release is mostly bug fixes and tweaks over the previous Stretch release, but there are one or two changes you might notice. The file manager included as part of the LXDE desktop (on which our desktop is based) is a program called PCManFM and it's very feature-rich; there's not much you can't do in it. However, having used it for a few years, we felt that it was perhaps more complex than it needed to be - the sheer number of menu options and choices made some common operations more awkward than they needed to be. So to try to make file management easier, we have implemented a cut-down mode for the file manager. " Read the full release announcement for more information and screenshots. Download the standard build or the "lite" edition from here: 2017-11-29-raspbian-stretch.zip (1,683MB, SHA256, signature, torrent, pkglist), 2017-11-29-raspbian-stretch-lite.zip (348MB, signature, SHA256, torrent).

Distribution Release: Raspbian 2017-08-16 Raspbian is a special build of the Debian operating system for Raspberry Pi computers. The Raspbian project has released a new version of their operating system which is now based on Debian 9 "Stretch". " It's now just under two years since we released the Jessie version of Raspbian. Those of you who know that Debian run their releases on a two-year cycle will therefore have been wondering when we might be releasing the next version, codenamed Stretch. Well, wonder no longer - Raspbian Stretch is available for download today! Debian releases are named after characters from Disney Pixar's Toy Story trilogy. In case, like me, you were wondering: Stretch is a purple octopus from Toy Story 3. Hi, Stretch! The differences between Jessie and Stretch are mostly under-the-hood optimisations, and you really shouldn't notice any differences in day-to-day use of the desktop and applications. (If you're really interested, the technical details are in the Debian release notes release announcement. The distribution is available in full and Lite editions. Download (SHA256, pkglist): 2017-08-16-raspbian-stretch.zip (1,677MB, signature, torrent), 2017-08-16-raspbian-stretch-lite.zip (348MB, signature, torrent).

Distribution Release: Raspbian 2017-06-21 Simon Long has announced the release of Raspbian 2017-06-21, an updated build of the project's distribution designed for the Raspberry Pi. In case you are wondering, this version is still based on Debian 8 "Jessie" (and not on the just-released Debian 9 "Stretch"). From the release announcement: " Today we've released another update to the Raspbian desktop. In addition to the usual small tweaks and bug fixes, the big new changes are the inclusion of an offline version of Scratch 2.0 and of Thonny (a user-friendly IDE for Python which is excellent for beginners). Scratch is one of the most popular pieces of software on Raspberry Pi. This is largely due to the way it makes programming accessible - while it is simple to learn, it covers many of the concepts that are used in more advanced languages. Scratch really does provide a great introduction to programming for all ages. Raspbian ships with the original version of Scratch, which is now at version 1.4. A few years ago, though, the Scratch team at the MIT Media Lab introduced the new and improved Scratch version 2.0, and ever since we've had numerous requests to offer it on the Pi. " Download: 2017-06-21-raspbian-jessie.zip (1,582MB, SHA256, signature, torrent, pkglist).