# Raspbian

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Raspbian and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free Raspberry Pi operating system people praise as snappy and go-to for reviving old PCs. One critic noted early versions wrote to disk on every read.

## Why people recommend it

- Snappier than Windows on Pi 5 (1 comments): "I just installed standard Raspbian on a bunch of Raspi5s, and it feels snappier and more advanced than Windows already." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46799695))
- Go-to OS for reviving old PCs (1 comments): "It was my go-to OS for reviving very old PCs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49642824))
- Standard choice for Raspberry Pi (1 comments): "use a regular raspbian os or something" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46363678))
- Commitment to openness (1 comments): "Raspbian and a commitment to openness" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46630053))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Windows](https://hackerapproved.com/p/windows.md): 1287 recommend
- [macOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/macos.md): 1041 recommend
- [Linux](https://hackerapproved.com/p/linux.md): 745 recommend
- [Haiku](https://hackerapproved.com/p/haiku-os.md): 115 recommend
- [NetBSD](https://hackerapproved.com/p/netbsd.md): 100 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Raspbian", https://hackerapproved.com/p/raspbian/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).