Questions specific to the Debian official distribution (stable, testing, or unstable); if you are using a derivative of Debian (e.g. Mint, Ubuntu, Kali, etc), then use that distribution’s tag instead.
Debian is a community-driven Linux distribution with a very large number of packages and many supported architectures. Development started in 1993. Several distributions derive from it in some form, including linux-mint, ubuntu, and kali-linux, among many others.
Use this tag for questions that apply specifically to a Debian release; if the question concerns a derivative distribution, use that distribution's tag instead.
If you’re using a derivative, don’t assume that Debian works the same way — that may be the case, but it’s not always true.
Philosophy
The goal of the Debian project is to produce a free operating system. The Debian Free Software Guidelines are one of the notable definitions of free software, and the Open Source Definition derives from it. Debian provides a small amount of non-free software, though it is not formally part of Debian.
Releases
At any point in time, there are at least three distributions of Debian:
- stable: the officially released distribution.
- testing: the preparation ground for “stable”. This can be seen as a rolling release.
- unstable: the latest packages as they come in.
The previous released distribution is known as oldstable and is supported in parallel of the current released distribution, initially by the project as a whole, later in life by the long-term support (LTS) effort.
In addition to Debian GNU/Linux, there are projects for BSD-based versions of Debian and Debian GNU/Hurd.
Documentation
- FAQ
- Installation manual (including supported hardware)
- Debian Reference
- Wiki
- Mailing list archives
- Security information
- Bug reports (
https://bugs.debian.org/42to see bug #42) - Available packages (quick search:
https://packages.debian.org/package-name) and search for package contents - Manual pages (e.g. man(1):
https://manpages.debian.org/man.1)
Common tasks
- Install a package:
apt install package-name - Apply updates:
apt update && apt upgrade
