Raspberry Pi OS receives Debian 12 Bookworm upgrade with new Wayland window manager and other under-the-hood changes
The Raspberry Pi Foundation has updated Raspberry Pi OS, the operating system that underpins its popular single-board computer (SBC) ecosystem. In a community post, the Foundation confirms that Raspberry Pi OS is now based on Debian 12 Bookworm, the codename for a lesser-known character of the same name in Toy Story 3. On the face of it, the new version of Raspberry Pi OS resembles its predecessor.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation admits as much; please see the Debian wiki for what changes and new features have shipped in Bookworm. However, the upgrade to Debian 12 coincides with the Foundation making comprehensive non-user-facing changes to Raspberry Pi OS. Arguably the most significant change is the move away from the X11 window manager, which has underpinned Unix desktop environments for over three decades.
In its place arrives Wayland, a system that combines the two applications that X11 used to draw a window into one application dubbed a compositor. Not only does this improve security by removing the ability for applications to exchange information freely, but Wayland's compositor system also improves performance. For reference, Raspberry Pi OS uses the WayFire compositor, details of which you can find on a corresponding GitHub page.
The Foundation notes that only Raspberry Pi 4 SBCs onwards will use Wayland. By contrast, earlier generations will continue to rely upon X11. Please see the Foundation's community post for the full list of changes contained within the new version of Raspberry Pi OS, including PipeWire for audio and NetworkManager now being the default network controller.
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