Raspberry Pi Foundation unveils PIXEL, a new LXDE-based desktop for Raspbian that is designed to be more appealing with new theme, application icons, more
The new desktop environment can be installed right now — Raspberry Pi Foundation's Simon Long proudly unveiled a new desktop environment …
Context & Ripple Effects
The Raspberry Pi Foundation is doing for its software what it has long done for its boards: making cheap feel finished. PIXEL is a reworked LXDE desktop for Raspbian with a new theme and icons, built under Simon Long to close the polish gap between a $35 board and a mainstream PC. It lands amid competition for the same desk — Microsoft had brought free Windows 10 to the Raspberry Pi 2 the year before.
The move matters beyond cosmetics because the Foundation kept iterating on it: within three months PIXEL was released experimentally for PCs and Macs, turning a Pi skin into a standalone Linux desktop. That software coherence is what later products like the keyboard-computer Pi 400 — reviewed as supporting both Raspberry Pi OS and Ubuntu — and the much faster Pi 5 could build on.
First-order effects
- Raspbian users can install PIXEL immediately, getting a themed LXDE desktop with new application icons on hardware they already own.
- Simon Long and the Foundation take ownership of a forked LXDE stack, committing to maintain the Pi's default desktop in-house rather than shipping stock upstream.
Second-order effects
- A polished default desktop strengthens the Pi's pitch against rival OS options on the same board, including Windows 10 for the Pi 2 and Ubuntu Desktop, where the comparison becomes look-and-feel as well as price.
- By porting PIXEL to PCs and Macs, the Foundation turns the desktop into a distribution channel back to the Pi — developers can try the environment on a laptop before buying hardware.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the Foundation consolidates control of the full stack from silicon to icons, which is the structure that later all-in-one products like the Pi 400 and Touch Display 2 presuppose: one coherent OS experience across boards, keyboards, and screens.
- Cheap-PC differentiation shifts from specs alone toward software finish — the reason a $100 Pi-class device can be reviewed as a functional desktop rather than a hobbyist board.
The trend: Raspberry Pi is evolving from a hobbyist board into a consumer desktop platform by polishing its own in-house software layer on top of open-source components like LXDE.