The latest Debian stable release, Debian 6.0, codenamed Squeeze has been made available for download. 693 images for 11 different architectures were generated and tested !! These include Live boot CDs for the i386 and x64 platforms. As always its as stable and as fast an operating system as the best you can get hold of. So this might be the right occasion not just to review Squeeze, but also to give an insight into Debian, the mother some of the most popular Operating Systems like Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Linux Mint.
What is Debian ?
Debian was begun in August 1993 by Ian Murdock, as a new distribution which would be made openly, in the spirit of Linux and GNU. It started as a small, tightly-knit group of Free Software hackers, and gradually grew to become a large, well-organized community of developers and users. Debian calls itself “The Universal Operating System”. Quite rightly so. Here is why:
A GNU/Linux operating system broadly takes care of three things. The kernel, the desktop interface, and maintaining packages (installer files like .deb in case of Debian based systems and .rpm in Suse etc). Each will have to be configured for different architectures. This task is done on arguably the largest scale by Debian. It comes with a whopping 29000 tested packages guaranteed work perfectly with the Operating System. There are 906 active developers and 127 maintainers helping to keep the packages intact. It works on literally any computer architecture that you would come by. So it is pretty universal is’nt it? As mentioned earlier the latest release comes with 693 iso images !! All tested.
Debian has a three tier system to ensure that it comes up with a really stable stable release. Debian Stable, Debian Testing, and Debian Unstable are three stages through which any software package has to go through. The package enters Debian as unstable an then after testing for a few days gets promoted to “testing”. Debian Testing in itself is a rolling release distribution. Once “testing” has undergone enough testing the release comes, The Stable Release. Debian 6.0 is the latest stable release.
Debian is what Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Linux Mint Debian Edition are all based on. That speaks volumes about Debian. Does it not?
Debian 6.0, “Squeeze”
As mentioned earlier, Squeeze is the latest stable release. It’s features are no secret because it used to be the Debian Testing, which after vigorous testing has achieved its stable status. What it offers is stability and speed.
It offers :
- latest versions of most of the softwares
- the stable kernel 2.6.32.
- live boot media for x86 and 64 bit architectures.
- X.Org 7.5
- GNOME 2.30, KDE 4.4.5, Xfce 4.6.2, or LXDE 0.5.0 desktop environments.
- Office Suites OpenOffice.org 3.2.1 and Koffice 2.2.1 as well as GNUcash 2.2.9, GNUmeric 1.10.8 and Abiword 2.8.2.
- Evolution 2.30.3 and Pidgin 2.7.3
- Chromium Browser.
- Corosync, a cluster framework.
Debian Squeeze - A screenshot
Installation
The easiest installation procedure is to download the net-install and get required softwares downloaded during installation. Otherwise, the first CD of the installation set installs a basic GNOME desktop which can be modified as required using apt-get.
So if you are in need of a stable reliable system with maximum number of tested packages, then go for Debian !!
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