Turn your Raspberry Pi into a Mac or PC with Twister OS

Designed for the Raspberry Pi, Twister OS offers an array of alternative themes that mimic Windows and macOS. Here's how to grab Twister OS, install it, and turn a $ 50 Raspberry Pi into a $ 1000 Mac.

What is Twister OS?

A successor to Raspbian 95, Raspbian XP and other themed Pi operating systems, Twister OS is based on the Raspberry Pi OS and features the XFCE desktop environment.

A variety of desktop themes, inspired by Windows and Mac operating systems, are pre-installed. So you'll find Windows 95, XP, Vista, and 7 themes, along with the Mac-inspired iRaspbian.

Twister OS also has an administration utility, overclocking tool, pre-installed media software (including Kodi), and an Android remote control tool.

Twister is best installed on the Raspberry Pi 4, although it can run on the Raspberry Pi 3B +. You'll need a larger than usual microSD card - 32GB is a good choice.

Install Twister OS on the Pi SD card

To install Twister OS, first head over to the website and download the ISO file.

1. Download Twister OS (Free) here

Note that the direct download option is a bit slow, even on fast connections. Instead, you may prefer to rely on BitTorrent links.

Once downloaded, the ISO image will need to be extracted from the XZ archive. If you are using a Windows desktop, it can be extracted using the 7-Zip utility from www.7-zip.org. Finally, you will need a tagging tool like BalenaEtcher.

Installing Twister OS is as simple as installing any other operating system on the Raspberry Pi.

A first look at Twister OS

When starting up the Raspberry Pi, you will have your first look at Twister OS. Since it's based on the Raspberry Pi OS, Twister OS includes all of the same pre-installed tools.

Turn your Raspberry Pi into a Mac or PC with Twister OS Picture 1

Twister OS also offers a number of improvements. There's a Commander Pi tool for overclocking, a Kodi media library player, and even a tool for remote access to an Android device. An optimized Chromium version is offered for Netflix streaming, and you'll find RetroPie pre-installed.

In addition, there is a system administration tool, PiKISS. This is a utility that simplifies software installation on a Raspberry Pi. It comes with scripts to keep software installation streamlined, requiring little user input.

Next up is ThemeTwister. This is what Twister OS is all about and you'll find the icon to launch it on your desktop.

Turn your Raspberry Pi into a Windows PC

ThemeTwister is very easy to use. It presents a simple menu to choose a new look for the Twister OS desktop, prompting you to reboot. After rebooting, the new look will be applied.

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For example, if you want to add a Windows-style interface to your Raspberry Pi, then you should choose one of the following options:

1. Raspbian95
2. RaspbianXP
3. Nighthawk
4. RaspbianX

(Note that there are no Windows 8-inspired options.) Each new theme requires a reboot, so press Enter when prompted to confirm the choice.

With the newly applied interface, you may consider installing new, suitable software. For example, with the Raspbian 95 or RaspbianXP interface, you can add games in DOSBox. Then you can enjoy some retro gaming action in Windows DOS prompt emulator.

Likewise, there's some support for Steam if you like the Nighthawk or RaspbianX look. It is completely unsuitable for Windows AAA games but will allow you to run various indie titles. However, these options are available on all themes.

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Take a closer look at each theme. You will notice that considerable effort has been made to convince you that you are using Windows. For example, Windows XP's RaspbianXP style has actual tooltips for the main toolbar buttons.

Make the Pi look like a Mac

Two macOS inspired themes are included in Twister OS. iRaspbian-Light and iRaspbian-Dark do exactly what you would expect, offering macOS visual-style daylight and night-change buttons, complete with familiar dock.

Turn your Raspberry Pi into a Mac or PC with Twister OS Picture 4

Selecting these again involves launching ThemeTwister from the desktop, clicking on the desired theme and restarting.

As before, significant details have been applied to create a realistic macOS experience.

PiKISS

One of the most important additions to the great Linux software population of the past few years is PiKISS. Designed for Raspberry Pi systems, this is a collection of scripts directed at the Terminal menu for almost any project instance.

Turn your Raspberry Pi into a Mac or PC with Twister OS Picture 5

Whether you need to set up your Pi with CUPS for printer management, web setup or FTP server, add some games running natively on your Raspberry Pi without an emulator or really want an emulator to enjoy old games. Favorite background dictionary, lots of such scripts are available in PiKISS.

It's a great piece of software that you should have on any Raspberry Pi operating system. If you need to install PiKISS on other systems, use it

curl -sSL https://git.io/JfAPE | bash

PiKISS comes pre-installed on Twister OS.

Marvin Fry

Update 05 October 2020