More Pi Anyone?

Raspberry Pi makers released own-brand OS that can run on ordinary desktop computers.

11:33 28 December 2016

The makers of the Raspberry Pi computer have reworked its Pixel desktop allowing it to run on Apple Mac machines and PCs. The Pi Foundation said that they intend to produce the best desktop computing experience.

 

Eben Upton, Raspberry Pi co-creator, said that the software should help schoolchildren who use the credit-card sized Pi in class or for their own projects but have to continue their work on PCs or Macs. He added that the new OS uses “exactly the same productivity software and programming tools, in exactly the same desktop environment"

 

"There is no learning curve, and no need to tweak... schoolwork to run on two subtly different operating systems," he said.

 

However, he warned that since the software was still “experimental”, there may be bugs or other minor issues” when used on some machines.

 

Pixel was first released in September and overhauled the main graphical interface. It is based on Debian, a version of the open source Linux software. Its desktop version lacks two programmes – Minecraft and Mathematica because the Pi organisation has not licensed the applications.

 

Raspberry Pi became the most popular British computer ever made in April last year with more than 10 million units sold.