The Raspbian developers have just updated their Linux distribution, and it’s now based on Debian 8 “Jessie,” the latest stable version available right now.
Raspbian is one of the oldest distros that were released for the Raspberry Pi platform and it continues to be one of the most used. There are, of course, quite a few other operating systems that run just fine on the Raspberry Pi, but since Raspbian is using Debian as a base, it’s also somewhat easier to use, not to mention that it comes with a huge repository of packages.
The new version of Raspbian might not be all that different from the previous release, but it looks like it’s built to be more similar with its desktop counterpart. In fact, developers are now treating the Raspberry Pi 2 platform more like a regular desktop, and they’ve integrated some new stuff, like an office suite and a few other things.
Raspbian is now using Debian “Jessie”
The problem with this kind of updates is that they are not all that obvious for regular users. Sure, you get a lot of under the hood stuff, but most of the upgrade is not visible to the naked eye. On the other hand, the jump to Debian 8 is a very big and important step, so if you’re using Raspbian, it would be a good idea to upgrade or to flash a new image onto the card.
“Many of the changes between Wheezy and Jessie are invisible to the end-user. There are modifications to the underlying system to improve performance and flexibility, particularly as regards the control of system processes, and as with any update, there are numerous bug fixes and tweaks. And at the same time as the upgrade to Jessie, we’ve added a bunch of changes and improvements to the desktop user interface,” wrote the devs.
The makers of Raspbian also explained that the operating system now boots directly into the desktop, “like modern OSes,” an eject icon at the top right has been added for USB devices, the LibreOffice suite has been implemented, along with the Claws Mail client, a number of Java tools have been added, and a new settings dialog has been added to let users tweak all sorts of aspects.
As usual, you can download Raspbian based on Jessie from Softpedia, or you can upgrade your current installation.
Via Softpedia