Raspberry Pi Desktop proves old PCs aren't past it

A couple of weeks ago, we covered the news of a Trixie update for the Raspberry Pi Desktop. Since then, we've been putting it through its paces on a couple of the oldest, slowest machines in the FOSS desk stables. If you fancy dipping a tentative toe into Linux, but you only have a relatively old low-spec PC spare to try it on, this is ideal. This is a modern OS: it's a 2.6 GB download, and it uses about 8 GB of disk space when installed. It will be a bit too much for a 25-year-old PC that was intended for Windows XP, but if you have an old PC from the Windows Vista era to hand, that should do. The splash screen calls it "PiOS 6.3," just as on Arm-based Raspberry Pi hardware. Here, though, we're testing Raspberry Pi Desktop: the x86-64 PC edition of the Debian-based system, available at the bottom of the downloads page. Back in 2023, the PiOS got a new Debian 12-based version, which included a new Wayland-based desktop – although it still looked almost identical to the old environment, based on X11, Openbox, and LXDE. Sadly, the PC version didn't get upgraded. Two years later – so, almost exactly a year ago – we got a Debian 13-based PiOS 6. The PC version still didn't get upgraded. PiOS PC 6.3 in dual-head mode, with five apps running at once – in 900 MB of RAM Liam Proven Now the PC edition has finally caught up with Debian 13. It's very similar to September's PiOS 6.3 release, complete with the option of a dock instead of a taskbar. Like the Arm version, you can use the raspi-config tool to switch between the Wayland-based labwc compositor and  X. org if you prefer. There is one important difference: Raspberry Pi OS still offers 32-bit and 64-bit Arm editions, but Raspberry Pi Desktop is now x86-64 only, following Debian 13's retirement of its x86-32 edition. The Arm editions now use kernel 6.18, but the PC version is still on Debian's default kernel 6.12. It brings the Pi's streamlined Debian desktop to PCs, with an installer that asks few technical questions. You can do a custom installation into existing partitions if you want, but you can just click "OK" a few times and it will do almost everything for you automatically. Unlike Debian itself, there are no questions about what to download, which desktop, network installation, or anything like that.