What is the Debian Operating System?

 What is the Debian Operating System?

Debian, prepared by volunteers from various regions of the world within the scope of the Debian Project; GNU / Linux is a completely free operating system based on different kernel options such as GNU / Hurd. Debian, which is one of the most common GNU / Linux distributions, also; It is also a source for many GNU / Linux distributions such as Mepis, Ubuntu, Yoper, Knoppix, Libranet, Linspire, Xandros, and Adamantix, and is preferred by many well-known Web sites, notably Google. Debian can run on many hardware platforms such as Alpha, Arm, HPPA, i386, AMD64, IA64, m68k, Mips, PowerPC, S390, Sparc with different operating system cores. In addition to the hardware and kernel richness it supports, the most important thing that makes Debian unique compared to other distributions is that the software in the distribution has completely free license terms and there is a Debian Social Contract to control and perpetuate software freedom.

Ian Murdock, founder of Debian, a student at Purdue University in 1993; In his article titled "Debian Manifesto", he explained Debian's mission and philosophy. Accordingly, Debian represents one of the first democratic communities on the Internet. In 1996, while Ian Murdock's place was transferred to Bruce Perens; Ian Murdock is still working in Debian.

Debian uses .deb, a unique package (programs) format. There is also a sophisticated package management system called APT at a higher level, with dpkg and a number of accompanying tools for package management. The APT system, which allows a desired package to be installed automatically from the package archives on media such as the Internet or CD-ROM, along with other packages on which it depends, with a simple command line client called apt-get or a dselect, aptitude or GTK + based text interface that offers an ncurses-based text interface. It is possible to use it with programs such as Synaptic that offer a graphical user interface. Thanks to Debian's rich repositories of over 15000 compiled packages, it is very easy to install a specific program or upgrade an installed package to a new version. Package repositories on the Internet are reflected in various locations around the world. With tools such as apt-spy, netselect-apt, it is possible to select the nearest warehouse to your location and thus keep the system up-to-date over the network. You can also listen to the great podcast published on Debian.

To get an idea of ​​Debian, you can try the Debian-based Knoppix distribution that runs from a CD drive, no installation on your computer.

Versions

Debian's release names so far are from the characters in the movie Toy Story. Debian has 3 different versions. Unstable, Trial, Stable

Unstable

The name of this version is sid. This version is the first version in which newly developed or updated packages are placed before the trial version. Therefore, it is the most up-to-date version but there is no guarantee that it will work due to its instability. It is mostly used by debian developers. Packages with no major errors are transferred to the trial version from here.

Since it is the unstable version, its name was chosen as Sid, the villain of the Toy Story movie.

Trial

The version is under development in the testing phase. It is not completely stable. Packages from the unstable version are transferred to this version and left for testing here. The trial phase continues for several years and is finally announced as the new stable version. Users who want their Debian to be up to date prefer this version. There are daily renewals in the packages and users can update their operating systems at any time. But it may be necessary to be careful as it is a trial version.

The trial version that is currently under development is called etching.