Debian icon
Debian icon

Debian

 1125 likes

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.

Debian 9 gnome.

License model

  • FreeOpen Source

Country of Origin

  • International

Platforms

  • Windows  Available on the Windows Store
  • Linux
  • BSD  Debian has been ported to work with the FreeBSD kernel
  • Self-Hosted
4.3 / 5 Avg rating (39)
1125likes
21comments

Features

Suggest and vote on features

Properties

  1.  Customizable
  2.  Lightweight
  3.  Privacy focused

Features

  1.  Low memory usage
  2.  No Tracking
  3.  Package Control
  4.  Based on Debian
  5.  Ad-free
  6.  No registration required
  7.  Command line interface
  8.  Dark Mode
  9.  Multiple desktops
  10.  Works Offline
  11.  Debian package compatible
  12.  Portable

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Debian News & Activities

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Comments and Reviews

   
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Comment summary: Debian is highly praised for its stability, security, and customization options, making it a popular choice for both server and desktop use. Users appreciate its extensive software library and robust package management system. The operating system's commitment to open-source principles and strong community support are also highlighted. Some criticisms include its slower release cycle and less user-friendly initial setup process. A few users have experienced issues with the installer.
Top Positive Comment
Cora
Oct 10, 2018
7

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.

Top Negative Comment
ab1
Jul 16, 2022
-3

They use mailing lists and IRC for public discussions... At least they have a proper bug tracker as alternative.

Kelson V
Mar 28, 2025
0

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.

dszalkowski
Jan 6, 2025
0

I like Debian Testing to run Apache Web servers.

Ivan Alessandro Sala
Nov 26, 2024
0

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.

veddev
Aug 31, 2024
-1

Personally, i have never used plain Debian. It looks nice, though. Its the foundation for Ubuntu as well.

Sam Lander
Jul 1, 2024
-1

Stable and secure. My recommendation for anyone new to Linux.

A bit bloated, but I guess you could technically do a net install and replace things like systemd with runit.

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7 of 21 comments

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.

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Our users have written 21 comments and reviews about Debian, and it has gotten 1125 likes

Debian was added to AlternativeTo by Valentin on Nov 9, 2009 and this page was last updated May 18, 2025.