New version of Raspberry Pi OS based on Debian 12 appears

The new version of Raspberry Pi OS has been officially released. The new version of the operating system is based on Debian 12 ‘Bookworm’. The operating system works on all existing Raspberry Pi models.

The new Raspberry Pi OS can now be downloaded as 32bit and 64bit versions. The company shares details about the new update in a blog post. Users can only install the new version via a completely new installation, for example by creating an SD card with the OS using the Raspberry Pi Imager.

The biggest change is that the Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 with the new version use the more modern Wayland display engine by default. The previous version, which was based on Debian 11, still used X11 by default, which is now decades old and according to the developers has limitations on modern PCs. Older Raspberry Pi models will still use X11; the developers are still working on optimizing Wayland for those older single-board computers. In the long term, the previous Raspberry Pis will also switch to Wayland, the manufacturer confirms.

Furthermore, the new Raspberry Pi OS release will have an updated audio system. The OS switches to PipeWire, where it previously had PulseAudio. The former has similar features, but has ‘better support for audio with video’. There should be less latency and work better via Bluetooth, the company says. Raspberry Pi OS also gets a new network manager and the Firefox web browser is officially supported for the first time.

Raspberry Pi OS based on Debian 12. Source: Raspberry Pi