Raspberry Pi OS Switches To PulseAudio, Updated Chromium

Just in time for any holiday Raspberry Pi purchases, an updated Raspberry Pi OS is available today for the Debian-based Linux distribution optimized for these budget ARM SBCs.

With the Raspberry Pi OS December 2020, they have finally switched to the PulseAudio sound server. This is at a time where most Linux distributions have been using PulseAudio for years and some even eyeing preparing to replace it with PipeWire. Raspberry Pi OS has relied on ALSA but that is not without its limitations for playing audio from multiple sources concurrently as well as the lack of native Bluetooth audio support. So PulseAudio is now deployed for proper audio mixing, better Bluetooth audio support, and more.

The updated Raspberry Pi OS also has improved CUPS printing support, various accessibility improvements, an updated Chromium build for its web browser, and integrated support for controlling the new Raspberry Pi Case Fan.

More details on the new Raspberry Pi OS release via RaspberryPi.org.