Your Raspberry Pi needs an operating system to work. This is it. Raspberry Pi OS is a free operating system based on Debian, optimized for the Raspberry Pi hardware, and is the recommended operating system for normal use on a Raspberry Pi. The OS comes with over 35,000 packages: pre-compiled software bundled in a nice format for easy installation on your Raspberry Pi.
Raspberry Pi OS (previously called Raspbian) is under active development, with an emphasis on improving the stability and performance of as many Debian packages as possible on Raspberry Pi.
Install Raspberry Pi OS using Raspberry Pi Imager
Raspberry Pi Imager is the quick and easy way to install Raspberry Pi OS and other operating systems to a microSD card, ready to use with your Raspberry Pi. Watch our 45-second video to learn how to install an operating system using Raspberry Pi Imager.
Download and install Raspberry Pi Imager to a computer with an SD card reader. Put the SD card you'll use with your Raspberry Pi into the reader and run Raspberry Pi Imager.
What operating systems are available in Raspberry Pi Imager?
Raspberry Pi Imager offers official Raspberry Pi OS versions, along with third-party options like Ubuntu, LibreELEC, and RetroPie. It is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Do I need an internet connection to use the Raspberry Pi Imager?
Only if you're downloading an OS image directly through the app. You can also use a local image file if you've already downloaded one.
All features for the Raspberry Pi OS can be found here and the installation instructions can be found here.
What's New
- Raspberry Pi Imager updated to 1.9.6
Raspberry Pi OS Release Notes:
- Setting touchscreen in Screen Configuration does not delete default associations for greeter
- Bug fix - wizard keyboard setting correctly transferred into desktop
- Chromium updated to 136.0.7103.92
- Raspberry Pi firmware bc7f439c234e19371115e07b57c366df59cc1bc7
- Linux kernel 6.12.25 - 3dd2c2c507c271d411fab2e82a2b3b7e0b6d3f16
