Debian is a stable, mature and popular operating system. It offers an outstanding package management tool -- APT and the largest free software repository of all operating systems out there. Very configurable and (after some work) a very friendly OS. It does however require some knowledge.

Pic 1. Debian - random desktop

Social contract and freedom

Debian's social contract describes key aspects of the system. It states that Debian is and always will be free (as in freedom) operating system. Only free software is located in main repository. Programs that require restricted components to work properly are in contrib repository, and non-free software land in non-free repository. It is possible to use external repositories with proprietary software.

Development and Debian's branches

Debian has three branches:

• Stable (4.0, codename: Etch) — stable branch,
• Testing (X.Y, codename: Lenny) — testing branch,
• Unstable (without number, codename: Sid) — unstable branch.

Stable is a mature, released system. Each release has a codename (named after Toy Story characters) and a version number. Current stable branch -- 4.0 -- is called "Etch". This branch receives only security fixes, no new functionality is added. Debian Stable is a good choice for servers and production systems. It also can be used as a very conservative desktop.

Testing is a development branch. Once in a while it is being freezed and after bugfixing released as a stable one. In such case old stable release is marked as deprecated and a new testing release is created. Current testing branch is called "Lenny". Etch and Sarge releases are still supported and receive security fixes. This branch is usable as a desktop system for intermediate users. It has more up-to-date packages but is less stable than the "stable" branch.

Unstable (Sid) is the most up-to-date development branch. It is not versioned and very often gets new packages. Packages are moved from unstable branch to testing according to Debian package life cycle. This branch is designed purely for Debian's development and is targetted mostly at developers. It has the newest packages (but marked as stable by their vendors). Unresolved dependencies and other problems that do appear due to constant development make this branch non-suitable for newbies.

Package management

Debian uses its own package format — deb. Packages are maintained by a low level dpkg tool. Dependency resolution and other high level facilities are provided by frontends. APT is the default frontend. There is also available Aptitude which tracks dependencies and allows to easily remove obsolete/orphaned programs and libraries. Other available tool is Wajig which is easier and a has more consistent syntax.

If you do not like command line, there are available graphical/text frontends for APT:

• Smart Package Manager — universal package manager,
• Synaptic — manager based on the GTK+ library,
• Adept — update manager for KDE, ported from Ubuntu,
• Aptitude — can work in a text mode (ncurses).

Orphaned packages may be removed by deborphan/GtkOrphan tools. Alien allows to convert rpm and tgz packages to deb format.

Popularity

Debian is a very popular GNU/Linux distribution. If one includes also all Debian's derivatives, it is clearly the most popular distribution. The most popular Debian-based system is Ubuntu — number 1 in the DistroWatch ranking. Because of vast popularity and multilingual community, it is very easy to get help for Debian and Debian-based systems. There are many Debian related forums, Usnet, IRC and mailing lists.

External Debian resources

• Official Debian website
• Debian Security Advisories
• Description on Wikipedia
• Debian@DistroWatch

News

• Debian News
• Debian Weekly News
• DebianTimes
• Major events related to Debian
• Debian Planet
• Planet Debian
• Debian-News.net
• Debian Package of the Day

Documentation, guides and tips

• Documentation center
• Debian@HowtoForge
• Debian Reference
• Debian Wiki
• Learning Debian GNU/Linux
• Debian Linux Tutorial
• Debian Administration
• Debian Help
• Debian help made easy
• DebianUsers
• Debian Users Gang
• Debian/Ubuntu Tips & Tricks
• Debian GNU/Linux Desktop Survival Guide
• Secure Apt
• Debian Admin

Software — unofficial packages

• Backports
• Debian Unofficial
• Unofficial APT repositories
• Dotdeb
• ATI Linux driver packages for Debian
• Scribus
• Unofficial Debian GNU/Linux Repositories Overview
• InitNG
• debian-multimedia.org repository

Help, forums, community

• Debian User Forums
• DebCentral
• Debian subforums: Linux Forums, LinuxQuestions
• Debian Mailing Lists
• Usenet: Debian Newsgroups

Derivative works and LiveCD

• Ubuntu and Ubuntu derivatives, Linspire, Freespire, Xandros
• With non-Linux kernels: Debian GNU/Hurd (microkernel), Debian GNU/kFreeBSD, Debian GNU/NetBSD, NexentaOS (OpenSolaris)
• LiveCD: KNOPPIX, Kanotix, Morphix, Damn Small Linux (DSL), grml, Debian From Scratch
• The full list of Debian based distributions

Reviews

• 4.0 (Etch): adventuresinopensource.blogspot.com, www.freesoftwaremagazine.com, www.itwire.com.au, www.linux.com, technowizah.com, www.eweek.com, lunapark6.com, opensourcelearning.info, GNEBU, NewsForge, All About Linux, MandrivaUsers, Desktop Linux
• 3.1 (Sarge): NewsForge, Linux.com, LinuxDevCenter

• Ubuntu and Debian, Gentoo vs Debian

Interviews

• Steve McIntyre, Sam Hocevar

Download

• 4.0r3 CD ISO (i386): netinstall, businesscard [MD5 control sums]
• 4.0r3 (i386): ISO images
• Getting Debian
• Mirrors

Screenshots

• 4.0 (Etch): Debian Admin, sonique (XGL)