The Raspberry Pi team has finally shipped a fully updated Raspberry Pi Desktop for PC and Mac, now built on 64‑bit Debian Trixie (amd64). If you like the look and workflow of Raspberry Pi OS on your boards, you can now give the same experience to your x86 machines again.
What’s new under the hood?
This release brings the PC/Mac image in line with the current Raspberry Pi OS Desktop:
- Latest desktop UX including the new Control Centre and dock
- Base system updated to Debian Trixie 64‑bit (amd64)
- 32‑bit x86 builds are gone, matching Debian’s dropped support
- Should run on most PCs from the last ~15 years and most Intel‑based Macs
Support for Apple Silicon (M‑series) is still experimental in Debian, so this image is effectively for classic x86_64 hardware only.
Raspberry Pi Connect on your PC
The image now ships with the Raspberry Pi Connect client. That means you can manage:
- Your Raspberry Pi boards running Raspberry Pi OS, and
- PCs / Macs running Raspberry Pi Desktop,
all from the same Connect web interface.
On a PC or Mac you’ll be asked to enter a device name (Raspberry Pi boards use a hardware ID). That name appears in the Connect device list, where you can start screen sharing or open a remote terminal.
Live USB or full install
Raspberry Pi Desktop for PC/Mac is distributed as a live Debian image (.iso):
- Download the image from the Raspberry Pi website.
- Flash it to a USB stick using Raspberry Pi Imager, balenaEtcher,
dd, etc. - Boot your PC/Mac from the USB and choose “run with persistence” so changes are saved back to the stick.
- The same boot menu lets you reset persistence to return to a clean state.
From the running desktop you can launch the standard Calamares installer (desktop shortcut or Install Raspberry Pi OS in System Tools) to install to your internal HDD/SSD.
If you’ve been waiting to turn an old laptop into a familiar Raspberry Pi‑style dev box, this Trixie‑based release is ready to go.
Source: Raspberry Pi
