Debian
The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have made common cause to create a free operating system. This operating system that we have created is called Debian.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- Self-Hosted
Features
Properties
- Customizable
- Lightweight
- Privacy focused
Features
- Low memory usage
- No Tracking
- Package Control
- Ad-free
- Based on Debian
- No registration required
- Works Offline
- Command line interface
- Multiple desktops
- Debian package compatible
- Dark Mode
- Portable
Tags
- gnu
- scientific-calculator
- gnu-linux
- unix
- Security & Privacy
Debian News & Activities
Recent News
- Fla published news article about Proton VPN
Proton VPN CLI launches for Arch, Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora usersThe official Proton VPN command-line interface is now available for users on Arch, Debian, Ubuntu, ...
- Fla published news article about SparkyLinux
SparkyLinux 2025.12 released with Debian 'Forky' base and updated packagesSparkyLinux 2025.12 'Tiamat' ISO images are now available, built on the Debian testing 'Forky' base...
- Fla published news article about AV Linux
AV Linux 25 and MX Moksha 25 released with updated file and VM featuresAV Linux 25 and MX Moksha 25 have been released, both using an MX Linux 25/Debian Trixie base with ...
Recent activities
- nabbisen liked Debian
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What is Debian?
The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have made common cause to create a free operating system. This operating system that we have created is called Debian.
An operating system is the set of basic programs and utilities that make your computer run. At the core of an operating system is the kernel. The kernel is the most fundamental program on the computer and does all the basic housekeeping and lets you start other programs.
Debian systems currently use the Linux kernel or the FreeBSD kernel. Linux is a piece of software started by Linus Torvalds and supported by thousands of programmers worldwide. FreeBSD is an operating system including a kernel and other software.
However, work is in progress to provide Debian for other kernels, primarily for the Hurd. The Hurd is a collection of servers that run on top of a microkernel (such as Mach) to implement different features. The Hurd is free software produced by the GNU project.
A large part of the basic tools that fill out the operating system come from the GNU project; hence the names: GNU/Linux, GNU/kFreeBSD, and GNU/Hurd. These tools are also free.
Of course, the thing that people want is application software: programs to help them get what they want to do done, from editing documents to running a business to playing games to writing more software. Debian comes with over 51000 packages (precompiled software that is bundled up in a nice format for easy installation on your machine), a package manager (APT), and other utilities that make it possible to manage thousands of packages on thousands of computers as easily as installing a single application. All of it free.
It's a bit like a tower. At the base is the kernel. On top of that are all the basic tools. Next is all the software that you run on the computer. At the top of the tower is Debian — carefully organizing and fitting everything so it all works together.
Debian information
Developed by
DebianLicensing
Open Source and Free product.Rating
Average rating of 4.3Alternatives
199 alternatives listedNews
21 news article related to DebianSupported Languages
- English
Comments and Reviews
Debian is super stable and highly customizable. If you want a Linux distribution that provides guaranteed stability and a great community, you should check out Debian.
The installer literally does not work. You will wait upwards of an hour to install this barebones OS and what do you get for your trouble? "no boot device detected". Honestly, if you can't even bother to make the installer work, why would I care what other broken garbage you've called an OS? 0/10 nonfunctional
It's a you problem, everything always worked for me, it's a bit confusing on their website which I would say is their biggest con, website truly is trash, hard to find image that you want for example deb 11 non-free
Don't blame the distribution, there must have been a problem during installation, maybe a corrupted Debian image. This is a technical exception.
Neither of those are arguments. Cope elsewhere, shills.
Without a determined cause that points at Debian itself being the problem this does not characterize Debian in any meaningful way and could very well be user error, e. g. the user could install Debian on the drive that they disconnected after installation. No OS can survive an act like that.
This comment essentially boils down to "doesn't work for me" which isn't any more useful than the infamous "works for me". Debian's popularity suggests that it does work for the vast majority of those who use it.
Debian is currently a truly universal GNU/Linux Operating System, however for more advanced users. It is rock stable, it has excellent hardware compatibility (free and non-free) and very vast software repositories.
My second choice distro for both desktop and servers. More reliable than Ubuntu, more stable than Fedora, easier to install than Arch, though a bit slower to update. Bigger than Alpine, but uses the more typical glibc. Runs on just about any architecture.
I like Debian Testing to run Apache Web servers.
I started with Ubuntu in 2009, and I tried various Debian derivatives, before switching to their mother distro! Over the years the installer has improved: very easy to use! I even use it on an old 32-bit laptop born with Windows XP... and it still works! You can install it practically everywhere! Its official software park (so without third-party repositories, such as AUR for Arch Linux) is the largest of all! I have been on the Testing/Unstable branch for almost ten years, and in the meantime I had the opportunity to do distro hopping to experiment with other package managers on other base distributions, such as Fedora, Arch Linux and Gentoo. No way, APT is very simple, and Synaptics has no equal among graphical frontends. If hundreds of distributions use Debian or one of its derivatives, the reason is clear: Debian is a guarantee of stability and reliability... and I who use development branches, I can guarantee that certain packages have nothing to envy to those of Arch Linux, in terms of updates. Stable is not for me, I like to experiment, and with Debian Testing/Unstable I never get bored.
Personally, i have never used plain Debian. It looks nice, though. Its the foundation for Ubuntu as well.