Debian
Linux distribution From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Debian is a free operating system. It is a distribution of an operating system known as the GNU operating system, which can be used with various kernels, including Linux, kFreeBSD, and Hurd. In combination with these kernels, the operating system can be referred to as Debian GNU/Linux, Debian GNU/kFreeBSD, and Debian GNU/Hurd, respectively. Debian GNU/Linux is one of the most complete and popular GNU/Linux distributions, on which many others, like Ubuntu, are based.
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Debian 11 (Bullseye) running its default desktop environment, GNOME version 43.4 | |
| Developer | The Debian Project |
|---|---|
| OS family | Unix-like |
| Working state | Current |
| Source model | Open source |
| Initial release | August 1993 |
| Latest release | 12.10[1] / 15 March 2025 |
| Latest preview | 12 (Bookworm)[2] |
| Repository | |
| Available in | 75 languages |
| Update method | Long-term support in stable edition, rolling release in unstable and testing editions |
| Package manager | APT (front-end), dpkg |
| Platforms | x86-64, arm64, armel[a], armhf, i386, mips, mipsel, mips64el, ppc64el, s390x,[3] riscv64 (in progress)[4] |
| Kernel type | Linux kernel |
| Userland | GNU |
| Default user interface | |
| License | DFSG-compatible licenses |
| Official website | www |
Brief history
The Debian Project officially started on August 16th, 1993, led by Ian Murdock. He was a computer programmer. Today, in this project, Debian is developed by more than 1,000 computer specialists all over the world.
The name "Debian" was taken after Ian Murdock and his wife Debra. Some people say or pronounce 'deb-ee-n' but others also say 'de-bi-an' or 'de-bai-an' and in Japan 'de-bi-a-n' and so on.
Development steps
Software packages in development are either uploaded to the project distribution named unstable (also known as sid), or to the experimental repository. Software packages uploaded to unstable are normally versions stable enough to be released by the original upstream developer, but with the added Debian-specific packaging and other modifications introduced by Debian developers. These additions may be new and untested. Software not ready yet for the unstable distribution is typically placed in the experimental repository.[5]
After a version of a software package has remained in unstable for a certain length of time (depending on how urgent the changes are), that package is automatically moved to the testing distribution. The package's move to testing happens only if no serious (release-critical) bugs in the package are reported and if other software needed for package functionality qualifies for inclusion in testing.[5]
Since updates to Debian software packages between official releases do not contain new features, some choose to use the testing and unstable distributions for their newer packages. However, these distributions are less tested than stable, and unstable does not receive timely security updates. In particular, incautious upgrades to working unstable packages can sometimes seriously break software functionality.[6] Since September 9, 2005[7] the testing distributions security updates have been provided by the testing security team.[8]
After the packages in testing have matured and the goals for the next release are met, the testing distribution becomes the next stable release. The latest stable release of Debian (Buster) is 10.0, released on July 6, 2019. The next release is codenamed "Bullseye".[5]
Release history
| Legend |
|---|
| Release no longer supported |
| Release still supported |
| Future release |
| Version | Code name | Release date | Ports | Packages | Supported until | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | buzz | 17 June 1996 | 1 | 474 | 1996[source?] | dpkg, ELF transition, Linux 2.0 |
| 1.2 | rex | 12 December 1996 | 1 | 848 | 1996[source?] | - |
| 1.3 | bo | 5 June 1997 | 1 | 974 | 1997[source?] | - |
| 2.0 | hamm | 24 July 1998 | 2 | ≈ 1,500 | 1998 | glibc transition, new architecture: m68k |
| 2.1 | slink | 9 March 1999 | 4 | ≈ 2,250 | 2000-12 | APT, new architectures: alpha, sparc |
| 2.2 | potato | 15 August 2000 | 6 | ≈ 3,900 | 2003-04 | New architectures: arm, powerpc[9] |
| 3.0 | woody | 19 July 2002 | 11 | ≈ 8,500 | 2006-08 | New architectures: hppa, ia64, mips, mipsel, s390 |
| 3.1 | sarge | 6 June 2005 | 11 | ≈ 15,400 | 2008-04[6] | Modular installer, semi-official amd64 support. |
| 4.0 | etch | 8 April 2007 | 11 | ≈ 18,000 | 2010-02-15[10] | New architecture: amd64, dropped architecture: m68k.[11] Graphical installer, udev transition, modular X.Org transition. Latest update 4.0r9 was released 2010-05-22[12] |
| 5.0[13] | lenny[14] | 14 February 2009 | 11+1[A] | ≈ 23,000[15] | 2012-02-06 | New architecture/binary ABI: armel.[16] SPARC 32-bit hardware support dropped.[17] Full Eee PC support.[18] Latest update 5.0.8 was released 2011-01-22.[19] |
| 6.0[20] | squeeze[21] | 6 February 2011[22] | 9+2[B] | ≈ 29,000 | 2016-02-29 | New architectures/kernels: kfreebsd-i386, kfreebsd-amd64, dropped architectures: alpha, arm.[23] eglibc in favour of glibc.[24] |
| 7 | wheezy | 4 May 2013 | 13 | ≈ 36,000 | 2018-05 | |
| 8 | jessie | 25–26 April 2015 | 10 | ≈ 43,000 | 2020-04 | |
| 9 | stretch | 17 June 2017 | 10 | ≈ 52,000 | 2022-06 | |
| 10 | buster | 6 July 2019 | 10 | ≈ 58,000 | 2024-06 | |
| 11 | bullseye | 14 August 2021 | 9 | 59,551 | 2026-06 | |
| 12 | bookworm | 10 June 2023 | 64,419 | 2028 |
- A 11 architectures + 1 additional ARM binary ABI (armel)[15]
- B 9 architectures with Linux kernel + 2 architectures with FreeBSD kernel[23]
 |
Due to an incident involving a CD vendor who made an unofficial and broken release labeled 1.0, an official 1.0 release was never made.[26]
For other platforms
Debian has been ported to different architectures or platforms. One version, which is based on the developer release (sid) that has been ported to the Xbox is called Xebian.
Package
Debian's official software package repository[27] includes, for example, UNetbootin.[28]
Related pages
References
Other websites
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