In its October 6 announcement, Raspberry Pi released an updated Raspberry Pi Desktop image for PCs and Macs based on Debian Trixie. The company's announcement describes a downloadable live Debian image, bringing its desktop environment to machines beyond Raspberry Pi hardware.
The new image uses 64-bit Debian on the amd64 architecture instead of the older 32-bit PC version. Raspberry Pi says Debian has stopped supporting 32-bit PC architectures. That change makes processor architecture a compatibility check, not a detail to assume from a computer's age alone.
The company says most PCs made in roughly the past 15 years and most Intel-based Macs can run the 64-bit version. It explicitly says Debian support for Apple Silicon is still experimental and that those Macs cannot run this release. The announcement is not a general claim of support for every Mac.
The desktop includes the current Control Centre and dock, alongside a Raspberry Pi Connect client. Connect supports screen sharing and a remote terminal on the PC or Mac. Users name the device during setup because these computers lack the Raspberry Pi hardware identifier used by the service.
The live image can run from a USB drive with persistence, or users can choose the standard Debian Calamares installer to install it on a hard drive or SSD. The company warns that resetting persistence removes changes stored on the USB drive. These are separate modes with different effects on saved work.
Limits: this is a release and compatibility brief, not a performance benchmark or a recommendation to replace an existing operating system. The announcement does not establish support for Apple Silicon or every PC peripheral, and installing to internal storage requires care with existing data.