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Debian

The godfather of Linux distros

Debian History

  • Almost the oldest continuous Linux distribution - first release in September 1993
    • Slackware is slightly older with a first release in July 1993
    • Linux kernel was only introduced in 1991
  • Named after founder Ian Murdock and his wife Debra (Deb-Ian)
  • Current version is only 11.2, due to Debian's slow and steady release cadence
  • Very opinionated about software freedoms
  • Basis for other well-known distros

Debian Toy Story Version Naming

  • Debian 1.x - Buzz, Rex, Bo
  • Debian 2.x - Hamm, Slink, Potato
  • Debian 3.x - Woody, Sarge
  • Debian 4.0 - Etch
  • Debian 5.0 - Lenny
  • Debian 6.0 - Squeeze
  • Debian 7 - Wheezy
  • Debian 8 - Jessie
  • Debian 9 - Stretch
  • Debian 10 - Buster
  • Debian 11 - Bullseye

Debian Architectures

  • armel / armhf / arm64
  • i386 / amd64
  • mips / mipsel / mips64el
  • ppc64el / s390x

Debian Software Packaging (by license)

  • Repositories have grown from 500 packages in 1.x era to over 51,000 now
  • Packages organized by three primary licensing schemes:
    • main - completely free software according to Debian guidelines
    • contrib - still free software, but has dependencies outside the Debian repos
    • non-free - software that is not under a free license

Debian Software Packaging (by release cadence)

  • Packages are part of several release streams
    • old stable - packages from the previous stable release
    • stable - packages from the current stable release
    • testing - packages that have sat in unstable for weeks with no major bugs filed
    • unstable - package updates that have just been submitted, and are believed to be ready for use
    • experimental - package version that are still incubating, and might require major changes, and coordination across maintainers
  • unstable and testing are under increasing strict rules for new versions as the 2-3 year stable release cadence progresses

Debian Software Packaging (tools)

  • dpkg tool at the heart of everything
    • In its 3rd rewrite, shell -> Perl -> C
    • You're probably having a weird day if using this is necessary
  • apt-get, apt, aptitude, or Synaptic are more common front-ends to the dpkg tool
    • Package browsing and searching
    • Automated downloads
    • Dependency resolution

Debian Software Packaging (frustrations)

  • Strict adherence to licensing freedoms
  • Separate package for each library
  • Packages must be able to update themselves
  • Often a maddening array of "supported" configurations
    • systemd vs sysvinit
    • kFreeBSD vs Linux
    • Desktop environments
  • Very long release cycles

Desktop Environments

Debian doesn't like doing per-DE installers, and most notable desktop environments are packaged and selectable from a common installer:

  • GNOME
  • KDE
  • Xfce
  • LXDE
  • MATE

Others packaged for later installation:

  • Cinnamon, LXQt, Budgie, Enlightenment, FVWM-Crystal, GNUstep/Window Maker, Sugar Notion WM

Derivatives

  • Ubuntu
    • Clones Debian unstable at the start of every release cycle
    • Six month release cadence, long-term support edition every two years
    • Separate installers for different desktop environments
  • Mint
    • Six month releases of their own packages, new Ubuntu core with each LTS
    • Only Cinnamon and MATE desktops supported
  • Raspbian
    • Modified kernel/boot, and minimal desktop environment
  • Kali, Tails, Pop!_OS, many, many others