Old Pi, New Trixie

One of the nicest things about my [Docker-driven lab cleanout](https://blog.themillhousegroup.com/2026/04/home-lab-design-2026-edition-part-3.html) has been the complete removal of my __Raspberry Pi Model 3B+__ from the critical network path. No _dnsmasq_, no _PiHole_, no load-bearing services, it has now returned to the delightful little experimentation box it was always meant to be. So in my newfound spirit of _cattle, not pets_, I decided to wipe it and give it a complete OS update, moving from __Raspbian (Debian) "Buster"__ circa 2020, right up to the latest-and-greatest __Raspberry Pi OS "Trixie"__ from [June 2026](https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/operating-systems/). The main reason being the ability to run a newer Node.js version than 16, allowing me to deploy newly-developed small Node projects (which I'll talk about more here in future). Writing a new Micro SD card was delightfully simple thanks to the new [Raspberry Pi Imager](https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-imager) software - although I did have to scrounge around for an older version, specifically [1.8.5](https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-imager/releases/tag/v1.8.5) which is the last one I can run on MacOS Catalina on my vintage 2012 Macbook Pro - but its built-in SD card slot was super-handy to have. I chose the 64-bit "Pi OS Lite" (i.e. no desktop cruft) from the "Other OS Options" menu and have been delighted with the performance boost that seems to have been unlocked. The system boots faster and seems to be snappier executing Node code as well. I'm trying to keep it lean-and-mean, so aside from checking the "enable SSH" box at installation time, the only things I've installed on it so far are: - `vim` - the classic text editor - `lighttpd` - super-lightweight HTTP server, I just drop or write `.html` files in `/var/www/html` - `nvm` - my preferred way to keep Node installations tidy I'm keeping everything in the `/home/pi` directory as much as I can, so I can just copy things off when the next OS upgrade comes around.