The Raspberry Pi Foundation has released a new 64-bit operating system for the Raspberry Pi, dubbed Raspbian Jessie. The new OS is available to download now from the foundation’s website. “Raspbian Jessie is a major update of the Raspbian operating system for Raspberry Pi,” says the foundation in a statement. “It features updated software and hardware support, as well as improved performance and stability.” The new OS includes support for more than 1,000 applications and games, including Minecraft, Doom, and League of Legends. It also includes enhancements to the Raspberry Pi’s wireless networking capabilities and support for Bluetooth 4.0 LE devices. “We hope that people will find Raspbian Jessie to be a more stable and user-friendly platform on which to build projects,” says Eben Upton, founder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. “We would like to thank everyone who has contributed code or feedback to Raspbian Jessie.” ..
“Over the past year, we’ve been trialing a beta of Raspberry Pi OS in glorious 64-bit. Now it’s time to open it up to a wider audience,” said Raspberry Pi’s Gordon Hollingworth.
As for why it took Raspberry Pi so long to release the 64-bit version for the masses, the company said it wanted to focus on compatibility between devices, so it stuck with the 32-bit version. “We have continued to build our Raspberry Pi OS releases on the 32-bit Raspbian platform, aiming to maximize compatibility between devices and to avoid customer confusion,” reads Raspberry Pi’s blog post.
You’ll need to have a Pi 3, Pi 4, or Pi Zero 2 W to take advantage of the 64-bit operating system, as these are the ones that have the correct processors.
If you want to install the latest version of Raspberry Pi OS on your device, you can head to the download page and snag it right now. The installation process is the same as any other Pi OS, so it’ll be easy enough to get it up and running.
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