Debian
Overview
Debian is one of the oldest and most influential Linux distributions, founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock. It is developed entirely by a worldwide volunteer community and is governed by the Debian Social Contract and Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG). Debian is renowned for its rock-solid stability and serves as the foundation for Ubuntu and many other distributions.
Key Features
- APT + dpkg: Advanced Package Tool with access to over 59,000 packages across the largest software repository in the Linux world
- Three Branches: Stable (production-ready), Testing (rolling), and Unstable (Sid) branches for different stability needs
- DFSG Commitment: Strict adherence to free software principles; only DFSG-compliant software ships in the main repository
- Universal OS: Debian’s tagline reflects support for more hardware architectures than almost any other Linux distribution
Platforms
amd64, arm64, armel, armhf, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
Licence
Free licenses compliant with DFSG (Debian Free Software Guidelines)