If you want to make the Raspberry Pi desktop look like macOS and Windows, Raspbian X and iRaspbian can help you. Get to know these systems better.
You already know that the famous SBC Raspberry Pi card supports only the Microsoft Windows IoT operating system and you cannot install Apple macOS on it (at least for now).
But it is possible to use a large number of Linux distributions, such as Raspbian OS, as well as other operating systems, such as RISC OS, FreeBSD, etc., which run on devices with an ARM processor.
Well, if you own a Raspberry Pi and like the appearance of the Windows 10 or macOS operating system, you’re in luck. Thanks to iRaspbian and Raspbian X, you can give Raspbian the appearance of these well-known environments.
Raspberry Pi with macOS and Windows face? Raspbian X and iRaspbian
Thanks to the developers of these works, an interface was achieved that emulates proprietary systems in a very precise way.
You already know that Raspbian (based on Debian) can use Wine to install software from other platforms like Windows, and that it also includes emulators like Linux x86 Box86 to be able to use software written for x86 instead of ARM, in addition to several emulators of game console for retro gaming etc.
But these projects do not focus on that, but on the aesthetic aspect of this workspace for the Raspberry Pi:
- iRaspbian: gives Raspbian the same appearance as Apple’s macOS operating system. In addition, it is optimized for use on the Raspberry Pi 4.
- Raspbian X Nighthawk – Simulate the appearance of Microsoft Windows 10, if you like this classic desktop. It is also optimized for the Raspberry Pi 4.
In both cases, they include software such as:
- Retropie, the emulator for consoles and retrogaming.
- Box86, emulator for x86 software over ARM.
- OpenGL, the graphical API.
- Chromium Media Edition, for multimedia with DRM like Netflix, Hulu, Disney +,…
- Android mirroring to connect your Android phone and see a mirror image of what’s happening on the screen.
- They include Windows 98 and MacOS 9 virtual machines.
- Steam for video games.
- GIMP for photo retouching.
- LibreOffice as an office suite.
Download and try iRaspbian and Raspbian X
The ISO image of the two systems can now be downloaded by visiting the download page for Raspbian X and iRaspbian.
Or if you prefer, access the links below directly:
Check if the ISO image is corrupted
Before recording the ISO image you downloaded, check if it is corrupted using the tutorial below:
How to check if an ISO image is corrupted
How to burn an ISO image on Linux
If you need to burn the ISO image after downloading.