The most popular GNU/Linux distribution among Raspberry Pi users has recently been updated. The new version of Raspbian is geared towards development, updating existing development tools and including some new ones. However, Raspbian is still based on Debian Jessie and not on the latest Debian version , Debian Stretch.
This does not mean that the new version of Raspbian is useless, on the contrary. The new version finally meets many demands that users asked, such as Scratch 2, the new version that is now available on Raspbian.
Scratch 2 is included in this new version. Scratch is an educational tool for teaching programming . Raspbian used version 1.4, an older version that didn't require Flash to function. Scratch 2 does require Flash and an internet connection. Because of this, the new version was delayed, but it's now available for Raspbian users. Thonny is another programming tool included in Raspbian . In this case, Thonny is an IDE for programming and using Python. It's very easy to use and helps create Python scripts and programs.
To have this new version of Raspbian on our Raspberry Pi we just have to open a terminal and write the following:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
This will update the distribution, but if we do not have the tools that we have mentioned above, we have to open a terminal and write the following:
sudo apt-get install scratch2
sudo apt-get install python3-thonny
This will install the Scratch and Thonny tools in our version of Raspbian.
This new version of Raspbian is not based on Debian Stretch, so it seems we'll have a new version soon . If we don't use these tools, it's probably best to wait. In any case, if we have space on our microSD card, an update wouldn't hurt , would it?