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Debian is a free software operating system distribution. Debian releases a linux distribution called “Debian GNU/Linux”, which at over ten years in development is one of the oldest linux distributions still under active development.

Although “Debian GNU/Linux” is the most popular Debian release, Debian has also unofficially released distributions based on other open source kernels: Hurd, NetBSD, and FreeBSD.

The Debian Project

Debian hews closely to the standards and principles of the open source philosophy, only distributing software that is deemed to be truly free and open source, according to strict legal principles.

The Debian project was first released by Ian Murdock, (the ian in Debian) in 1994, it was later helmed by Bruce Perens, who left in 1998.

Debian is noted, sometimes critically, as having a slow release process. Debian continually updates and develops the project, however years can pass before the latest ‘released’, or ‘stable’ version of Debian is released. In the eight years since the first release, there have been 8 releases, the latest, ‘sarge’, being released in June of 2005. The name “Sarge” refers to the leader of the plastic solider army in “Toy Story”: all Debian releases are named after Toy Story characters.

Package management

For a package management system, Debian uses the powerful APT, (Advanced Packaging Tool), commonly front-ended graphically by the Synaptic project.

Debian based distributions

Debian is the origin of many other high profile distributions: Knoppix, Ubuntu, Mepis, Xandros and Linspire all are forks of Debian.

External Links

• Installing XGL on Debian Etch
• Debian Survival Guide