Debian is a free, open source operating system composed of entirely free software. Debian is the basis of many of the current Operating System's, such as Ubuntu. Debian has over 26,000 software packages available for download and the operating system itself can be configured in many different combinations.
History
Debian was first released in 1993 by Ian Murdock while at Purdue University. Murdock wanted the software to be completely free and open so other users could edit and modify his code to improve the operating system, unlike other operating systems at the time. Debian grew very slowly from 1993-1994, but in early 1995, it started to get ported out to other operating systems.
Features
Because Debian is the basis for many of other Linux operating systems, it is relatively similar to others. The package management feature allows users to update the installation easily, rather than having to reformat or do some other complicated configuration. All of the features of the Debian operating system are developed by volunteers.
Recommended Requirements
- 1GHz processor
- 512MB of RAM
- 5GB hard drive
Official Ports
- i386 (every PC computer)
- amd64 (computers with a 64 bit processor)
- alpha
- sparc
- arm
- powerpc
- hppa
- ia64
- mips, mipsel
- s390
Debian Info and Reviews
Debian Tools and Upgrades
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References
Fast Facts
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Latest stable release
5.0 Lenny
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Next release's name
Squeeze
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Fact:
Many ports of the operating system so it can run on different architectures
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Fact:
A 1.0 release was never released
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Fact:
Mozilla software is rebranded to remove non-free artwork
