Raspbian 2016-02-03 Released and Available For Download
Raspbian is a free operating system based on Debian GNU/Linux and optimised for the Raspberry Pi hardware (the armhf processor architecture). Raspbian comes with over 35,000 packages, or pre-compiled software bundled in a nice format for easy installation on a Raspberry Pi. The initial build was completed in June of 2012, but the distribution continues to be active developed with an emphasis on improving the stability and performance of as many Debian packages as possible. Although Debian produces a distribution for the arm architecture, it is compatible only with versions later than the one used on the Raspberry Pi (ARMv7-A CPUs and higher vs the Raspberry Pi's ARMv6 CPU).
Distributed as a Raspbian image
The Raspbian operating system is distributed as a Raspbian image, a binary file that users can download from Softpedia as deploy it onto a SD card, which can be booted on the Raspberry Pi computer. In addition, users can purchase high-quality, branded SDHC cards that contains the latest official stable release of the Raspbian operating system preinstalled on Pi Hut's Raspberry Pi Store. The distribution is compatible with ARMv6 CPUs and higher
Uses the LXDE desktop environment
Raspbian uses LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) for its default graphical session, which looks traditional and comprises of a single taskbar located on the bottom edge of the screen. The taskbar includes several applets that allow you to cycle between virtual workspaces, interact with running programs, access essential system functions, as well as to launch your favorite applications.
What News on Raspbian 2016-02-03
New versions of applications
There are new versions of many of the standard applications.
Sonic Pi is now at version 2.9. A full list of changes can be found in the History section of the Info window in Sonic Pi, but the highlights include two new effects functions, a new logging system, and the inclusion of all of Sam Aaron’s articles for The Magpi magazine as part of the online tutorials.
Scratch is now at version 20160115. This has improved sound input capabilities, support for the CamJam EduKit 3 robotics board, basic PWM support in the GPIO server, and various improvements to the display, including font scaling.
Mathematica is now at version 10.3. This adds support for a larger set of the functionality detailed in Stephen Wolfram’s new “Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language” book. It also supports the use of the Sense HAT, adds interfacing to Arduino, and includes many new Mathematica functions.
Node-RED is now at version 12.5 – this adds no significant new functionality, but fixes a number of bugs and contains some internal performance improvements.
New versions of libraries
WiringPi has been updated to version 2.31, which allows GPIO pins to be accessed from applications that use the library without needing to use sudo. For more details, see the WiringPi website.
The RPi.GPIO Python library has been updated to version 0.6.1 which includes some bug fixes which affected the new GPIO Zero library.
The Java platform included has been updated to version 8, update 65.
Read More release Announce
Download: 2016-02-03-raspbian-jessie.zip (1,400MB, SHA1, torrent).
