Raspberry Pi Desktop proves old PCs aren't past it

For years, Linux enthusiasts have debated which lightweight distribution is best suited to old PCs. The Reg FOSS desk has found that Raspberry Pi Desktop is an ideal choice. Recently, a Trixie update for Raspberry Pi Desktop was released, which the author has been testing on some of the oldest and slowest machines in the FOSS desk's collection. The OS proved to be excellent, even on the oldest and slowest machines.

Raspberry Pi Desktop is a modern operating system, with a 2.6 GB download size and approximately 8 GB of disk space when installed. It is too much for a 25-year-old PC that was designed for Windows XP, but it should be sufficient for a PC from the Windows Vista era. The splash screen labels it as "PIOS 6.3," similar to the Raspberry Pi hardware.

However, the x86-64 PC edition of Raspberry Pi Desktop, available on the downloads page, has finally caught up with Debian 13. It is very similar to the September 2022 PiOS 6.3 release, with an option for a dock instead of a taskbar. Users can switch between Wayland-based labwc compositor and X.org using the raspi-config tool.

One significant difference is that Raspberry Pi OS now only offers x86-64 editions, as Debian 13 retired its x86-32 edition. The Arm editions now use kernel 6.18, while the PC version is on Debian's default kernel 6.12. The PC version brings the streamlined Debian desktop to PCs, with an installer that asks few technical questions. You can customize the installation or let it do everything automatically.

Upon installation, Raspberry Pi Desktop presents a desktop with a layout reminiscent of Windows 95, though the taskbar is at the top of the screen. It comes with a basic collection of preinstalled apps, including Chromium, Firefox, a text editor, and helpful documentation, tailored to Raspberry Pi hardware users. At idle, it consumes just under 450 MB of memory. Switching to X.org reduces Openbox usage by about 50 MB.

The author tested Raspberry Pi Desktop on a 2008 ThinkPad X200s, upgraded with 8 GB of RAM and a spare 128 GB SATA SSD, featuring a 1.86 GHz Core 2 Duo SL9400 processor and Intel GMA4500 integrated GPU. Everything worked, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, USB 2, volume control buttons, brightness keys, and an external screen via DisplayPort.

It automatically configured the network printer and connected to both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi networks. Even on a 2007 ThinkPad X61 Tablet with 2 GB of DDR2 RAM, Raspberry Pi Desktop performed well, although the touchscreen did not function. On a 2008 Thinkpad W500 with an AMD GPU, the system felt snappy.